Divided attention in music

Two models have been advanced to account for the apparent ease with which attention can be divided in music: a “divided attention” model postulates that listeners effectively manage to follow two or more melodic lines played simultaneously. According to a “figure-ground model,” the harmonic coherence of Western polyphonies allows a listener to focus on one melody while staying aware of the other melody, which acts as a background. This figure-ground processing compensates for the inability to divide attention. The present study was designed to further investigate these two models. Participants were required to detect melodic errors in two familiar nursery tunes played simultaneously an octave apart. The divided-attention model predicted that this task would be easily performed by participants, irrespective of the key of the nursery tune. The figure-ground model predicted better performance when the keys of the tunes were identical or closely related. None of these predictions was fully supported by the data, leading us to propose a new “integrative model” of listening to polyphonic music.