Effect of global structure and temporal organization on chord processing

This study further explores the effect of global context on chord processing reported by E. Bigand and M. Pineau (1997). Expectations of a target chord were varied by manipulating the preliminary harmonic context while holding constant the chord(s) prior to the target, in Experiment 1, previously observed priming effects were replicated with an on-line paradigm. Experiment 2 was an attempt to identify the point in chord sequences that is responsible for the occurrence of the priming effect. In Experiment 3, Bigand and Pineau’s findings were extended to wider harmonic contexts (i.e., defined at three hierarchical levels), and new evidence was provided that chord processing also depends on the temporal organization of the musical sequence. Neural net simulations globally support J. J. Bharucha’s (1987, 1994 view that priming effects result from activations spreading via a schematic knowledge of Western harmony.