EFFECT OF GLOBAL STRUCTURES ON HARMONIC PRIMING IN MUSIC

This study investigates the influence of global harmonic structures on priming effects in. music, in keeping the local context constant. Sub jects were presented eight-chord sequences. The harmonic context, crea ted by the first six chords, was manipulated in order to vary the func tion of the last two chords. In one context the last chord was analyse d as a tonic chord, and in the other as a subdominant chord. Consideri ng these changes of harmonic function, the last chord was assumed to b e more anticipated in the first context than in the second. The import ance of the global context was revealed by lower completion judgements when sequences ended on an unexpected chord (Experiment 1). In Experi ment 2, the global context effect was revealed by shorter processing t imes for the last chord when expected (priming effect). These results are discussed in reference to Bharucha's (1987) connectionist model of tonal cognition.