M. Besson et F. Faita, EVENT-RELATED POTENTIAL (ERP) STUDY OF MUSICAL EXPECTANCY - COMPARISON OF MUSICIANS WITH NONMUSICIANS, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 21(6), 1995, pp. 1278-1296
Musicians and nonmusicians listened to musical phrases that were eithe
r selected from the classical repertoire or composed for the experimen
ts. The phrases ended either congruously or with a nondiatonic, diaton
ic, or rhythmic violation. Percentage of correct responses was analyze
d in Experiment 1, and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded i
n Experiments 2 and 3. Musicians performed better than nonmusicians in
recognizing familiar musical phrases and classifying terminal notes.
The differences found as a function of expertise were larger for unfam
iliar than for familiar melodies. The ERPs to the end notes differed b
oth in terms of amplitude and latency between musicians and nonmusicia
ns, and as a function of participants' familiarity with the melodies a
nd type of violation. Results show that expertise influences the decis
ional rather than the purely perceptual aspects of music processing an
d that ERPs can provide important insight into the study of music perc
eption.