Global context effect in normal and scrambled musical sequences

The processing of chords is facilitated when they are harmonically related to the context in which they appear. The purpose of this study was to asses s whether this harmonic priming effect depends on the version (normal vs. s crambled) of the context chord sequences. Normal sequences were scrambled b y permuting chords two-by-two (Experiment 1) or four-by-four (Experiments 2 and 3). Normal chord sequences were judged less coherent than scrambled se quences. However, normal chord sequences showed facilitation for harmonical ly related rather than for unrelated targets, and this effect of relatednes s did not diminish for scrambled sequences (Experiments 1-3). The data of m usicians and nonmusicians. were interpreted with Bharucha's (1987) spreadin g activation framework Simulations suggested that harmonic priming results from activation that spreads via schematic knowledge of Western harmony and accumulates in short-term memory over the course of the chord sequence.