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Related Experiment Videos

Auditory imagery from musical notation in expert musicians.

Warren Brodsky1, Avishai Henik, Bat-Sheva Rubinstein

  • 1Department of the Arts, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. wbrodsky@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Perception & Psychophysics
|June 19, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Silent musical score reading, or notational audiation, creates auditory images. Phonatory interference during silent reading most significantly impaired musicians' ability to recognize familiar melodies.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Music Cognition
  • Neuroscience of Music

Background:

  • Anecdotal evidence suggests musical notation can evoke auditory imagery.
  • Understanding the cognitive processes behind silent score reading is crucial for music cognition research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the phenomenon of notational audiation, the silent reading of musical notation leading to auditory imagery.
  • To determine the impact of different interference conditions on the accuracy of auditory imagery evoked by musical scores.

Main Methods:

  • Expert musicians silently read musical scores with embedded familiar themes under four conditions: normal reading, rhythmic distraction, phonatory interference, and auditory obstruction.
  • Participants judged whether a subsequently played melody was the original theme (target) or a lure.

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Main Results:

  • Phonatory interference significantly impaired the recognition of original themes compared to other distraction methods.
  • Silent score reading appears to engage not only auditory imagery but also kinesthetic-like phonatory processes.

Conclusions:

  • Notational audiation is a valid phenomenon involving silent reading of music to generate auditory imagery.
  • The findings suggest that vocalization processes play a role in the accuracy of music-evoked auditory imagery.