The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music

are structured in a conventional manner.^66 Similarly, melodic redundancy enhances infants’

retention of conventional and unconventional melodies, but comparable redundancy

enhances adult performance for conventional melodies only.^61 In general, musics of the world

capitalize on human processing predispositions (e.g. the preference for consonance and

8     

Major Unequal-step Equal-step

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0

Mean

d

Figure 1.3 Infant discrimination (d) scores on the ascending-descending major scale, artificial, unequal-step
scale, and equal-step scale. Error bars indicate standard errors. Figure reprinted from Trehub et al.^70 with
permission.

doh

ti

la

sol

fa

mi

re

doh 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1

Pitch (log Hz)

Major Unequal-step Equal-step

Figure 1.2 Schematic depiction of the major, artificial unequal-step, and equal-step scales. Figure reprinted from
Trehub et al.^70 with permission.