The Development of Music Perception and Cognition

The implicit knowledge of adults is built on elements present even in infancy and the importance of melodic and rhythmic contours, the use of discrete, steady pitch levels, the organization of rhythmic patterns into a steady beat and an overlay of more complicated rhythms, and octave equivalence.

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development of music perception and cognition. An adult listening attentively to a piece of music and understanding it performs an enormous amount of information processing very rapidly. Most of this processing is carried out automatically below the level of conscious analysis, because there is no time for reflective thought on each detail as the piece steadily progresses. This process is closely parallel to what happens when a native speaker of a language listens to and understands a sentence. A point to be emphasized is the ease and rapidity with which adults perform complex cognitive tasks in domains of speech and music familiar to them, and the degree to which that facility depends on prior experience. The implicit knowledge of adults is built on elements present even in infancy and the importance of melodic and rhythmic contours, the use of discrete, steady pitch levels, the organization of rhythmic patterns into a steady beat and an overlay of more complicated rhythms, and octave equivalence. These elements provide the groundwork for perceptual learning and acculturation throughout life to build upon.