The Influence of Expertise and Context on the Categorization of Music: A Cognitive Science Study

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Date

1995

Authors

Imhoff, James S.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

Recent developments in Cognitive Science have demonstrated that, contrary to traditional thinking, categories are not rigid, feature-defined phenomena. Rather , they are influenced by human experience and by the context in which the categorization takes place. The labels people use to describe music reflect the way they categorize it. In this study, 32 music experts and 32 novices labeled short selections of recorded music . In each group, 16 subjects heard all Western Art selections (Context 1) , and 16 heard a mixture of Rock, Blues, Jazz , and Western Art music (Context 2). All subjects used style terms (Classical, Renaissance, Baroque) as labels significantly more often than genre, instrument, or national origin. The results indicate that experts used more specific labels than novices, but context did not have a significant influence on the kinds of labels used by either group. This implies that musical categories are more stable than suggested by the current Cognitive Science literature.

Description

189 pages

Keywords

Psychological aspects of music, Musical styles

Citation