Non-musicians recognize unfamiliar contemporary classical music excerpts with increasing repetition

Abstract

This article aims to determine the effects of exposure and title information when applied to music excerpts that are unfamiliar both in terms of the single excerpt, and in the underlying tonal structures used (i.e. contemporary classical music). Twenty-three non-musicians participated in a two-session experiment: 32 musical excerpts were presented on Day 1 immediately followed by presentation of a title varying by type (no title, descriptive, semantic, affective). Music excerpts were varied by number of exposures (1 vs. 3 exposures). Participants were asked whether they remembered the excerpt from earlier in the experiment, and to rate their liking on a 7-point Likert scale. On Day 2, recognition for the 32 “old” (Day 1) excerpts was tested, along with 32 “new” excerpts, which were all presented without titles. Participants were also asked to rate their liking for the excerpts, as per Day 1. Accounting for response bias, recognition was above chance level across all conditions. Results indicated a significant effect of exposure on recognition ( ${\eta }_p^2$ = .79). No other effects were significant. Examining the liking ratings of accurately recognized excerpts, a significant interaction between exposure and title was found ( ${\eta }_p^2$ = .20), where the difference in ratings across exposure levels for affective titles was greater than that of the semantic titles (d = .60). This suggests that the title type, although not influencing memory of the piece, affected enjoyment of music at different exposures.