Towards an on-line model of music perception

Abstract

The goal of this study is to develop a computational model, based on a set of assumptions, that captures the on-line processing of music. The model construes music perception in terms of 1) the activation of pertinent musical knowledge stored in the listener's long term memory, and 2) the application of perceptual mechanisms that organize the elements in the input into a coherent mental representation. The viability of the model is investigated in experiments that examine how perception evolves while the stimulus is presented incrementally, by studying goodness judgments and the expectations that arise in the process. The model we are developing mainly pertains to the stage in which the elements in the input is transformed into a mental representation.