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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Identification of speeded and slowed familiar melodies by younger, middle-aged and older musicians and nonmusicians | | Author(s) | Melinda W Andrews, W Jay Dowling, James C Bartlett |
| Journal title | Psychology and Aging, vol 13, no 3, September 1998 |
| Pages | pp 462-471 |
| Keywords | Cognitive processes ; Music ; Older people ; Young people ; Middle aged ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | There is a range of tempos within which listeners can identify familiar tunes (around 0.8 to 6.0 notes/s). Faster and slower tunes are difficult to identify. In this study, the authors assessed fast and slow melody-identification thresholds for 80 listeners aged 17-79 years with expertise varying from musically untrained to professional. On fast-to-slow (FS) trials the tune started at a very fast tempo and slowed until the listener identified it. Slow-to-fast trials started slow and accelerated. Tunes either retained their natural rhythms or were stylised isochronous versions. Increased expertise led to better performance for both FS and SF thresholds. Performance declined uniformly across the 62-year range in the FS condition. SF performance was unaffected by age. Although early encoding processes may slow with age, expertise has a greater effect. Musical expertise involves perceptual learning with melodies at a wider range of tempos. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981113406 A |
| Classmark | DA: HH: B: SB: SE: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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