Cognitive Representations of Serial Patterns

Abstract

This is a sequence of chords distributed over two measures in a musical score. It is a serial pattern that has a symmetrical appearance. The spatial symmetry in this fragment is repeated and transformed by Debussy in an attempt to graphically capture lofty Gothic arches with his cathedral music, La Cathedrale engloutie. Mathematical learning theory, in particular the simple linear and the N-element pattern model, generated an interest in the probability-matching phenomenon. As this interest grew, research in sequential responding, in general, increased. A decade’s research culminated in the rejection of the original models, primarily as a result of their failure to capture aspects of selective memory and hypothesis-testing in sequential strategies. A prediction task attempts to capture dynamic aspects of our response to speech or music by placing the subject within a temporal succession of events. Figure-ground relations are important ingredients of Garner’s approach to pattern processing.