Reconciling the PSBG and CBM Models of Musical Processing: A Response to Schubert and Pearce

Abstract

Schubert and Pearce (2016) contrast two modes of musical memory (more broadly, musical perception and cognition): the schematic and the veridical, which they formalise in terms of the Problem-Solving by Generalisation (PSBG) and Case-Based Memory (CBM) models, respectively. The former hypothesises the ab- straction of schematic categories as solutions to the processing of unfamiliar music, the latter the invocation of (sequentially concatenated segments of) a vast memory store of previously heard pieces as locally stored “keys” engaging with the relevant incoming “locks”. This article explores how these two models might be implemented neuronally, in terms of Calvin’s Hexagonal Cloning Theory (HCT), arguing that they can be explained as two related, indeed complementary, functions of the same un- derpinning mechanism. It also explores the cultural-evolutionary implications of the two models through the lens of memetics.