The word-length effect in memory for music
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Abstract
Many studies on verbal working memory found that shorter or faster-pronounced words are better remembered than longer words or words requiring a longer time to be pronounced (Baddeley et al., 1975). The present study investigated the effects of length and reproduction speed on a musical sequence recognition task. Similarly to verbal processing, we found an effect of the musical sequence length, and an interaction between length and reproduction speed. These results suggest analogies as well as differences between musical and verbal processing in working memory.
Keywords
- Musical cognition
- musical memory
- memory
- working memory
- word-length effect
