Cognitive Representations of Serial Patterns
Mari Riess Jones · 2021
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.