Questions to consider when reading Stevens, C. and Byron, T., 2009. Universals in music processing. Oxford handbook of music psychology, pp.14-23.
What does 'emphasising musical processes over content' mean? Why might that be useful for the purpose of this chapter?
What are 'statistical universals'? Why are the authors discussing this concept?
Remind yourself about the grouping principles (proximity, etc.) they mention, and the ideas of gestalt psychology (We explored those last term week1.4 & week1.7).
When listening to music, what are examples of each of the following: simultaneous grouping, sequential grouping, segmentational grouping.
Explain how is it possible to have a “universal preference for musical elements that are grouped correctly, though what is defined as correct grouping may be culture-dependant.”
Why do they mentioned experiments with young infants as evidence of the above?
Discussions of perception often talk of bottom up vis. top down processes. Remind yourself what those refer to.
What does 'culturally narrow samples' mean?
They identify 9 possible candidates for universal features. Examine each one closely (e.g. #2 what are discrete pitch levels? What would be music with no discrete pitch levels.)
What does hierarchical organisation of music mean?
In both discussion of tonal and temporal hierarchies they mention studies of North Indian music, why is that useful? What might musically untrained listeners mean?
Expectations – what are schematic and veridical expectation and what problem do these concept aim to address?
What are statistical learning models?
What is entrainment? Can you think of a common everyday occurrence?
Try to explain the following to a friend: “some form of allocation of attentional resources based on the expectation of temporal information is likely to be universal.”
Aspects of cross-cultural study of music are covered well by Clayton, M., Herbert, T. and Middleton, R. eds., 2003. The cultural study of music: A critical introduction. Psychology Press.