Identification of speeded and slowed familiar melodies by younger, middle-aged, and older musicians and nonmusicians.

Abstract

There is a range of tempos within which listeners can identify familiar tunes (around 0.8 to 6.0 notes/s).Faster and slower tunes are difficult to identify.The authors assessed fast and slow melodyidentification thresholds for 80 listeners ages 17-79 years with expertise varying from musically untrained to professional.On fast-to-slow (FS) trials the tune started at a very fast tempo and slowed until the listener identified it.Slow-to-fast (SF) trials started slow and accelerated.Tunes either retained their natural rhythms or were stylized isochronous versions.Increased expertise led to better performance for both FS and SF thresholds (r = .45).Performance declined uniformly across the 62-year age range in the FS condition (r = .27).SF performance was unaffected by age.Although early encoding processes may slow with age, expertise has a greater effect.Musical expertise involves perceptual learning with melodies at a wide range of tempos.