Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Spatial Properties Of Music Perception: Differences In Visuo-Spatial Performance According To Musicianship And Interference Of Musical Structure, Christa Theresa Vassillière

Honors Papers

Spatial cognition has been implicated in the perception and production of music within both behavioral and neurological experimental paradigms. Using performance on mental rotation of a three-dimensional object, the present study examined the visuo-spatial abilities of conservatory and non-conservatory students. Participants performed the rotation task under no distraction followed by performance with an interference task, which consisted of detecting either tempo or pitch changes. Conservatory students performed better on the mental rotation task both with and without interference. Musical structure (Western classical versus Indian classical) and musical aspect (tempo changes and pitch changes) influenced how much interference was produced in …