Psychology Commons^™

Stability And Accuracy Of Long-Term Memory For Musical Tempo, Avril Fairclough

Theses : Honours

While prior research inconclusively demonstrates how musical information is stored in long-term memory, a recent study by Hay (2009) found that interference reduced long-term memory for musical pitch. The present study extended this research to musical tempo and examined whether the stability and accuracy of long-term memory for tempo would be reduced as a result of interference from altered familiar songs. The independent variable was the tempo of excerpts from well-known pop songs, which were presented in either the original form or with the tempo increased or decreased by 10%. Participants with no formal musical training listened to a series …