Abstract
The human ability to process hierarchical structures has been a longstanding research topic. However, the nature of the cognitive machinery underlying this faculty remains controversial. Recursion, the ability to embed structures within structures of the same kind, has been proposed as a key component of our ability to parse and generate complex hierarchies. Here, we investigated the cognitive representation of both recursive and iterative processes in the auditory domain. The experiment used a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm: participants were exposed to three-step processes in which pure-tone sequences were built either through recursive or iterative processes, and had to choose the correct completion. Foils were constructed according to generative processes that did not match the previous steps. Both musicians and non-musicians were able to represent recursion in the auditory domain, although musicians performed better. We also observed that general ‘musical’ aptitudes played a role in both recursion and iteration, although the influence of musical training was somehow independent from melodic memory. Moreover, unlike iteration, recursion in audition was well correlated with its non-auditory (recursive) analogues in the visual and action sequencing domains. These results suggest that the cognitive machinery involved in establishing recursive representations is domain-general, even though this machinery requires access to information resulting from domain-specific processes.
Highlights
The capacity to represent and generate hierarchical structures is a fundamental human trait that is used in virtually every domain of activity
In this experiment we found that participants, both with and without musical training, are able to induce recursive rules governing the generation of music fractals, and to use these rules productively
Without any feedback or explicit instructions, participants were able to learn and use recursive rules in the Auditory Recursion Task (ART)
Summary
The capacity to represent and generate hierarchical structures is a fundamental human trait that is used in virtually every domain of activity. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University, 1998; Fitch & Martins, 2014; Friederici, 2011; Hunyady, 2010; Jackendoff, 2003; Jackendoff, 2009; Kravitz, Saleem, Baker, & Mishkin, 2011; Picard et al, 2010; Zink et al, 2008). This complexity and generality could be explained either by a general increase in processing power, due to a larger brain, or by the existence of additional specialized processes or abilities in human cognitive architecture. Recursion is a particular principle to represent and generate hierarchies which allows the generation of multiple levels with a single rule (Fig. 1B)
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