How Is a Trumpet Known? The "Basic Object Level" Concept and Perception of Musical Instruments

Abstract

What are the object properties that serve as a basis for the musical instrument classification system, and how do general and specific experience affect knowledge of these properties? In the first study, the multimodal quality of properties underlying children's and adults' perception was investigated. Subjects listened to solos and identified instruments producing the sounds. Even children who did not have experience with all the instruments correctly identified the family of instruments they were listening to. The hypothesis of the second study, that musical instrument families function as a "basic level" in the instrument taxonomy, was confirmed. Variation in the basic level with varying expertise was documented in the third study with musicians. In the fourth study, children and adults identified the source of sounds from unfamiliar objects, Chinese musical instruments. It is suggested that the concept of affordances may be relevant for understanding the importance for behavior of different levels of abstraction of category systems.