Musical Recall Memory: Contributions of Elaboration and Depth of Processing

Abstract

This study investigated the roles of depth of processing and elaboration in incidental recall of musical passages learned in the course of several readings of an unfamiliar score. Pianists with performing experience played short passages four times each under instructions emphasising deep processing (focus on aesthetically perceived elements of the piece), shallow processing (focus on non-aesthetic elements of the piece), high elaboration (four different examples of deep or shallow focus) or low elaboration (one example of deep or shallow focus). In surprise-free and cued-recall tasks, the pianists were asked to play back as much of the pieces as they could remember. The pnrncipal finding was that the high-elaboration instructional condition favoured cued recall of deeply processed musical material over cued recall of shallow processed musical material. In the low-elaboration condition there were no differential effects for deep versus shallow processed music. These results are interpreted in terms of a transferappropriate processing framework applied to musical performance. Implications of the results for formal musical performance are discussed.