Question 15- Discuss The Role Of Syntactic Processing And Its Neural Correlates In Aesthetic Perception

Question 1

What is syntactic processing?

Answer 1

• Syntactics is the grammatical rules, so for reading the words form together in certain ways to make grammatical sense in a language
• With regards to music, syntactic processing is essentially talking about the grammar of music and that it can be viewed as a language

Question 2

Gordon and Holyoak (1983)

Answer 2

-PPs exposed to letters disguised at music with grammatical rules, but were not aware of the rules
•Once familiar with the rules, the PPs then listened to different pieces of music which either followed or didn’t follow the rules and they have to rate whether they liked the music or not

-Results:
•PPs preferred the music following the rules despite not being aware of them

-One possible explanation:
•Mere exposure as the PPs were exposed to the rules beforehand

Question 3

Maess et al (2001)

Answer 3

-Used EEG. PPs were asked to compare chords tension and resolution, sometimes they were exposed to unexpected chords

-Results:
•At 200ms there was an increase in firing of neurons when an unexpected chord was played compared to when the expected chord was played
•Happened in Broca’s area, which is involved in musically correct and incorrect sentences and grammar in language
•Both hemispheres were activated suggesting they work together in syntactic processing

-These results can also explain the results of Gordon and Holyoak (1983)

Question 4

Koelsch et al (2005)

Answer 4

• In an ERP study investigatint syntactic processing in language and music, music syntactically irregular chords elicited an early right anterior negative and syntactically incorrect words elicited a left anterior negativity which was reduced when incorrect chords and words were presented together
• Results suggest the processing of musical syntax interacts with linguistic syntax, suggesting the processing of syntax in language and music use overlapping neural resources

Question 5

Concluding statement

Answer 5

-Role of syntactic processing important. We are likely to pick up on syntactically incorrect music and perceive it as rubbish/not like it much