Modeling memory for melodies

The aim of the presented study was to find structural descriptions of
melodies that influence recognition memory for melodies. 24 melodies were played
twice to 42 test persons. In the second turn, some of the melodies were changed,
and the subjects were asked whether they think that the melody has been exactly
the same as in the first turn or not. The variables used to predict the subject
judgments comprise data about the subjects' musical experience, features of the
original melody and its position in the music piece, and informations about the
change between the first and the second turn. Classification and regression methods
have been carried out and tested on a subsample. The prediction problem turned out
to be di#cult. The results seem to be influenced strongly by di#erences between the
subjects and between the melodies that had not been recorded among the regressor
variables.