Perceiving Similarities and Differences in Listening to a Piece of Music

Several experimental studies have demonstrated that the formation of groups, as defined by the Gestalt laws, applies to music listening. However, other organizational principles must be considered when music is played in real time. On this particular point, I have proposed a model based on a mechanism of cue abstraction, where two fundamental principles - the principle of similarity and the principle of difference - come into play in listening over long time spans. A number of experimental procedures based on the hvpothesis of cue abstraction in relation to the concept of Anticipation are described, but particular emphasis is given on the role of similarity-difference perception. Starting from cue abstraction, a categorization process of the musical material is immediately established on the basis of exact or varied repetitions of the abstracted structures. Progressively, all these more or less varied reiterations elaborate a memory imprint : the memory does not retain all the precise components of the material, but establishes some sort of summary which comprises the principal attributes of a set of percepts. The results of different experimental approaches that followed these methodological principles are summarised.