The Analytical Aspect of Musical and Numerical Memory

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the analytical aspect of musical and numerical memory, while comparing the memory of familiar schema (in music) or logical patterns (in mathematics) with those that are not so. Adult musicians from Western and Arabic cultures responded to musical patterns, based on various kinds of schemata of both cultures, as well as to series of numbers, based on mathematical formulas (including randomly arranged series). It was found that the musical memory depended on both the level of musical training and the culture from which the music stemmed. The more trained subjects were able to analyze the patterns, and even to correct them according to the familiar schemata. The two groups differed in their numerical memory: while the western subjects used analytical strategies in order to memorize the patterns, the Arabic subjects used merely technical strategies. Moreover, while the western subjects memorized the mathematical patterns (based on schemata) more easily than the randomly arranged patterns, there was no difference between the memorization of the two among the Arabic subjects. This could be related to the difference between the cultures in this aspect.