The Effect of Vocalization on Melodic Memory Conservation.

One hundred fifty-three music theory students participated in a melodic memory study. Subjects I were assigned to one of three treatment groups. Subjects in Group 1 heard a seven-note melody and were presented with another melody two seconds later. The subjects were asked to categorize the second melody as the same or different. Subjects in Group 2 were given the same task, but the intratrial delay was extended to 19 seconds. The Group 3 treatment was identical to that of Group 2 except that subjects in Group 3 were asked to sing the melody during the intratrial silence. When the responses of the three groups were analyzed for same/different accuracy categorization, significantly higher scores were revealed for Groups 1 and 2 when compared to Group 3 (F[2,152] = 3.44, p < .05). Groups 1 and 2 did not differ significantly. Only 11% of the vocal responses were absolutely correct.