Modularity

Modularity in Music Cognition

From the perspective of cognitive science, one of the more compelling demonstrations of the value of modularity theory is its salvaging of the expectation theory in the face of the rehearing problem. The expectation theory, proposed by Leonard Meyer in the 1950s, holds that emotions in music primarily derive from thwarted expectations. This theory was well received and remains so, but pursued to its logical conclusion, it problematically predicts that as listeners develop familiarity with a musical work, they will enjoy it less—which seems contrary to everyday experience.

This logical impasse, often called “the rehearing problem,” remained largely unresolved until the late 1980s, when it was revisited by cognitive scientist Ray Jackendoff. The principle of modularity invoked by Jackendoff to resolve the problem was that of “informational encapsulation,” the notion that while central faculties (e.g., memory, consciousness, and attention) have access to the outputs of the mind's modules, they have little to no influence over the workings of the modules. Jackendoff proposed that (1) the musical mind has at least two parts, a long-term memory apparatus and a modular musical “parser”; and (2) these two parts are informationally encapsulated from one another, thus any familiarity developed with a work in long-term memory does not influence the parser, which experiences the piece anew each time. If Meyer's “expectations” derive from the parser, then modularity theory explains why the affect resulting from them does not diminish with familiarity. In the work of psychologist Jamshed Bharucha and others, expectations deriving from general experience with a style system have been called “schematic,” while those deriving from familiarity with a particular work have been called “veridical.” The former have been claimed to be modular in derivation, the latter central.

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