Wahrnehmungsräume melodischer Varianten bei Schüler:innen: Eine multidimensionale Analyse globaler Ähnlichkeitsurteile Perceptual Spaces of Melodic Variation in School Students: A Multidimensional Analysis of Global Similarity Judgments

Abstract

Auditory perception of musical structures forms an essential basis for musical understanding. Although music theory can categorize different types of melodic variation (such as sequential, dynamic, or rhythmic variation), it remains insufficiently understood how individuals organize these variations based on perceived similarity and to what extent this perceptual structure corresponds to music-theoretical categories. The present study investigated whether a consistent perceptual space of melodic variation types can be reconstructed from students’ similarity judgments and which structures emerge within this space. To this end, similarity judgments from 1,336 students in grade levels 5 to 11 were collected for systematically varied tone sequences and analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. The results suggested that the perceptual organization of melodic similarity was broadly related to music-theoretical distinctions, while the types of variation were simultaneously organized within a multidimensional system. The first dimension distinguished between temporal-rhythmic and pitch-based variations; the second contrasted performance-related/timbral and relational-structural variations; and the third did not permit a clear substantive interpretation. In addition, the results suggested potential expertise-related differences in the organization of similarity judgments. Overall, the study provides a basis for more closely aligning music-theoretical concepts, such as musical parameters, with students’ perceptual organization in school music education.