Conceptual and perceptual information both influence melody identification

Three processes have been identified as central to object identification: top-down processing, bottom-up processing, and lateral competition. Six experiments using the perceptual interference paradigm were conducted to assess the relative contributions of these three processes to melody identification. Significant interference was observed only when the target and the distracting information were difficult to distinguish both perceptually and conceptually. Lateral competition—the activation of specific distractor melodies—did not influence the magnitude of interference observed. These results suggest that bottom-up and top-down processes contribute more to melody identification than does lateral competition. The data are discussed in terms of the broader literature on object identification and the relationship between identifying melodies, spoken words, and visual objects.