Ravignani Andrea, Thompson Bill, Grossi Thomas, Delgado Tania, Kirby Simon
Artificial Intelligence Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Language and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2018 Mar 6. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13610.
Why does musical rhythm have the structure it does? Musical rhythm, in all its cross-cultural diversity, exhibits commonalities across world cultures. Traditionally, music research has been split into two fields. Some scientists focused on musicality, namely the human biocognitive predispositions for music, with an emphasis on cross-cultural similarities. Other scholars investigated music, seen as a cultural product, focusing on the variation in world musical cultures. Recent experiments found deep connections between music and musicality, reconciling these opposing views. Here, we address the question of how individual cognitive biases affect the process of cultural evolution of music. Data from two experiments are analyzed using two complementary techniques. In the experiments, participants hear drumming patterns and imitate them. These patterns are then given to the same or another participant to imitate. The structure of these initially random patterns is tracked along experimental "generations." Frequentist statistics show how participants' biases are amplified by cultural transmission, making drumming patterns more structured. Structure is achieved faster in transmission within rather than between participants. A Bayesian model approximates the motif structures participants learned and created. Our data and models suggest that individual biases for musicality may shape the cultural transmission of musical rhythm.
为什么音乐节奏具有这样的结构？尽管音乐节奏在跨文化方面具有多样性，但在世界各种文化中都展现出了共性。传统上，音乐研究被划分为两个领域。一些科学家专注于音乐性，即人类对音乐的生物认知倾向，重点在于跨文化的相似性。其他学者则研究被视为文化产物的音乐，关注世界音乐文化中的差异。最近的实验发现了音乐与音乐性之间的深层联系，调和了这些对立的观点。在此，我们探讨个体认知偏差如何影响音乐文化进化过程这一问题。运用两种互补的技术对来自两个实验的数据进行分析。在实验中，参与者聆听击鼓模式并进行模仿。然后将这些模式交给同一名或另一名参与者去模仿。沿着实验“代际”追踪这些最初随机模式的结构。频率统计显示了参与者的偏差如何通过文化传播而放大，使得击鼓模式更具结构性。在参与者内部而非参与者之间的传播过程中，能更快地形成结构。一个贝叶斯模型近似于参与者学习和创造的主题结构。我们的数据和模型表明，个体对音乐性的偏差可能会塑造音乐节奏的文化传播。
