Alonso Cánovas, D. 1 , Molina, I. 1 , F. Estévez, &. 1 , Martínez, L. 1 & J. Fuentes, L. 2
1 Universidad de Almería. Almería. Spain
2 Universidad de Murcia. Murcia. Spain
Previous evidence suggests that tones are mentally represented as a spatial line in the vertical dimension. This study evaluated whether pre-exposure to a particular melodic contour or a single tone (experiments 1 and 2) reduces the latency to detect a visual stimulus in a screen. Additionally we tested if musicians and non-musicians exhibit the same profile. We included two experimental conditions: 1) compatible condition, where the auditive stimulus, ascending/high or descending/low contour/pitch, were followed by a visual stimulus located up/down respectively, in the screen; 2) non-compatible condition, where the visual stimulus was located bottom/up, respectively. The results showed a reduced latency in the compatible vs non-compatible condition when the auditive stimulus was a contour, but only in musicians when the auditive stimulus was a single pitch. Present data suggest that listening a contour caused a shift in cover attention in the vertical plane related to the particular contour direction. We conclude that a spatially oriented ‘mental musical line’ is automatically activated whenever we listen a melodic contour; musicians extend this activation in response to a tone pitch