The effect of item position on the likelihood of identification by inference in prose reading and music reading.

In experiments with 21 university students (Exp I) and 7 adult musicians (Exp II), Ss were presented with verbal and musical texts which contained spelling and notational errors, respectively. Measures of detection in normal unpaced reading situations showed that errors were least likely to be detected when they occurred in the middle of words or musical phrases, demonstrating that the highest proportion of inferences occurred at these positions. The apparent similarities of the effects in music and language reading suggest that inference of interior elements usually results from structural rather than visual factors. (French summary) (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)