Pretest

To test whether melodies ending on the mediant or the leading tone were perceived differently, 22 participants (13 moderately experienced and 9 less-experienced, with average instrumental instruction of 8.9 years (SD = 3.5) and 0.2 years (SD = 0.7) respectively) were asked to rate the degree of completion of each melody on an 8-point scale (from 1 = poorly completed to 8 = completed). Melodies were entirely played by the piano timbre. A two-sided paired t-test was performed on completion judgments averaged over sequences: melodies ending on related targets were judged more complete (M = 4.83, SD = .71) than melodies ending on less-related targets (M = 4.19, SD = .81) (t(21) = 2.97; p < .01). An additional two-sided paired t-test with melodies as random variable confirmed this main effect of Tonal Relatedness (t ₂ (11) = 2.71; p < .05).An ANOVA including Musical Expertise revealed an interaction between Tonal Relatedness and Musical Expertise ( F(1,20) = 6.89; MSE = .40; p < .05): The tonal relatedness effect was supported by the moderately experienced participants (F(1,20) = 18.14; p < .001), but not by the less-experienced ones (ns).