We used implicit and explicit tasks to measure knowledge of Western harmony in musically trained and untrained Canadian children. Younger children were 6–7 years of age; older children were 10–11. On each trial, participants heard a sequence of five piano chords. The first four chords established a major-key context. The final chord was the standard, expected tonic of the context or one of two deviant endings: the highly unexpected flat supertonic or the moderately unexpected subdominant. In the implicit task, children identified the timbre of the final chord (guitar or piano) as quickly as possible. Response times were faster for the tonic ending than for either deviant ending, but the magnitude of the priming effect was similar for the two deviants, and the effect did not vary as a function of age or music training. In the explicit task, children rated how good each chord sequence sounded. Ratings were highest for sequences with the tonic ending, intermediate for the subdominant, and lowest for the flat supertonic. Moreover, the difference between the tonic and deviant sequences was larger for older children with music training. Thus, the explicit task provided a more nuanced picture of musical knowledge than did the implicit task.

中文翻译：

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用隐式和显式测试测量儿童的谐波知识

我们使用内隐和外显任务来衡量受过音乐训练和未经训练的加拿大儿童对西方和声的了解。年幼的儿童为 6-7 岁；大一点的孩子是 10-11 岁。在每次试验中，参与者都会听到五个钢琴和弦的序列。前四个和弦建立了一个大调上下文。最后的和弦是标准的，预期的上下文主音或两个异常结尾之一：高度出乎意料的平超主音或适度出乎意料的次属音。在隐式任务中，孩子们尽可能快地识别出最终和弦（吉他或钢琴）的音色。补品结尾的响应时间比任何一个异常结尾都快，但两种异常结尾的启动效果相似，并且效果不随年龄或音乐训练而变化。在显式任务中，孩子们评价每个和弦序列听起来有多好。以主音结尾的序列评分最高，次主音为中级，平坦超音序列的评分最低。此外，对于接受过音乐训练的年龄较大的儿童，主音序列和异常序列之间的差异更大。因此，外显任务比内隐任务提供了更细致入微的音乐知识图景。