Some people need only two or three notes before confidently saying, “I know this song.” Before the singer appears, before the chorus begins and sometimes before the melody has even fully developed, their brain appears to have already identified it. This ability can look like an impressive musical talent, but psychology and neuroscience suggest something more specific may be happening: the brain is rapidly comparing incoming sounds with stored auditory patterns in long-term memory. Research by Simone Dalla Bella, Isabelle Peretz and Neil Aronoff found that recognition of familiar melodies develops progressively as a melody unfolds, with more familiar melodies requiring fewer notes for recognition.
