The aim of the paper is to discuss the contribution of cross-cultural approach to cognitive musicology. Attempt to classify phenomena as either universal or culturally relative is often mentioned to be the main motivation for cross-cultural studies in the field of music perception and cognition. The second approach was a behavioral experiment in which listeners made judgments about melodic continuations. Three groups of listeners participated. One group was from the Sami culture, the second group consisted of Finnish music students who had learned some yoiks, and the third group consisted of Western musicians unfamiliar with yoiks. This paper describes preliminary results of a behavioral experiment the aim of which was to study the effect of culture on the underlying melodic structures and principles that are believed to related to melodic expectations. In the experiment listeners made judgments about melodic continuations. Expectations where measured by applying so called probe tone technique. Four groups of listeners participated. One group was from the Sami culture, the second group consisted of Finnish music students who had learned some yoiks, the third group consisted of Western musicians, and the fourth group consisted of South-African adults. Both Western and South-African subjects were unfamiliar with yoiks. Results were found to be more similar between Sami and South-African subjects than between Sami and Western subjects. This result suggests that learned and culturally dependent melodic structures and principles influences expectations more than geographical closeness. It is suggested that the similarity of responses between Sami and South-African subjects can be partly explained by the dominance of the pentatonic scale in both musical cultures.