Search results for "Music and emotion"

Key processing precedes emotional categorization of Western music.

2005

To investigate whether key processing precedes the appraisal of valence in music, participants listened to pairs of clips of same or different valence, played either in the same key or one semitone apart. They judged whether the second clip expressed the same emotion as the first one. Our predictions were confirmed: the response times obtained were shorter when both clips were played in the same key than when they were played one semitone apart.

Subjective appraisal of music: neuroimaging evidence.

2009

In the neurosciences of music, a consensus on the nature of affective states during music listening has not been reached. What is undeniable is that subjective affective states can be triggered by various and even opposite musical events. Here we review the few recent studies on the neural determinants of subjective affective processes of music, contrasted with early automatic neural processes linked to the objective universal properties of music. In particular, we focus on the evaluative judgments of music by subjects according to its aesthetic and structural values, on music-specific emotions felt by listeners, and on conscious liking. We then discuss and seek to stimulate further researc…

Individual differences in granularity of the affective responses to music

2013

The main focus of the paper is the role of listeners’ emotion-relevant characteristics and musical expertise in the granularity of affective responses to music. Another objective of the study is to test the consistency of the granularity of affect that is perceived in music and/or experienced in response to it. In Experiment 1, 91 musicians and nonmusicians listened to musical excerpts and grouped them according to the similarity of the affects they experienced while listening. Finer grouping granularity was found in musicians and high rumination scorers. Male musicians with above-median scores in rumination produced a larger number of clusters than the other male participants. Experiment 2…

The role of expectation in music: from the score to emotions and the brain

2013

Like discourse, music is a dynamic process that occurs over time. Listeners usually expect some events or structures of events to occur in the prolongation of a given context. Part of the musical emotional experience would depend upon how composers (improvisers) fulfill these expectancies. Musical expectations are a core phenomenon of music cognition, and the present article provides an overview of its foundation in the score as well as in listeners' behavior and brain, and how it can be simulated by artificial neural networks. We highlight parallels to language processing and include the attentional and emotional dimensions of musical expectations. Studying musical expectations is thus val…

Perception of emotional content in musical performances by 3–7-year- old children

2013

The emotional content expressed through musical performance has become a widely-discussed topic in music psychology during the past two decades. However, empirical evidence regarding children’s abilities in interpreting the emotional content of a musical performance is sparse. We investigated 3–7-year-old children’s abilities to interpret the emotional content expressed through performance features in music. Short musical pieces previously rated as inexpressive of emotion were recorded by three musicians with five emotional expressions (happy, sad, fearful, angry and neutral) and played to 3–7-year-old children ( N = 94), adult non-musicians ( N = 83), and adult musicians ( N = 118) who ma…

Adolescents’ expression and perception of emotion in music reflects their broader abilities of emotional communication

2014

Background: Musical behavior has been shown to reflect broader individual differences. However, despite the prevalence of music in the lives of young people little is known about the mechanisms through which adolescents’ musical behavior connects to their general socio-emotional behavior and adjustment. The current study focused on abilities of emotional communication and investigated whether adolescents’ abilities in both perceiving and expressing emotions through music would be reflective of their general abilities of socio-emotional communication and interaction, measured through empathy and conduct problems. Due to the lack of previous research the study was mainly exploratory, but we e…

Music and Emotion: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives

2014

One of the key reasons people engage with music, whether as listener or performer, therapist or researcher, is because of its emotional impact. Music comforts us when we’re sad, lifts us up in happier times, bonds us together. We use music to modify our mood, augment current feelings, release tension. Given the ever-growing presence of music in our everyday lives, the investigation of issues related to and subsequent dissemination of knowledge concerning music and emotion is becoming increasingly relevant. This special issue is based on work presented at the 3rd International Conference on Music & Emotion (ICME3) organised by the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Resea…

Relationships between perceived emotions in music and music-induced movement

2012

Listening to music makes us move in various ways. Several factors can affect the characteristics of these movements, including individual factors and musical features. Additionally, music-induced movement may also be shaped by the emotional content of the music, since emotions are an important element of musical expression. This study investigates possible relationships between emotional characteristics of music and music-induced, quasi-spontaneous movement. We recorded music-induced movement of 60 individuals, and computationally extracted features from the movement data. Additionally, the emotional content of the stimuli was assessed in a perceptual experiment. A subsequent correlational …

Spatial and bodily metaphors in narrating the experience of listening to sad music

2014

Abstract. This study focuses on the a ffective experiences of listening to self - identified sad music. Previous studies have concentrated on the emotions induced by music by r ationalizing and labelling emotions. However, focusing on such categorization leaves the subjective experiences of the individual aside. The aim of this article is to broaden the methodology of studying music and emotion by analyzing the metaphorical langu age used in the narratives about the subjective experience of listening to music. A total of 373 participants answered to open - ended questions about the experiences of listening to sad music via an online - survey. The responses were then analyzed using syst emat…

2015

Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner’s temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner’s attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, w…