manuela m. marin 1 , richard parncutt 2 and christian kaernbach 3

Manuela M. Marin1, Richard Parncutt2 and Christian Kaernbach3

1,2Department of Musicology, University of Graz, Austria3Department of Psychology, University of Kiel, Germany

Emotion and unfamiliar music:Electrophysiological and psychological responses to Persian and Western music by Persian and Western listeners

SMPC 2007, August 3 Montreal, Quebec

/22/23 SMPC 2007, Montreal, Quebec

Emotion in familiar and unfamiliar music

familiar musical styles tend to be preferred (Peretz et al., 1998) and rated as more pleasant (Ritossa & Rickard, 2004)

stronger and more diverse emotions in familiar music (Gabrielsson & Lindström Wik, 2003)

familiarity and liking: joy, calm, movement & funforeignness and dislike: anger, madness, fear & chaos

(Parncutt & Marin, 2006)

musical arousal ratings may depend on familiarity (Ritossa & Rickard, 2004)

sensitivity to emotions in unfamiliar music: acoustic cues more important than culture-specific

(Balkwill et al., 2004)


Skin conductance & musical emotions

studies on tonic levels of EDA (SCL): focus on mood

few studies on phasic levels of EDA (SCR): focus on emotion depends mainly upon stimulus arousal

(environmental sounds, affective pictures)

familiar musical style: SCRs are stronger for stimulating emotions than for relaxing

emotions (Khalfa et al., 2002)

musical structure and SCL: low vs. high arousal:

accentuation, tempo, rhythmic articulation

(Gomez & Danuser, 2007)


Familar vs. unfamiliar music - Question

Are there differences in psychological and physiological reactions to familiar

and unfamiliar music?


Musical stimuli

three instrumental musical styles: Western tonal (18th-19th century) Western atonal (20th century) classical traditional Persian

more than one instrument, no orchestra no electronic instruments wide range of composers 5 emotion categories:

peacefulness, joy, sadness, fear, anger

5 excerpts per emotion; 25 excerpts per style duration of 5s; 200ms fade-in and fade-out equalization of loudness


Pilot study

collection of musical stimuli: tonal and atonal excerpts by 6 music students

and the 1st author collection of Persian excerpts by 7 Persian musicians

80 excerpts in Western tonal and atonal styles, rated by 14 music teachers of a conservatory

58 excerpts in classical traditional Persian style, rated by 16 Persian musicians

ratings of emotion category (peacefulness, joy, sadness, fear, anger) emotion intensity (5-point rating scale)

criteria for selection 75% of musicians must agree on a specific emotion emotion intensity (1 = weak, …, 5 = strong): >3


Participants

29 Austrian participants 13 males, 16 females mean age: 29.4 years, SD = 4.27 equal distribution of non-musicians and amateur musicians like listening to Western classical music

18 Persian (Iranian) participants 9 males, 9 females average time of residence in Austria: 5.4 years, SD = 2.98 mean age: 25.9 years, SD = 5.00 mainly non-musicians like listening to Persian music


Psychological measurements

Ratings for each stimulus onto the computer…

familiarity (5-point rating scale) arousal (SAM, Self-Assessment Manikin) pleasantness/valence emotion word (peacefulness, joy, sadness, fear, anger) emotional intensity (5-point rating scale) liking (5-point rating scale)

Questionnaires

Beck Depression Inventory, Hautzinger et al.,1995 Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire, Steyr et al.,1997 self-developed questionnaire

musical practice, musical preference, listening habits…

(SAM)


Procedure

participants were tested individually, 1.5-2 hours double-insulated cabine (sound, electro-magnetic) headphones (AGK, K240 Studio) measurement of temperature and humidity before

and after measuring SCRs

(1) Edinburgh-Handedness-Inventory (Oldfield, 1971)

(2) Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire(3) SCR measurements

a) Resting period: ~ 5 minutesb) SCR measurements: 25 minutes

(4) Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire(5) rating of musical stimuli onto the computer(6) questionnaires, pencil and paper versions


Analysis of EDA-data

Ledalab Leipzig electro-dermal activity laboratory

Version 2.00 07/2007

(Kaernbach & Benedek)

time window relative to the event: 1-7s threshold of minimum amplitude for SCRs: 0.02 microsiemens more than 25% out of 100% possible SCRs


Familiarity with musical styles

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 2

Mea

n ra

ting

fam

iliar

ity

Western tonal music

Western atonal music

Persian music

Austrians Persians

very familiar

foreign


Austrians (N=28):Average values of pleasantness and arousal

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Arousal

Ple

asan

tnes

s

Tonal - Peacefulness

Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger

Atonal - Peacefulness

Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger

Persian - Peacefulness

Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Persians (N=15):Average values of pleasantness and arousal

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Arousal

Ple

asan

tnes

s


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Austrians (N=28):Average values of familiarity and liking

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Familiarity

Liki

ng


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Persians (N=15): Average values of familiarity and liking

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Familiarity

Liki

ng


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Austrians (N=28):Average values of familiarity and arousal

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Familiarity

Aro

usa

l


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Persians (N=15):Average values of familiarity and arousal

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Familiarity

Aro

us

al


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Austrians (N=28): Average values for liking and pleasantness

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Pleasantness

Lik

ing


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Persians (N=15): Average values of liking and pleasantness

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5 5

Pleasantness

Lik

ing


Tonal - Joy

Tonal - Fear

Tonal - Sadness

Tonal - Anger


Atonal - Joy

Atonal - Fear

Atonal - Sadness

Atonal - Anger


Persian - Joy

Persian - Fear

Persian - Sadness

Persian - Anger


Austrians‘ SCRs to different styles

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

Western tonal Western atonal Persian

Ski

n c

on

du

ctan

ce r

esp

on

ses

[mic

rosi

emen

s]

peacefulness

joy

fear

sadness

anger


Persians‘ SCRs to different styles

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

0,35

Western tonal Western atonal Persian

sk

in c

on

du

cta

nc

e r

es

po

ns

e [

mic

ros

iem

en

s]

peacefulness

joy

fear

sadness

anger


Emotion category & unfamiliar styles

Western listeners: Persian music:

high agreement on peacefulness and joy, disagreement on other categories

Western atonal music: high agreement on joy and fear, disagreement on other

categories

Persian listeners: Western tonal music:

high agreement on joy, disagreement on other categories

Western atonal music: no agreement for all categories


Conclusion

familiarity with a musical style modulates ratings of pleasantness, liking and arousal

no significant effect of familiarity with style on skin conductance responses

joy seems to be the most easily recognizable emotion in an unfamiliar style

Thank you for your attention!


Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)

5-point rating scales

Arousal:

Pleasantness:

(Lang, 1980; Bradley & Lang, 1994)

manuela m. marin 1 , richard parncutt 2 and christian kaernbach 3

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