7Music & Emotion

Question 1

What are some ways in which people use music in their emotional lives?

Answer 1

Film & television; mood regulation; non-verbal expression; signify event; music therapy (memory trigger; depression treatment, etc)

Question 2

Compared to perception & cognition, which are potentially universal processes, how are emotions determined?

Answer 2

More subjectively, & in relation to social & cultural norms

Question 3

Describe the differences between basic & secondary emotions

Answer 3

Basic emotions evolved to cope with fundamental issues of survival (e.g. happy, sad, fear, anger); they have distinct adaptive functions & there is evidence of this across cultures, represented by distinct emotional expressions (e.g. smiling); Secondary emotions are socially constructed & culturally dependent

Question 4

How is cognition processed?

Answer 4

Through reasoning, planning & remembering processes

Question 5

According to the post-cognitive view of the information processing model, where do emotions fit with cognition?

Answer 5

Event happens, interpretation (cognition), appraisal/evaluation (emotion arises); we rehearse, make comparisons in LTM & decide what to do with the information

Question 6

How do emotions fit in relation to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) response?

Answer 6

Emotional response prior to cognitive responses; independent processes

Question 7

Describe the Mere Exposure effect

Answer 7

Preferences can develop implicitly (without awareness); independent of cognitive processing (implying emotion & cognition are separate)

Question 8

In a female Amusic patient with right & left temporal lesions, what ability was impaired & what was intact?;
What does this imply?

Answer 8

Impaired melody recognition; intact ability to discriminate music in terms of the emotion it conveyed;
Distinct operations

Question 9

What did Goldman (1995) propose in regards to Emotional Intelligence?;
In contrast, what did Damasio propose?

Answer 9

A rational mind & an emotional mind, implying a distinction;
That cognitive & emotional processes are integrated, & at a very early stage

Question 10

What is Affective Blindness?

Answer 10

An inability to ascertain the emotional importance of events

Question 11

Damasio (1994), believed there was an error in Descartes’ view, & proposed the concept of Somatic Markers. What are these?

Answer 11

“Affective tags” attached to sensory images; tagging each with an emotional association; an experience leads to certain images, which are strongly associated with emotions & feelings

Question 12

What are some adaptive functions of emotions?

Answer 12

May bias further cognitive processing (e.g. reject or filter situations/actions with negative associations or irrelevant); may support effective decision making; may lead to attention narrowing (e.g. “weapon focus” in eyewitness memory)

Question 13

Psychophysical Cues in music (e.g. loudness, fast-tempo) lead to arousal. What are they?;

Answer 13

Potentially biologically (hard-wired) significant signals; rapid, automatic, & can occur prenatally; may arise from brain stem (& bypass cognitive processing)

Question 14

Give two examples of the cognitive component (available to conscious awareness) linking music & emotion;

Answer 14

Music can induce the memory of a significant life episode & emotional experience; Music can elicit visual imagery, which may be emotive;

Question 15

Cognitive processes may follow psychophysical cues, or what else may occur?

Answer 15

Both processes may operate concurrently (e.g. surprise – enhanced arousal + cognitive appraisal of an unexpected event)

Question 16

What was Cooke’s (1959) theory about the basis of connection between music & emotion?;

Answer 16

That music consists of various melodic features & patterns that have recognisable emotional significance; certain melodic patterns & intervals represent different emotions (e.g. major 3rd is happy)

Question 17

Describe Kivy’s (1980) theory about the connection between music & emotion

Answer 17

A listener may be both moved emotionally and perceive the syntactic functions of the expressive features; he describes connections through contour (natural connections; e.g. slow=sadness) & convention (learned customary association; e.g. plagal cadence=Amen)

Question 18

What was Langer’s (1957) theory about the connection between music & emotion?;

Answer 18

Dynamic form/resemblance of dynamic events (doesn’t represent specific emotion); up/down = predicting & anticipating leading to release or disappointment; symbolic/semantic relationship;

Question 19

Describe Meyer’s (1956) theory

Answer 19

That the emotional power of music lies in the expectations that it creates in the listener & arousal evaluation; context specific; based on ability to predict events & outcome; appraisal of experience/arousal, followed by emotional response; fulfilled expectations=positive; violation of expectations=negative

Question 20

What was Mandler’s (1984) theory?

Answer 20

Emotional experiences of music reflect a process of appraising bodily reactions to fulfillments and violations of expected musical events; arousal & complexity; simple music doesn’t give enough mismatch; if too complex, expectancy is violated; should be an optimal balance of violated & fulfilled expectation

Question 21

What was Berlyne’s (1970-71) theory?

Answer 21

The degree to which the music sounds familiar determines if pleasurable or not; musical preference is based on the preference to maintain the level of preferred arousal (inverted U shape)

Question 22

Describe Huron’s (2006), theory about the basis of connection between music & emotion

Answer 22

ITPRA evaluation of musical expectancy: Imagination – biological adaptation (more likely to respond to positive emotions); Tension – physiological preparedness for changes in arousal; Prediction - state of reward or punishment in response to accuracy of prediction; Reaction – automatic or visceral response; Appraisal - emotional state after assessing the event

Question 23

What were Juslin & Västfjäll’s theory about music & emotional connections?

Answer 23

There are six core underlying mechanisms: BRECVEM: Brain stem reflex (automated appraisal; arouses survival function); rhythmic entrainment (music influences internal rhythm); evaluative conditioning (through repetition with US becomes CR); contagion (mimicry of perceived emotions cued by performer); visual imagery (sound evokes images which induces emotions); episodic memory (music linked to significant autobiographical event); & musical expectancy (emotion induced through violation or fulfillment of expectation)

Question 24

Thompson (2009) found an inverted U function when plotting the relationship between musical preference & complexity (which was moderated by musical training due to modified cognitive schemas). Why would this be?

Answer 24

Preference was reduced if too difficult/complex or too predictable & simplistic (e.g. serialism vs. overly saturated pop music)

Question 25

According to the Cognitivist view, does music induce emotions or does our emotional state influence the music we choose to listen to?;
What’s an Emotivist’s position on this?;

Answer 25

Listener’s are sensitive to emotion in music, but don’t actually experience it;
Music can elicit emotional responses in listeners;

Question 26

How is the connections between music & emotion measured & how reliable is it?

Answer 26

Physiological markers (e.g. skin conductance, heart rate, etc); not completely reliable as there may be other variables involved

Question 27

What are some subjective self-report methods of measuring emotion?

Answer 27

Retrospective judgements (e.g. Hevner’s Adjective Circle, & the Likert scale, reporting intensity activity, happiness, etc); & continuous self-report (e.g. slider, CRDI, etc);

Question 28

Describe some other ways of measuring emotion

Answer 28

Arousal & valence (e.g. Russell’s two-dimensional emotion space); tension/release; physiological measures (e.g. skin conductance, heart rate, blood pressure, respiration); neural activity measures (e.g. PET)

Question 29

Schubert (2010) had 25 musically interested participants (13 female), submit a loved & hated musical piece. They listened to 28 pieces for 5 mins, containing a mix of classical, pop, instrumental & vocal. What was recorded on a Listening Appraisal sheet?;

Answer 29

General information about piece, style, etc; familiarity (7-1); liking (loved-hated; 3- -3); quality (good-bad; 3- -3); & emotion questions from 2 perspectives (what’s the music trying to express?; how does the music make me feel?)

Question 30

What 4 components were reported in relation to the emotion questions in Schubert’s study?

Answer 30

Strength (1-7); valence (positive-negative emotion; 3- -3); activity (active emotion-sleepiness; 3 -3); & dominance (dominant-submissive emotion; 3- -3)

Question 31

In Schubert’s study, what were the results in regards to how preference was associated with quality, emotion & valence, & familiarity?

Answer 31

Hated music was highly familiar; quality was subjective (possible social influence) & negative emotion was preferred in some cases

Question 32

How do we respond neurologically to music we like?;

Answer 32

Dopamine release (neurotransmitter associated with pleasure & reward, emotion, mood & alertness; chills or shivers down the spine (subjective emotional response & measurable bodily reponse);

Question 33

Where does the reward system (major dopaminergic pathways) originate in the brain?

Answer 33

Midbrain (frontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, striatum & hippocampus)

Question 34

In Blood & Zatorre’s (2001) study on “chills”, 10 musicians chose self-selected chills inducing music from a classical, instrumental genre. What was their task?;
What measurements were used?

Answer 34

Listening to their “chills” music & a control piece (another’s chills music), then rating their emotional response: chills intensity (0-10), emotional intensity (0-10) & unpleasant vs. pleasant (-5-+5);
PET & physiological measures

Question 35

What neural responses to chills were found in Blood & Zatorre’s study?;
What does this suggest?

Answer 35

Neural activity in the same regions as euphoria inducing activities (e.g. ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral medial prefrontal cortex & subcortical regions);
An evolutionary link – reproduction & survival

Question 36

What were subjective reports of chills in Blood & Zatorre’s study related to?;
When were chills experienced by participants in 77% of scans?

Answer 36

Changes in heart rate, electromyogram (EMG) & respiration;
When listening to their own music

Question 37

Grewe, Kopiez & Altenmüller (2009) had 95 participants (mix of musos & non-musos) listen to 7 classical pieces, familiar to the experimental group & unfamiliar to controls. What methodologies were used?

Answer 37

Questionnaire; self-report on continuous affective reactions (intensity of feelings) by holding mouse for duration of chills; physiological measures (e.g. skin conductance response & heart rate)

Question 38

What were the behavioural & physiological responses in Grewe et al.’s study?;
What was concluded in this study?

Answer 38

Self-report intensity, skin conductance & heart rate peak during chill; familiarity with music affected the chill experience;
Chills are a reliable means of synchronizing physiological response & subjective feelings

Question 39

Gabrielsson & Juslin (1996) had musicians perform music on violin, guitar, flute & singing to communicate different emotions. How was happiness communicated?;
How was sadness conveyed?;
What about anger?;
And fear?

Answer 39

Fast tempo, bright timbre & exaggerated rhythmic contrasts;
Slow tempo, soft dynamics, slow & deep vibrato;
Rapid tempi, loud dynamics & harsh timbre;
Irregular tempi, soft dynamics & staccato articulations

Question 40

Hevner noted which musical elements to be most influential in affective judgements?

Answer 40

Pitch, tempo, modality, harmony & rhythm

Question 41

What do most music listeners’ agree on from around 5 yrs old, in regards to associations between music expression & emotion?;
What emotions are not as easy to identify through music?

Answer 41

Happy music is associated with major mode & sad music is associated with minor mode (sensitivity increases with age);
Fear & anger (possibly reliant on semantic association)

Question 42

Balkwill & Thompson (1999) investigated Hindustani music’s ability to connect melodic forms (ragas) with moods (rasas). What responses did they find with Western listeners?

Answer 42

They were sensitive to joy, sadness & peace performance intentions; detection was related to structural elements (e.g. tempo & complexity)

Question 43

Describe two direct consequences for emotional interpretation of music

Answer 43

Psychophysical cues – “seem” emotional; alert to a forthcoming, potentially biologically significant event; arousal response prepares the organism to deal with the event; primitive process found across cultures; Expectance mechanisms – prediction vs. actually occurring events; expectancy-emotion association (biologically advantageous to be able to predict events in the world)

Question 44

Describe two indirect sources of musical emotion

Answer 44

Extra musical association (e.g. visual imagery); Learned associations (e.g. song reminds me of a life experience)