Does perceived exertion influence perceived affect in response to music? Investigating the “FEELA” hypothesis.

Abstract

Time-series modeling of perceived affect in response to a range of instrumental and sound-based music has shown that continuously perceived arousal, and to a lesser extent, perceived valence, are well modeled when predictors include listener engagement, perceptual loudness, and acoustic factors such as intensity and spectral flatness. A "FEELA" hypothesis has been proposed to explain processes underlying production and perception of affect in music: FEELA suggests a chain of contributing factors such as the Force and Effort (realized here throughout as physical exertion) required for a performer to produce a musical sound, the Energy of the resulting sound (realized as acoustic intensity), and the experience of the listener in the form of perceived Loudness and Arousal. The present study investigated the early portions of this process by asking whether listeners' continuous perception of physical exertion required to produce music from a range of genres contributes to and strengthens previous time-series models of perceived affect. An analysis of factors in the perception of exertion in the context of 8 excerpts of Classical and Electroacoustic music was first undertaken. Results showed that acoustic intensity, perceived source complexity, and event density contributed in varying degrees to the perception of exertion. When these 4 factors were included in time-series models of affect in response to 5 excerpts of music, results showed that when human agency is apparent in the production of classical or electroacoustic music, nonmusicians' perception of exertion required in producing the music is pertinent to the perception of arousal and to a lesser extent, valence. With the more abstract sound-sculpted electroacoustic pieces of music where human agency is not always apparent, listeners could identify exertion when required, but it was not influential in their perception of arousal.

Collaborative Musical Creativity: How Ensembles Coordinate Spontaneity

“…These associations often relate to emotion, and as such, the communication of emotion has received a great deal of attention in the literature (Juslin and Laukka, 2004 ; Molnar-Szakacs and Overy, 2006 ; Lundqvist et al, 2009 ; Lucas et al, 2010 ). Other constructs are known to be communicated as well, though, including sensations of motion (Eitan and Timmers, 2009 ; Olsen and Dean, 2016 ) and interpretations of musical structure (Clarke, 1993 ; Toiviainen et al, 2010 ). Even complex environmental events, such as animal behavior, changes in season, landscapes, or city life, can be communicated musically (without the aid of lyrics).…”

“…Most of the world's music is performed in groups, and even soloists are subject to influence from (real or imagined) audiences. Music perception is social too: audiences recognize social relationships and communicative behavior between members of a performing ensemble (Moran et al, 2015 ; Aucouturier and Canonne, 2017 ), and they infer human agency when hearing music–even without visual confirmation of a performer (Launay, 2015 ; Olsen and Dean, 2016 ), making sounded performances a means of interpersonal communication.…”

Listeners' and Performers' Shared Understanding of Jazz Improvisations

“…In order to elicit responses to (at least one version of) what the performers themselves thought about the improvisation, we start with these statements rather than evaluative jury ratings (e.g., Thompson and Williamon, 2003; Wesolowski, 2016), judgments of performer appropriateness (e.g., Platz and Kopiez, 2013), listeners' agreement with professional music critics' assessments, listeners' own descriptions of their reactions to music (e.g., Richardson, 1996; Heimlich et al, 2015, among many others), or listeners' ratings of their arousal or affective responses (e.g., Lundqvist et al, 2008; Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2013; Olsen et al, 2014, 2015; Olsen and Dean, 2016; and chapters in Juslin and Sloboda, 2010). Unlike the statements in standardized jury evaluations, a number of the statements used here focus on specific moment-by-moment characterizations of particular performances that were given in reference only to these performances.…”

Musical and Bodily Predictors of Mental Effort in String Quartet Music: An Ecological Pupillometry Study of Performers and Listeners

“…Motor activation may also occur at a more general level, allowing for simulation of features of actions that listeners have no experience in performing, or remapping of action features to familiar action sequences (e.g., allowing a listener to covertly sing along with a melody played by a violin, despite having no violin-playing experience; Godøy et al, 2005;Eitan and Timmers, 2010;Maes et al, 2014;Kelkar and Jensenius, 2018). Motor activation during music listening may furthermore help listeners to construct expressive interpretations of the music they hear and relate to the performer(s) on an emotional level (Molnar-Szakacs et al, 2011;Olsen and Dean, 2016).…”

“…For musicians, the physical demands of performance can be described in terms of two components: physical force (or exertion) and control. Force is an important dimension of bodily effort for acoustic instrument performers, as it is the primary means of controlling sound intensity (Olsen and Dean, 2016 ). Control is central to effective playing technique and relates to how precisely a performer can achieve their intended timing, intonation, timbre, and dynamic level (Palmer, 1997 ; Bishop and Goebl, 2017 ).…”