Musical emotions: Predicting second-by-second subjective feelings of emotion from low-level psychoacoustic features and physiological measurements.

Abstract

We sustain that the structure of affect elicited by music is largely dependent on dynamic temporal patterns in low-level music structural parameters. In support of this claim, we have previously provided evidence that spatiotemporal dynamics in psychoacoustic features resonate with two psychological dimensions of affect underlying judgments of subjective feelings: arousal and valence. In this article we extend our previous investigations in two aspects. First, we focus on the emotions experienced rather than perceived while listening to music. Second, we evaluate the extent to which peripheral feedback in music can account for the predicted emotional responses, that is, the role of physiological arousal in determining the intensity and valence of musical emotions. Akin to our previous findings, we will show that a significant part of the listeners' reported emotions can be predicted from a set of six psychoacoustic features--loudness, pitch level, pitch contour, tempo, texture, and sharpness. Furthermore, the accuracy of those predictions is improved with the inclusion of physiological cues--skin conductance and heart rate. The interdisciplinary work presented here provides a new methodology to the field of music and emotion research based on the combination of computational and experimental work, which aid the analysis of the emotional responses to music, while offering a platform for the abstract representation of those complex relationships. Future developments may aid specific areas, such as, psychology and music therapy, by providing coherent descriptions of the emotional effects of specific music stimuli.

Music and felt emotions: How systematic pitch level variations affect the experience of pleasantness and arousal

“…One of the main conclusions of this study was that the internal structure of the music played a central role in the induction of the emotions. A recent study confirmed that a significant part of listeners' felt emotions can be predicted by psychoacoustic features (Coutinho & Cangelosi, 2011). The goal of the present study is to extend this line of research by investigating how manipulations of one specific factor of real musical excerpts, i.e., pitch level, affect felt emotions.…”

“…Assuming a positive relationship between perceived and felt emotions (Evans & Schubert, 2008), we predicted that musical excerpts with high pitch level would induce more positive valence than musical excerpts with low pitch level (Coutinho & Cangelosi 2009, 2011Gundlach, 1935;Hevner, 1937;Kleinen, 1968;Rigg, 1940;Scherer & Oshinsky, 1977;Watson, 1942;Wedin, 1972).…”

The heart beat does not make us tick: The impacts of heart rate and arousal on time perception

“…Indeed, some findings have indicated that increased arousal (e.g., induced by noise, sound volume, or fear) is associated with longer perceived time intervals (Burle & Casini, 2001;Grommet, DroitVolet, Gil, Hemmes, Baker, & Brown, 2011;Miró, Cano, Espinosa-Fernández, & Buela-Casal, 2003;Noulhiane, Mella, Samson, Ragot, & Pouthas, 2007;Ozel, Larue, & Dosseville, 2004;Wearden, 2008). In addition to widely used subjective measures of arousal, heart rate is frequently reported as being a reliable physiological indicator (Coutinho & Cangelosi, 2011;Coventry & Hudson, 2001;Sforza, Jouny, & Ibanez, 2000;Thayer, 1970;Vianna & Tranel, 2006;Wulfert, Roland, Hartley, Wang, & Franco, 2005). In general, an increase in heart rate is associated with a higher level of arousal, which should in turn lead to longer duration estimates.…”

Individual differences in emotion elicitation in university examinations: A quasi-experimental study

“…In real life observation, internal validity can be diminished due to many uncontrollable factors that increase measurement error. On the other hand, mood induction in experimental studies is typically done by creating an artificial situation through presentation of stimuli, such as movie clips (Schaefer, Nils, Sanchez, & Philippot, 2010), pictures (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008), or music (Coutinho & Cangelosi, 2011) that provide a greater degree of experimental control, which gains much in terms of internal validity but loses in terms of external validity: this represents an important shortcoming in comparison to those conducted with diary experience sampling method.…”