Spanish adaptation of a film music stimulus set (FMSS): Cultural and gender differences in the perception of emotions prompted by music excerpts

Abstract

The literature review reveals different conceptual and methodological challenges in the field of music and emotion, such as the lack of agreement in terms of standardized datasets, and the need for replication of prior findings. Our study aimed at validating for Spanish population a set of film music stimuli previously standardized in Finnish samples. In addition, we explored the role of gender and culture in the perception of emotions through music using 102 excerpts selected from Eerola and Vuoskoski’s dataset. A total of 129 voluntary undergraduate students (71.32% females) from different degrees participated voluntarily in this study, where they were instructed to rate both discrete emotions (Happiness, Sadness, Tenderness, Fear, Anger) and affective dimensions (Valence, Energy Arousal, Tension Arousal) using a 9-point scale after presentation of each excerpt. Strong similarities between Finnish and Spanish ratings were found, with only minor discrepancies across samples in the evaluation of basic emotions. Taken together, our findings suggest that the current database is suitable for future research on music and emotions. Additional theoretical and practical implications of this validation are discussed.

Emotion elicitation during music listening: Subjective self‐reports, facial expression, and autonomic reactivity

“…As a consequence, the FMMS excerpts selected in the present study were previously edited by shortening them to 8 s in order to ensure a similar trial duration within the task, being therefore comparable to prior music studies (Gringas et al, 2015;Khalfa et al, 2002), as well as other works using emotional pictures or sounds in diverse paradigms such as passive viewing, aversive conditioning, or cognitive reappraisal tasks (Conzelmann et al, 2015;Fuentes-Sánchez et al, 2019;López et al, 2009). Thus, the first objective was to investigate the correspondence between the subjective ratings obtained in the a priori validation study-with longer and variable excerpts durations (Fuentes-Sánchez et al, 2020)-and those obtained here for the shortened excerpts. A second goal was to investigate the effect of music category (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant music) on (a) peripheral physiology (EDA, HR changes, zygomatic, and corrugator)-analyzing both specific parameters such as peak response or averaged activity and the time course across half-seconds bin; and (b) subjective ratings-both for affective dimensions (valence, energy, and tension arousal) as well as discrete emotions (happiness, anger, fear, tenderness, and sadness).…”

“…Furthermore, each shape represents the specific emotion that characterizes each musical excerpt. Crosses represent happiness excerpts; rhombus represents sad clips; red points represent fearful excerpts; pink points represent anger excerpts; and stars represent the excerpts that convey both anger and fear in a similar way with a cross presented in the center of a black screen during 1 s of silence baseline, followed by the presentation of unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant musical excerpts during 8 s. Afterward, participants rated different affective dimensions (valence, energy arousal, and tension arousal) and discrete emotions (happiness, sadness, tenderness, fear, and anger) using a 9-point scale as in the validation study (see Fuentes-Sánchez et al, 2020). Thereupon, familiarity was evaluated using a 3-point scale (0 = unfamiliar; 1 = somewhat familiar; and 2 = very familiar).…”

Correlatos Psicológicos y Psicofisiológicos de Inducción Emocional a través de la Música

“…An analysis of subjective ratings indicated that all targeted emotions were significantly well discriminated, with a strong congruence between the two models (Eerola & Vuoskoski, 2011). The original FMSS results were obtained using a Finnish population (Eerola & Vuoskoski, 2011), and were recently replicated and validated in a Spanish population (Fuentes-Sánchez, Pastor, Eerola & Pastor, 2020).…”

“…Cada punto de la figura representa un fragmento musical (N = 110). (Eerola & Vuoskoski, 2011;Fuentes-Sánchez et al, 2020) on the basis of their mean valence (x-axis) and energy arousal (y-axis) ratings (left), and on the basis of their mean valence (x-axis) and tension arousal (y-axis) ratings (right). (Eerola & Vuoskoski, 2011;Fuentes-Sánchez et al, 2020) on the basis of their mean valence (x-axis) and energy arousal (y-axis) ratings.…”

“…In order to overcome this limitation and to extend this line of research, we aimed in the present study to investigate the relationship between music reward and the perception of emotions represented by music using the BMRQ together with the FMSS. The comprehensive collection of music clips used in the FMSS (Eerola & Vuoskoski, 2011;Fuentes-Sánchez et al, 2020) allowed us to explore BMRQ scores in association with positive and negative aspects of music-influenced valence, and arousal as well as discrete emotion descriptors. On the basis of evidence from previous studies, we expected that individual variability in music reward sensitivity could be a significant predictor of affective evaluations of music excerpts, particularly those associated with positive emotions.…”