The Repeated Recording Illusion

Abstract

The repeated recording illusion refers to the phenomenon in which listeners believe to hear different musical stimuli while they are in fact identical. The present paper aims to construct an experimental paradigm to enable the systematic measurement of this phenomenon, investigating potentially related extrinsic and individual difference factors. Participants were told to listen to “different” musical performances of an original piece when in fact they were exposed to the same repeated recording. Each time, the recording was accompanied by a text suggesting a low, medium, or high prestige of the performer. Most participants (75%) believed that they had heard different musical performances. Participants with high levels of neuroticism and openness were significantly more likely to fall for the illusion. While the explicit information presented with the music influenced participants’ ratings significantly, the effect of repeated exposure was only significant in the more familiar music condition. These results suggest that like many other human judgments, evaluations of music also rely on cognitive biases and heuristics that do not depend on the stimuli themselves. The repeated recording illusion can constitute a useful paradigm for investigating nonmusical factors because it allows for the study of their effects while the music remains the same.

Psycho-Historical Contextualization for Music and Visual Works: A Literature Review and Comparison Between Artistic Mediums

“…Further more, we decided not to include studies that only manipulated perceived effort, craftmanship, or quality as independent variables in this review because they relied on manipulation of information rather than type and amount of information. Therefore a number of studies were excluded (e.g., Duerksen, 1972; Kruger et al, 2004; Kirk et al, 2009; Steinbeis and Koelsch, 2009; Jucker et al, 2014; Kroger and Margulis, 2016; Anglada-Tort and Müllensiefen, 2017). Bullot and Reber draw a distinction between the inclusion criteria of the PHF and such experimental approaches as well (2013a, p. 133).…”

The busking experiment: A field study measuring behavioral responses to street music performances.

“…Nevertheless, despite the popularity of behavioural economics, the field has not yet been applied explicitly to the study of judgements and decision-making processes in the context of music listening and music-related phenomena. Thus, the behavioural economics of music (Anglada-Tort & Müllensiefen, 2017;Anglada-Tort, Baker, & Müllensiefen, 2018;Anglada-Tort, Steffens, & Müllensiefen, 2018) aims to create a solid understanding of the role that behavioural economics and the psychology of decision making can play to study music judgements, choice behaviour, and aesthetics. In the present study, we applied field research methodology commonly used by behavioural scientists and experimental economists to investigate donating behaviour and charitable giving in the real world (e.g., Ebeling et al, 2017;Ekström, 2012;Khadjavi, 2016;Moussaoui et al, 2016;Olda & Ichihashi, 2016).…”

Commentary on Canonne (2018): Listening to Improvisation

“…When identical recordings are presented with information suggesting that the performer is a professional musician, listeners evaluate the same music stimuli significantly more favorably (e.g., liking, quality, pitch and rhythm accuracy), than when presented with information suggesting a less skilled musician (Anglada-Tort & Müllensiefen, 2017;Duerksen, 1972;Kroger & Margulis, 2016). In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, Aydogan et al (2018) presented the same music stimuli under two different descriptors about the performer (professionals vs. student), finding that listeners' evaluations were significantly more positive in the professional condition; more importantly, the authors identified different patterns of brain activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.…”