Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
modes, which, in turn, induced increased activation in the right hemisphere. The
tempo modulates the arousal value of emotion with faster tempi associated with
stronger feeling of happiness and anger, and this effect is associated in EEG with an
increase of frontal activation in the left hemisphere. By contrast, slow tempo
induced decreased frontal activation in the left hemisphere.
6.4.3 Effect of Pitch, Timbre, and Loudness
The effect of pitch and rhythm on the perceived emotional content of musical
melodies was also examined (Schellenberg et al.
2000
). The pitch and rhythm
parameters were manipulated to obtain altered versions with different pitch and
rhythm. It was found that ratings were in
uenced more by differences in pitch rather
than differences in rhythm. Whenever rhythm affected ratings, there was an inter-
action between pitch and rhythm.
Few studies investigated the effect of loudness and timbre on musical emotion.
Loudness causes higher levels of activation and tension (Ilie and Thompson
2006
)
and negative feelings (Kellaris and Rice
1993
). It was shown that with increasing
loudness, arousal increases, whereas with decreasing loudness, arousal decreases
(Schubert
2004
). Timbre is considered to play a less important role on emotional
affect (Blackwill et al.
2004
). There is some evidence that soft timbres are asso-
ciated with sadness, whereas sharp timbres are associated with anger (Juslin
1997
).
6.5
Measurement of Musical Emotions
Music has the ability to induce strong emotions to the listeners. Emotions, however,
are by their nature subjective phenomena, and therefore, measuring a person
'
s
emotional state is a quite dif
cult task. The measures commonly used to assess
emotional responses to music fall in three main categories: self-reports, physio-
logical measures, and behavioral measures. In what follows, self-reports and
physiological measures are described and their adequacy in accounting for emo-
tional responses to music is analyzed and discussed. Behavioral measures are not
discussed because their use is rare in emotional responses to music.
6.5.1 Self-reports
Music studies based on self-reports use either a discrete or a dimensional approach.
The discrete emotion perspective is based on the assumption that there is a universal
set of basic emotions including fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and happiness (for
details see Sect.
6.1
of this chapter). The ratings of emotion categories are gathered
by asking participants to rate how much a music piece expresses each emotion
category. Usually, a list of emotion terms is provided to the listener, and the latter is
