Musicians and non-musicians show different preference profiles for single chords of varying harmonic complexity. 2023

Maria A G Witek, and Tomas Matthews, and Rebeka Bodak, and Marta W Blausz, and Virginia Penhune, and Peter Vuust
Department of Music, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The inverted U hypothesis in music predicts that listeners prefer intermediate levels of complexity. However, the shape of the liking response to harmonic complexity and the effect of musicianship remains unclear. Here, we tested whether the relationship between liking and harmonic complexity in single chords shows an inverted U shape and whether this U shape is different for musicians and non-musicians. We recorded these groups' liking ratings for four levels of harmonic complexity, indexed by their level of acoustic roughness, as well as several measures of inter-individual difference. Results showed that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between harmonic complexity and liking in both musicians and non-musicians, but that the shape of the U is different for the two groups. Non-musicians' U is more left-skewed, with peak liking for low harmonic complexity, while musicians' U is more right-skewed, with highest ratings for medium and low complexity. Furthermore, musicians who showed greater liking for medium compared to low complexity chords reported higher levels of active musical engagement and higher levels of openness to experience. This suggests that a combination of practical musical experience and personality is reflected in musicians' inverted U-shaped preference response to harmonic complexity in chords.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009146 Music Sound that expresses emotion through rhythm, melody, and harmony. Classical Music,Hip Hop Music,Jazz Music,Rap Music,Rock and Roll Music,Songs,Vocal Melody,Hop Music, Hip,Melodies, Vocal,Melody, Vocal,Music, Classical,Music, Hip Hop,Music, Jazz,Music, Rap,Song,Vocal Melodies
D010551 Personality Behavior-response patterns that characterize the individual. Personalities
D004644 Emotions Those affective states which can be experienced and have arousing and motivational properties. Feelings,Regret,Emotion,Feeling,Regrets
D000161 Acoustic Stimulation Use of sound to elicit a response in the nervous system. Auditory Stimulation,Stimulation, Acoustic,Stimulation, Auditory
D000162 Acoustics The branch of physics that deals with sound and sound waves. In medicine it is often applied in procedures in speech and hearing studies. With regard to the environment, it refers to the characteristics of a room, auditorium, theatre, building, etc. that determines the audibility or fidelity of sounds in it. (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed) Acoustic

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