2020/08/04 by Assaf Suberry, Suberry, Assaf, Neta B. Maimon +3
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Diverse Music Education Insights #FOS: Biological sciences #Multisensory perception and integration #Music and Audio Processing #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Neuroscience and Music Perception
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2008.01810
openalex publication_date 2020/08/04 · openalex created_date 2022/10/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Western music is largely governed by tonality, a quasi syntactic system\nregulating musical continuity and closure. Converging measures have established\nthe psychological reality of tonality as a cognitive schema raising distinct\nexpectancy for both adults and children. However, while tonal expectations were\nassociated with emotion in adults, little is known about the tonality emotional\neffects in children. Here we examine whether children associate levels of tonal\nclosure with emotional valence, whether such associations are age dependent,\nand how they interact with other musical dimensions. 52 children, aged 7, 11,\nlistened to chord progressions implying closure followed by a probe tone.\nProbes could realize closure (tonic note), violate it mildly (unstable diatonic\nnote) or extremely (out of key note). Three timbres (piano, guitar, woodwinds)\nand three pitch heights were used for each closure level. Stimuli were\ndescribed to participants as exchanges between two children (chords, probe).\nParticipants chose one of two emojis, suggesting positive or negative emotions,\nas representing the 2nd child response. A significant effect of tonal closure\nwas found, with no interactions with age, instrument, or pitch height. Results\nsuggest that tonality, a non referential cognitive schema, affects children\nperception of emotion in music early, robustly and independently of basic\nmusical dimensions.\n