The relationship between properties of music andelicited emotions

Agnieszka Mensfelt

Institute of Computing SciencePoznan University of Technology, Poland

December 5, 2017

1 / 19

Outline

1 Music and emotion

2 Experiment

3 Results

2 / 19

Motivations

Emotions – the primary reason for music listening

Source: www.kopernik.org.pl/en/exhibitions/archiwum-wystaw/wszystko-gra/emocje-i-muzyka/ 3 / 19

Motivations

Investigation of the mechanisms underlying musical emotion

Source: neurosciencenews.com/music-emotion-neural-network-creativity-3335/

4 / 19

Motivations

Automatic organization and retrieval from large collections

Source: www.theinternationalman.com/music-streaming-services.php

5 / 19

Motivations

Generation of adaptive soundtrack

Source: www.psu.com/news/no-mans-sky-update-still-planned-as-hello-games-talks-launch-woes/

6 / 19

Motivations

Usage in medicine, sports and advertising

Source: www.mha.org.uk/news_archive/mha-music-therapy-dementia/ 7 / 19

Levels of analysis

Music psychology

Music Emotion Recognition (MER)

8 / 19

Emotion definition

Emotion is a complex set of interactions amongsubjective and objective factors, mediated byneural/hormonal systems, which can

(a) give rise to affective experiences such as feelings ofarousal, pleasure/displeasure;

(b) generate cognitive processes such as emotionallyrelevant perceptual effects, appraisals, labelingprocesses;

(c) activate widespread physiological adjustments to thearousing conditions;

(d) lead to behaviour that is often, but not always,expressive, goal-directed, and adaptive1.

1P. R. Kleinginna and A. M. Kleinginna. “A categorized list of emotiondefinitions, with suggestions for a consensual definition”. In: Motivation andEmotion 5.4 (1981), pp. 345–379.

9 / 19

Mechanisms of emotion induction2

brain stem reflex

rhythmic entrainment

evaluative conditioning

emotional contagion

visual imagery

episodic memory

musical expectancy

2P. N. Juslin et al. “How does music evoke emotions? Exploring theunderlying mechanisms”. In: Handbook of music and emotion: theory,research, applications. Ed. by Patrick N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda. OxfordUniversity Press, 2010. Chap. 22, pp. 605–642.

10 / 19

Russell’s circumplex model3

ACTIVATION

DEACTIVATION

DISPLEASURE PLEASURE

TenseJittery

SadGloomy

TiredLethargic

PlacidCalm

SereneContented

ElatedHappy

ExcitedEbullient

UpsetDistressed

3J. A. Russell. “Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion”.In: Psychological review 110.1 (2003), pp. 145–172.

11 / 19

Outline

1 Music and emotion

2 Experiment

3 Results

12 / 19

Generator4

GENERATOR PLAYER

BASS

BASS

BASSBASS

CHORDS

CHORDSCHORDS

MELODIC LINEMELODIC LINE

DRUMS

Parameters

- tempo- articulation

Musical constraints

- pitch range: two octaves- musical scale

- mode- pitch- rhythm- dissonance

PREDEFINEDDRUMS TRACKS

next stageapplies to

4Maciej Komosinski and Agnieszka Mensfelt. “Emotions perceived andemotions experienced in response to computer-generated music”. In: MusicPerception 33.4 (2016), pp. 432–445. doi: 10.1525/MP.2016.33.4.432.

13 / 19

Sample score5

4444

44

Bass

Chords

Melodic line

5Maciej Komosinski and Agnieszka Mensfelt. “Emotions perceived andemotions experienced in response to computer-generated music”. In: MusicPerception 33.4 (2016), pp. 432–445. doi: 10.1525/MP.2016.33.4.432.

14 / 19

Demo

minor, medium, normal, irregular, absent

major, fast, high, regular, absent

minor, fast, low, iregular, present

15 / 19

Material

mode tempo (BPM) pitch rhythm dissonancemajor slow (75) low regular absentminor medium (115) medium (C4) irregular present

fast (145) high

16 / 19

Procedure

personal questionnaire

trainig session(2 excerpts) 2 minute film

mood evaluation

main session( excerpts)24

17 / 19

Outline

1 Music and emotion

2 Experiment

3 Results

18 / 19

Results

influence of structural factors congruent with the literature

good correspondence between categorical and dimensionalmodels

strong correlation between perceived and experiencedemotions

no influence of age, gender and musical experience

19 / 19