title: Aesthetic preferences for combinations of color and music.
abstract: 135 university undergraduates heard 12 preludes from J. S. Bach's Well-tempered Clavier (Vol. 1) while viewing alternating red, yellow, green, and blue colored lights. Their task was to rank-order the lights according to how well they "matched" the music. Preferences for combinations of color and music differed depending on whether the music was in a major or a minor key. The present findings along with those of some earlier studies suggest that aesthetic experience may be heightened when colors are seen that match the mental images music evokes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Dayton, OH 45469-1430, USA.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Polzella
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hassen
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception; D003116:Color; D003118:Color Perception; D004954:Esthetics; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007600:Judgment; D009146:Music; D011571:Psychoacoustics