The source dilemma hypothesis: Perceptual uncertainty contributes to musical emotion.
Music can evoke powerful emotions in listeners. Here we provide the first empirical evidence that the principles of auditory scene analysis and evolutionary theories of emotion are critical to a comprehensive theory of musical emotion. We interpret these data in light of a theoretical framework termed "the source dilemma hypothesis," which predicts that uncertainty in the number, identity or location of sound objects elicits unpleasant emotions by presenting the auditory system with an incoherent percept, thereby motivating listeners to resolve the auditory ambiguity. We describe two experiments in which source location and timbre were manipulated to change uncertainty in the auditory scene. In both experiments, listeners rated tonal and atonal melodies with congruent auditory scene cues as more pleasant than melodies with incongruent auditory scene cues. These data suggest that music's emotive capacity relies in part on the perceptual uncertainty it produces regarding the auditory scene.
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.
Tanor L
TL
Bonin
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada; McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Laurel J
LJ
Trainor
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.
Michel
M
Belyk
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada. Electronic address: paul.andrews@psychology.mcmaster.ca.
Paul W
PW
Andrews
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D013017:Sound Localization; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
Auditory scene analysis; Dissonance; Emotion; Evolution; Music; Perceptual uncertainty