Manuela M. Marin 1 , Richard Parncutt 2 and Christian Kaernbach 3

1. Emotion and unfamiliar music:Electrophysiological and psychological responses to Persian and Western music by Persian and Western listeners Manuela M. Marin1, Richard Parncutt2 and Christian Kaernbach3 1,2Department of Musicology, University of Graz, Austria 3Department of Psychology, University of Kiel, Germany SMPC 2007, August 3 Montreal, Quebec

2. Emotion in familiar and unfamiliar music • familiar musical styles tend to be preferred (Peretz et al., 1998) and rated as more pleasant (Ritossa & Rickard, 2004) • stronger and more diverse emotions in familiar music (Gabrielsson & Lindström Wik, 2003) • familiarity and liking: joy, calm, movement & fun foreignness and dislike: anger, madness, fear & chaos (Parncutt & Marin, 2006) • musical arousal ratings may depend on familiarity (Ritossa & Rickard, 2004) • sensitivity to emotions in unfamiliar music: acoustic cues more important than culture-specific (Balkwill et al., 2004)

3. Skin conductance & musical emotions • studies on tonic levels of EDA (SCL): • focus on mood • few studies on phasic levels of EDA (SCR): • focus on emotion • depends mainly upon stimulus arousal (environmental sounds, affective pictures) • familiar musical style: • SCRs are stronger for stimulating emotions than for relaxing emotions (Khalfa et al., 2002) • musical structure and SCL: • low vs. high arousal: accentuation, tempo, rhythmic articulation (Gomez & Danuser, 2007)

4. Familar vs. unfamiliar music - Question Are there differences in psychological and physiological reactions to familiar and unfamiliar music?

5. Musical stimuli • three instrumental musical styles: • Western tonal (18th-19th century) • Western atonal (20th century) • classical traditional Persian • more than one instrument, no orchestra • no electronic instruments • wide range of composers • 5 emotion categories: • peacefulness, joy, sadness, fear, anger • 5 excerpts per emotion; 25 excerpts per style • duration of 5s; 200ms fade-in and fade-out • equalization of loudness

6. Pilot study • collection of musical stimuli: • tonal and atonal excerpts by 6 music students and the 1st author • collection of Persian excerpts by 7 Persian musicians • 80 excerpts in Western tonal and atonal styles, rated by 14 music teachers of a conservatory • 58 excerpts in classical traditional Persian style, rated by 16 Persian musicians • ratings of • emotion category (peacefulness, joy, sadness, fear, anger) • emotion intensity (5-point rating scale) • criteria for selection • 75% of musicians must agree on a specific emotion • emotion intensity (1 = weak, …, 5 = strong): >3

7. Participants • 29 Austrian participants • 13 males, 16 females • mean age: 29.4 years, SD = 4.27 • equal distribution of non-musicians and amateur musicians • like listening to Western classical music • 18 Persian (Iranian) participants • 9 males, 9 females • average time of residence in Austria: 5.4 years, SD = 2.98 • mean age: 25.9 years, SD = 5.00 • mainly non-musicians • like listening to Persian music

8. Psychological measurements • Ratings for each stimulus onto the computer… • familiarity (5-point rating scale) • arousal (SAM, Self-Assessment Manikin) • pleasantness/valence • emotion word (peacefulness, joy, sadness, fear, anger) • emotional intensity (5-point rating scale) • liking (5-point rating scale) • Questionnaires • Beck Depression Inventory, Hautzinger et al.,1995 • Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire, Steyr et al.,1997 • self-developed questionnaire • musical practice, musical preference, listening habits… (SAM)

9. Procedure • participants were tested individually, 1.5-2 hours • double-insulated cabine (sound, electro-magnetic) • headphones (AGK, K240 Studio) • measurement of temperature and humidity before and after measuring SCRs • Edinburgh-Handedness-Inventory (Oldfield, 1971) • Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire • SCR measurements • Resting period: ~ 5 minutes • SCR measurements: 25 minutes • Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire • rating of musical stimuli onto the computer • questionnaires, pencil and paper versions

10. Analysis of EDA-data • Ledalab • Leipzig electro-dermal activity laboratory Version 2.00 07/2007 (Kaernbach & Benedek) • time window relative to the event: 1-7s • threshold of minimum amplitude for SCRs: 0.02 microsiemens • more than 25% out of 100% possible SCRs

11. Familiarity with musical styles very familiar foreign Austrians Persians

12. Austrians (N=28):Average values of pleasantness and arousal

13. Persians (N=15):Average values of pleasantness and arousal

14. Austrians (N=28):Average values of familiarity and liking

15. Persians (N=15): Average values of familiarity and liking

16. Austrians (N=28):Average values of familiarity and arousal

17. Persians (N=15):Average values of familiarity and arousal

18. Austrians (N=28): Average values for liking and pleasantness

19. Persians (N=15): Average values of liking and pleasantness

20. Austrians‘ SCRs to different styles

21. Persians‘ SCRs to different styles

22. Emotion category & unfamiliar styles • Western listeners: • Persian music: • high agreement on peacefulness and joy, disagreement on other categories • Western atonal music: • high agreement on joy and fear, disagreement on other categories • Persian listeners: • Western tonal music: • high agreement on joy, disagreement on other categories • Western atonal music: • no agreement for all categories

23. Conclusion • familiarity with a musical style modulates ratings of pleasantness, liking and arousal • no significant effect of familiarity with style on skin conductance responses • joy seems to be the most easily recognizable emotion in an unfamiliar style

24. Thank you for your attention!

25. Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) • 5-point rating scales Arousal: Pleasantness: (Lang, 1980; Bradley & Lang, 1994)