Measuring emotional music experience: Spreading activation and BRECVEMA mechanisms

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562110102
Author(s):  
Juliane Völker
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Spreading Activation ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Music Experience ◽  
Brain Stem Reflexes ◽  
Sad Music

Spreading activation in the cognitive network explains why music is experienced as familiar or likable. It might also be a premise for the emotion-inducing mechanisms of the BRECVEMA framework (Brain stem reflexes, Rhythmic entrainment, Evaluative conditioning, Contagion, Visual imagery, Episodic memory, Musical expectancy, Aesthetic judgment). Both perspectives constitute important aspects of music experience and are influenced by individual differences. In two studies ( n = 125 and n = 153), potential indicators for spreading activation and BRECVEMA mechanisms for single instances of music listening were assessed with a new questionnaire. The results indicated that Typicality of music, Liking, and attentional Engagement underlie spreading activation. The mechanisms Evaluative conditioning and Contagion in unison (Conditioning/Contagion), as well as Visual imagery and Episodic memory could be reliably assessed. Findings revealed that (a) Engagement, Conditioning/Contagion, and Visual imagery increased with musical expertise; (b) spreading activation and mechanisms were stronger when listening to self- rather than pre-selected music; (c) sad music evoked stronger Engagement, Conditioning/Contagion, and Episodic memory when it was self-selected; (d) spreading activation and mechanisms were associated with music empathizing and systemizing and the emotion regulation strategy reappraisal; and finally, (e) regulating sadness with sad music was associated with habitual suppression and stronger Conditioning/Contagion.

The effects of emotionally congruent sad music listening in young adults high in rumination

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562098879
Author(s):  
Joel L Larwood ◽  
Genevieve A Dingle
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Trait Level ◽  
Conditioned Responses ◽  
Sad Music ◽  
Musical Emotion ◽  
Brain Stem Reflex

There is debate as to whether sad music is harmful or helpful when used to regulate emotions. Listeners’ trait level of rumination may influence their responses to sad music during sadness. This study used an online community sample of young adults ( N = 386, 56% female, Mage = 21.89) in an induced sad state to understand the roles of listener rumination and the eight BRECVEMA musical emotion mechanisms (Brain Stem Reflex, Rhythmic Entrainment, Evaluative Conditioning, Contagion, Visual Imagery, Episodic Memory, Musical Expectancy, and Aesthetic Judgment) in determining changes in sadness during listening. Participants increased in sadness after listening to a self-nominated sad song. The increase in sadness observed was additionally moderated by rumination such that higher rumination predicted greater increases in sadness. People high in rumination were additionally more likely to experience musical entrainment, select a song with conditioned responses and associated memories, as well as experience emotional contagion while listening. Importantly, the effect of rumination was not significant when these BRECVEMA variables were added to the model. Results suggested that BRECVEMA mechanisms were more predictive of increases in sadness from pre- to post-listening than trait rumination levels. The findings suggest that attention should be given to individuals’ song choices and associated active BRECVEMA mechanisms in addition to their trait rumination.

When words matter: A cross-cultural perspective on lyrics and their relationship to musical emotions

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562110133
Author(s):  
Gonçalo T Barradas ◽  
Laura S Sakka
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms

Several studies have investigated emotional reactions to instrumental music. However, studies on the effect of lyrics on emotions are limited. Previous studies suggest that the importance of lyrics may vary cross-culturally. The aim of this study was twofold: to investigate the effects of lyrics on aroused emotions and psychological mechanisms with music and to explore whether these differ cross-culturally. Fifty participants from Portugal and Sweden listened to six musical stimuli based on two songs, one representing each culture. These were presented in three versions each: the original, an instrumental, and the instrumental version with lyrics on the screen. The Portuguese and Swedish participants differed notably: the presence of lyrics did not affect listeners’ happiness in neither group as predicted, but did increase sadness, albeit only in the Portuguese group. Lyrics also increased nostalgia for the Portuguese listeners as predicted and surprise-astonishment for the Swedish listeners. Regarding the mechanisms, lyrics increased the activation of episodic memory in both groups, and the activation of evaluative conditioning, contagion, and visual imagery in the Portuguese group. The present study indicates that lyrics have an effect on musical emotions and mechanisms which vary between groups of different cultural backgrounds.

scholarly journals Self-referential false associations: A self-enhanced constructive effect for verbal but not pictorial stimuli

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110097
Author(s):  
Jianqin Wang ◽  
Henry Otgaar ◽  
Mark L Howe ◽  
Sen Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reference Condition ◽  
Spreading Activation ◽  
Critical Lure ◽  
Picture Stimuli ◽  
Own Name ◽  
Self Reference

Memory is considered to be a flexible and reconstructive system. However, there is little experimental evidence demonstrating how associations are falsely constructed in memory, and even less is known about the role of the self in memory construction. We investigated whether false associations involving non-presented stimuli can be constructed in episodic memory and whether the self plays a role in such memory construction. In two experiments, we paired participants’ own names (i.e., self-reference) or the name “Adele” (i.e., other-reference) with words and pictures from Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) lists. We found that (1) participants not only falsely remembered the non-presented lure words and pictures as having been presented, but also misremembered that they were paired with their own name or “Adele,” depending on the referenced person of related DRM lists; and (2) there were more critical lure–self associations constructed in the self-reference condition than critical lure–other associations in the other-reference condition for word but not for picture stimuli. These results suggest a self-enhanced constructive effect that might be driven by both relational and item-specific processing. Our results support the spreading-activation account for constructive episodic memory.

scholarly journals I Get Knocked Down but I Get Up Again: The Effects of Listening to Music When Sad on Young Adults

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel L Larwood ◽  
Genevieve Dingle
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Research Finding ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Regulation Process ◽  
Baseline Levels ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sad Music

*THIS PAPER HAS NOT YET BEEN PEER REVIEWED* Listening to music is a strategy many people use to regulate their emotions, especially sadness. However, there is disagreement about whether listening to music is a healthy way to regulate emotions, with some research finding that sad music worsens a sad state, especially for people high in rumination. To further explore the immediate consequences of music listening when sad 128 young adults (41% male, aged 18 to 25 years) were induced into a sad emotional state prior to random assignment to listening of either self-selected music, experimenter-selected sad music, or no music. Results revealed that listening to either self-selectedor experimenter-selected music led to a decrease in sadness. No difference was found between groups at post-listening. However, participants who listened to self-selected music reported a return to baseline levels of sadness, while this did not occur for participants who listened to experimenter-selected or were in the no music control. Rumination was also measured but did not moderate the impact of music listening on sadness for either musiccondition. Furthermore, there was no impact of rumination on participants’ perceptions of sadness in music. These results support the notion that listening to sad music does not worsen a sad state—even for those high in rumination—although it does appear to slow the emotion regulation process in cases where sad music is not self-selected.

Emotional responses to music: The need to consider underlying mechanisms

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 559-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik N. Juslin ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll
Keyword(s):  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Emotion Induction ◽  
Satisfactory Account ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Brain Stem Reflexes ◽  
Information Focus

AbstractResearch indicates that people value music primarily because of the emotions it evokes. Yet, the notion of musical emotions remains controversial, and researchers have so far been unable to offer a satisfactory account of such emotions. We argue that the study of musical emotions has suffered from a neglect of underlying mechanisms. Specifically, researchers have studied musical emotions without regard to how they were evoked, or have assumed that the emotions must be based on the “default” mechanism for emotion induction, a cognitive appraisal. Here, we present a novel theoretical framework featuring six additional mechanisms through which music listening may induce emotions: (1) brain stem reflexes, (2) evaluative conditioning, (3) emotional contagion, (4) visual imagery, (5) episodic memory, and (6) musical expectancy. We propose that these mechanisms differ regarding such characteristics as their information focus, ontogenetic development, key brain regions, cultural impact, induction speed, degree of volitional influence, modularity, and dependence on musical structure. By synthesizing theory and findings from different domains, we are able to provide the first set of hypotheses that can help researchers to distinguish among the mechanisms. We show that failure to control for the underlying mechanism may lead to inconsistent or non-interpretable findings. Thus, we argue that the new framework may guide future research and help to resolve previous disagreements in the field. We conclude that music evokes emotions through mechanisms that are not unique to music, and that the study of musical emotions could benefit the emotion field as a whole by providing novel paradigms for emotion induction.

scholarly journals Hooked on a Feeling: Influence of Brief Exposure to Familiar Music on Feelings of Emotion in Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 1019-1031
Author(s):  
Alaine E. Reschke-Hernández ◽  
Amy M. Belfi ◽  
Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez ◽  
Daniel Tranel
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Therapeutic Tool ◽  
Impaired Memory ◽  
Post Induction ◽  
Sad Music

Background: Research has indicated that individuals with Alzheimer’s-type dementia (AD) can experience prolonged emotions, even when they cannot recall the eliciting event. Less is known about whether music can modify the emotional state of individuals with AD and whether emotions evoked by music linger in the absence of a declarative memory for the eliciting event. Objective: We examined the effects of participant-selected recorded music on self-reported feelings of emotion in individuals with AD, and whether these feelings persisted irrespective of declarative memory for the emotion-inducing stimuli. Methods: Twenty participants with AD and 19 healthy comparisons (HCs) listened to two 4.5-minute blocks of self-selected music that aimed to induce either sadness or happiness. Participants reported their feelings at baseline and three times post-induction and completed recall and recognition tests for the music selections after each induction. Results: Participants with AD had impaired memory for music selections compared to HCs. Both groups reported elevated sadness and negative affect after listening to sad music and increased happiness and positive affect after listening to happy music, relative to baseline. Sad/negative and happy/positive emotions endured up to 20 minutes post-induction. Conclusion: Brief exposure to music can induce strong and lingering emotions in individuals with AD. These findings extend the intriguing phenomenon whereby lasting emotions can be prompted by stimuli that are not remembered declaratively. Our results underscore the utility of familiar music for inducing emotions in individuals with AD and may ultimately inform strategies for using music listening as a therapeutic tool with this population.

Effect of Music Listening on Frontal EEG Asymmetry

2013 ◽  
Vol 311 ◽  
pp. 502-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Yeh Lee ◽  
Aaron Raymond See ◽  
Shih Chung Chen ◽  
Chih Kuo Liang
Keyword(s):  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Eeg Asymmetry ◽  
Frontal Eeg Asymmetry ◽  
Audio Video ◽  
Sad Music

Frontal EEG asymmetry has been recognized as a useful method in determining emotional states and psychophysiological conditions. For the current research, resting prefrontal EEG was measured before, during and after listening to sad music video. Data were recorded and analyzed using a wireless EEG module with digital results sent via Bluetooth to a remote computer for further analysis. The relative alpha power was utilized to determine EEG asymmetry indexes. The results indicated that even if a person had a stronger right hemisphere in the initial phase a significant shift first occurred during audio-video stimulation and was followed by a further inclination to left EEG asymmetry as measured after the stimulation. Furthermore the current research was able to use prefrontal EEG to produce results that were mostly measured at the frontal lobe. It was also able to provide significant changes in results using audio and video stimulation as to previous experiments that made use of audio stimulation. In the future, more experiments can be conducted to obtain a better understanding of a person’s appreciation or dislike toward a certain video, commercial or other multimedia contents through the aid of convenient EEG module.

scholarly journals Evaluative conditioning as memory-based judgment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Stahl ◽  
Frederik Aust
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Present Approach ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Memory Model ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Attitude Learning

The article proposes a view of evaluative conditioning (EC) as resulting from judgments based on learning instances stored in memory. It is based on the formal episodic memory model MINERVA 2. Additional assumptions specify how the information retrieved from memory is used to inform specific evaluative dependent measures. The present approach goes beyond previous accounts in that it uses a well-specified formal model of episodic memory; it is however more limited in scope as it aims at explaining EC phenomena that do not involve reasoning processes. The article illustrates how the memory-based-judgment view accounts for several empirical findings in the EC literature that are often discussed as evidence for dual-process models of attitude learning. It sketches novel predictions, discusses limitations of the present approach, and identifies challenges and opportunities for its future development.

scholarly journals Engagement and visual imagery in music listening: An exploratory study.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 136-155
Author(s):  
Graziana Presicce ◽  
Freya Bailes
Keyword(s):  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Music Listening

Personalising music for more effective mood induction: Exploring activation, underlying mechanisms, emotional intelligence, and motives in mood regulation

2019 ◽  
pp. 102986491987631
Author(s):  
Juliane Völker
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Mood Induction ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Mood Regulation ◽  
Mental Work ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Brain Stem Reflexes

The present studies investigated the effects of personal (i.e., self-selected) music and music pre-selected by the researcher on the induction of sadness and joy while taking into consideration the influences of perceptual and individual factors in line with a reciprocal-feedback model (RFM). Regarding music perception, spreading activation in the cognitive network triggered by music and the BRECVEMA (Brain stem reflexes, Rhythmic entrainment, Evaluative conditioning, Contagion, Visual imagery, Episodic memory, Musical expectancy, Aesthetic judgement) mechanisms underlying musical emotions were explored using quantitative and qualitative self-reports. For individual factors, trait and ability emotional intelligence and motives in mood regulation were controlled. Results from the pilot study (Study 1, N = 66) confirm that music chosen by participants exerts stronger effects on reported mood, and that sadness and joy are evoked primarily by contagion and episodic memory associated with music. Study 2 ( N = 149) replicated and extended these findings. Reports of a conscious marker for spreading cognitive activation (e.g., familiarity or engagement with the music) was higher when listening to personal music, yet also when inducing joy. When sadness was induced, higher activation was also related to participants’ more frequent reports of BRECVEMA mechanisms. For emotional intelligence, clarity of emotions promotes joy while management of emotions promotes sadness. Emotion recognition impairs induction of both moods. Motives of discharge, mental work, and solace influence inductions of sadness, and diversion influences inductions of joy. Finally, the RFM provides a comprehensive conceptualisation of mood induction, integrating situation, music, and listener.

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