Abstract
The inverted U hypothesis in music predicts that listeners prefer intermediate levels of complexity. However, the shape of the liking response to harmonic complexity and the effect of musicianship remains unclear. Here, we tested whether the relationship between liking and harmonic complexity in single chords shows an inverted U shape and whether this U shape is different for musicians and non-musicians. We recorded these groups’ liking ratings for four levels of harmonic complexity, indexed by their level of acoustic roughness, as well as several measures of inter-individual difference. Results showed that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between harmonic complexity and liking in both musicians and non-musicians, but that the shape of the U is different for the two groups. Non-musicians’ U is more left-skewed, with peak liking for low harmonic complexity, while musicians’ U is more right-skewed, with highest ratings for medium and low complexity. Furthermore, musicians who showed greater liking for medium compared to low complexity chords reported higher levels of active musical engagement and higher levels of openness to experience. This suggests that a combination of practical musical experience and personality is reflected in musicians’ inverted U-shaped preference response to harmonic complexity in chords.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Artikelnummer | e0281057 |
| Tidsskrift | PLOS ONE |
| Vol/bind | 18 |
| Udgave nummer | 2 |
| Antal sider | 16 |
| ISSN | 1932-6203 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2. feb. 2023 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:The Center for Music in the Brain is funded by the Danish Research Foundation [DNRF 117] https://dg.dk/en/. This funding supported the research of MW, TM, RB and PV. VP is funded by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [NSERC 2021-04026] https:// www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Ida Nordkvist Permin for help in collecting the data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Witek et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.