Affective Priming Music 451A Final Project
The Question Music often makes us feel a certain way. Does this feeling have semantic meaning like the words happy or sad do? Does music convey semantic emotional content?
Previous Studies: 2004 Koelsch investigates language and music. Found an N400 for music primes and semantically unrelated target words.
Previous Studies: 2012 Goerlich study showed negligible results that could be due to the motor response during the N400: mean RT s = 600ms Subjects had to respond as quickly as possible with congruent or incongruent.
Experimental Design Goal To compare N400 between congruent and incongruent primes when a prime is given major or minor, and a probe of happy or sad emoji is displayed. Hypothesis Incongruent stimuli (major+sad face, minor+happy face) elicit an N400 for all listeners. This could indicate melodic priming has semantic emotional content.
Methods Participants: 5 University students aged 20-29, 3 Female and 2 Male, 3 Musician and 2 Non-musician. EEG Recording Procedure: Participant was capped with a 67 electrode cap (standard 10-20 system), seated in a recording room with ear-buds, facing a computer screen showing stimuli. Participants were in the chamber for roughly 1 hour total, as they participated in two experiments. Order was randomized. Stimuli and Tasks: A melody lasting ~3.5 seconds played on piano (27 C Major and 27 possible corresponding C Minor melodies), followed by a happy (3 possible) or sad (3 possible) emoji for 1 second. Some trials had a black screen instead of an emoji and participants were asked to respond with a button click. Trials were separated into 3 blocks, 12 minutes each, for a total recording time of 36 minutes.
Grand Average Results Latency: 400ms Congruent average: Major/happy and Minor/sad Latency: 400ms Incongruent average: Major/sad and Minor/happy
Grand Average Results Difference Latency: 400ms Incongruent Average - Congruent average: (Major/sad + Minor/happy) - (Major/happy + Minor/sad) Small N400 in topo! But not visible in waveform
Grand Average Results
Individual Results: Major Barbara Elena Kunwoo Michael Trang Major Melody Difference Waves
Individual Results: Minor Barbara Elena Kunwoo Michael Trang Minor Melody Difference Waves
Individual Results: BN Congruence (Major/Happy) vs Incongruence (Major/Sad) Congruence (Minor/Sad) vs Incongruence (Minor/Happy)
Individual Results: TN Congruence (Major/Happy) vs Incongruence (Major/Sad) Congruence (Minor/Sad) vs Incongruence (Minor/Happy)
Individual Results: EG Congruence (Major/Happy) vs Incongruence (Major/Sad) Congruence (Minor/Sad) vs Incongruence (Minor/Happy)
Individual Results: KK Congruence (Major/Happy) vs Incongruence (Major/Sad) Congruence (Minor/Sad) vs Incongruence (Minor/Happy)
Individual Results: MM Congruence (Major/Happy) vs Incongruence (Major/Sad) Congruence (Minor/Sad) vs Incongruence (Minor/Happy)
Grand Average of EG, KK, MM Congruence (Major/Happy) vs Incongruence (Major/Sad) Congruence (Minor/Sad) vs Incongruence (Minor/Happy)
Grand Average of EG, KK, MM Incongruence (Major/Sad) - Congruence (Major/Happy) Topography at 400ms Latency Incongruence (Minor/Happy) - Congruence (Minor/Sad) Topography at 400ms Latency
Discussion N400 in major (sad - happy) was greater than N400 in minor (happy - sad) 4 out of 5 subjects showed N400 in major (happy/sad) 4 out of 5 subjects showed N400 in minor (happy/sad) The N400 for minor melody incongruence is low
Discussion Why low N400? Weak melodic primes Prime length of 3.5 seconds may not be enough to induce mood. 3rd (which helps distinguish major from minor) appeared infrequently or too late (not enough priming occurred). All melodies were in the same key. Pitch was the only varying acoustic feature Visual response domination Happy and sad emojis may evoke significant responses that are mutually exclusive to auditory primes
Exploration What s affecting the data? 1. Does the Happy/Sad Visual Response dominate Incongruence/Congruence? 2. Does the Major/ Minor Response dominate?
1. Happy/Sad Visual Response: Grand Average Sad Grand Average: Major/sad and Minor/sad Happy Grand Average: Major/happy and Minor/happy
1. Happy/Sad Visual Response: Grand Average Difference Sad Average - Happy Average: (Major/sad and Minor/sad) - (Major/happy and Minor/happy) The sad emoji evokes a slightly larger negative amplitude than the happy emoji, regardless of melody type (major or minor).
2. Major/Minor Response: Grand Average Major Grand Average: Major/happy + Major/sad Minor Grand Average: Minor/happy + Minor/sad
2. Major/Minor Response: Grand Average Difference Minor Average - Major Average: (Minor/sad and Minor/happy) - (Major/happy and Major/sad) A small amplitude difference around 250ms indicates the minor primes had a slightly stronger effect than major. This is less of a difference than the emojis.
Remediations Vary key so that subjects engage more with melodic context Increase the number of acoustic features (tempo, timbre, harmony) Increase length of melodies for better priming Include more minor tonality (3rd, 6th, 7th) Use soundtrack music instead to convey emotional content Use human faces instead of emojis Use pos/neg words associated with happy (e.g. joy ) or sad (e.g. dark )
References Goerlich, K.S., Witteman, J., Schiller, N.O., Van Heuven, V.J., Aleman, A., & Martens, S. (2012). The nature of affective priming in music and speech. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 24(8), 1725 41. Koelsch, S., Kasper, E., Sammler, D., Schulze, K., Gunter, T., & Friederici, A.D. (2004). Music, language, and meaning: brain signatures of semantic processing. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 302-307.