Effects of visual stimuli on musically-induced chills response

Abstract

Experiences of chills are one of the peak experiences reported in the context of response to art and are experienced by half to two thirds of the population. Previous research on aesthetic chills, a peak emotional response of art appreciation, has listed multiple sensory inputs; however, there exists few studies that investigated how visual information affected musically-induced chills response. The aim of the current master's thesis was to investigate 1) whether related visual stimuli of a musical performance could enhance musically- induced chills responses and 2) whether different type of visual cues have different impact on listeners' emotional reactions and 3) whether there is a difference between individuals towards this musical reward activity. In order to address these questions, this thesis reports two studies: a preliminary online experiment involving 82 participants and a second lab-based experiment in which 54 participants' chill-responses to music were measured using galvanic skin conductance (GSR). Both studies used three types of music presentation modalities. In the preliminary online study, music pieces were presented in audio-only (AO), audio-visual (VO) and video-only (VO) modalities, and in GSR study, audio-only (AO), audio-visual of live orchestra performance, audio-visual with natural scenery were adopted. Results of the preliminary study suggested that for people with high musical reward sensitivity, audio-visual music listening modality resulted in more chills response outcomes, whereas low and average musical reward sensitivity listeners preferred audio-only music listening modality. In the physiological study, participants' self-reported chills response is consistent with the findings in preliminary study; however, number of GSR peaks showed that low musical reward sensitivity listeners showed significantly more chills responses in audio-only listening modality than music with natural scenery, and high musical reward sensitivity listeners showed more chills responses in live performance than natural scenery visual input. It is therefore argued that whether visual components intensify the emotional responses evoked by musical performance is an individual reaction according to listeners' musical reward sensitivity, which contributes to the emotional meanings of music.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English