Empirical Musicology Review: Volume 5, Number 1 (2010)

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https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/44756

Empirical Musicology Review Vol. 5, No. 1, 2010

Issue DOI: https://doi.org/10.18061/1811/44756

Editor's Note
Keller, Peter E. pp. 1-2
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The Effects of Musical Fit on Consumers' Ability to Freely Recall Related Products
Yeoh, Joanne P. S.; North, Adrian C. pp. 3-9
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Fixed Average Spectra of Orchestral Instrument Tones
Plazak, Joseph; Huron, David; Williams, Benjamin pp. 10-17
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Mozart Effect in Musical Fit? A Commentary on Yeoh & North
Schubert, Emery pp. 18-22
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Announcements
Keller, Peter E. pp. 23-25
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Journal home page: http://emusicology.org

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Fixed Average Spectra of Orchestral Instrument Tones
(Empirical Musicology Review, 2010-01) Plazak, Joseph; Huron, David; Williams, Benjamin
The fixed spectrum for an average orchestral instrument tone is presented based on spectral data from the Sandell Harmonic Archive (SHARC). This database contains non-time-variant spectral analyses for 1,338 recorded instrument tones from 23 Western instruments ranging from contrabassoon to piccolo. From these spectral analyses, a grand average was calculated, providing what might be considered an average non-time-variant harmonic spectrum. Each of these tones represents the average of all instruments in the SHARC database capable of producing that pitch. These latter tones better represent common spectral changes with respect to pitch register, and might be regarded as an “average instrument.” Although several caveats apply, an average harmonic tone or instrument may prove useful in analytic and modeling studies. In addition, for perceptual experiments in which non-time-variant stimuli are needed, an average harmonic spectrum may prove to be more ecologically appropriate than common technical waveforms, such as sine tones or pulse trains. Synthesized average tones are available via the web.
Announcements
(Empirical Musicology Review, 2010-01) Keller, Peter E.
Mozart Effect in Musical Fit? A Commentary on Yeoh & North
(Empirical Musicology Review, 2010-01) Schubert, Emery
Musical fit, the congruence between music and product leading to improved response, is presented as an explanation of differences in recall of food items from two cultures. Musical fit predicts that, in this case, more Indian food items would be recalled when Indian music was playing, and more Malay food items would be recalled when Malay music was played. The underlining premise of this prediction is priming (the music primes memories of associated food items, facilitating recall). The testing was performed using three ethnic groups of participants, Indian, Malay, and Chinese. The priming effects were only identified among the Chinese group. A reanalysis of the data presented here indicates that the overall recall of food items is best facilitated by Indian music, regardless of whether the food item is Indian or Malay, and further, each ethnicity reported more items in the Indian music condition. The Mozart effect was also based on the premise of priming activation and was later debunked in favor of an arousal-mood hypothesis. This commentary discusses whether arousal-mood, a more generalized activation leading to improved performance than priming, might better explain the results. While priming and congruence more plausibly explains musical fit than the Mozart effect, the possibility of testing other hypotheses are considered worthwhile.
The Effects of Musical Fit on Consumers' Ability to Freely Recall Related Products
(Empirical Musicology Review, 2010-01) Yeoh, Joanne P. S.; North, Adrian C.
Previous studies have claimed that music can prime the selection of certain products and influence consumers’ propensity to spend because it activates related knowledge of the world and subsequently raises the salience of certain products and behaviours associated with that music. The possibility that music can raise the salience of associated products has not been tested directly, however, and ought to manifest itself through enhanced ability to recall the products in question when associated music is played. Accordingly, this study investigated the impact of musical ‘fit’ on product recall. Participants were asked to list as many Malay and Indian food items as they could while listening to either Malay or Indian music. Among ethnically Chinese participants, more Malay food items were recalled when Malay music was played and more Indian food items were recalled when Indian music was played. Ethnically Malay and Indian participants were more likely to recall food from their own cultures, irrespective of the music played.
Editor's Note
(Empirical Musicology Review, 2010-01) Keller, Peter E.

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