Hearing, seeing, liking: The effects of audio-visual listening conditions on perceptual ratings

Abstract

This study investigates whether listening to an excerpt of music in audio-only or audio-video contexts affects perceptual ratings, and what the relationship of the context presentation is to perceptual ratings. Participants listened to music in audio-only and audio-video contexts and completed a survey with self-reported ratings for familiarity, emotional and mental engagement, and likability. Results suggest there was no effect of audio-only or audio-visual presentation on perceptual ratings. This conclusion is similar to work done by Huang and Krumhansl (2011). Both emotional engagement and mental engagement had strong correlations with likability ratings. Emotional ratings had a slightly larger effect than mental ratings in the audio-only condition, but results are mixed in the video condition. This suggests a need for closer examination of the emotional and mental rating categories and their relationship to likability.