Interpreting Anova for the Understanding of Music - Report Example

Interpreting Anova

Introduction

The purpose of the study is to promote better understanding of how sadness is related to various types of music that individuals listen to through the investigation of felt emotions and perceived emotions. Essentially, the study tends to investigate effects of various types of music on the emotional responses of individuals. The study is focusing on how sad music affects our emotional responses and reasons as to why individuals conceptually choose to listen to sad music. The fundamental aspects of the study stipulate that sad music is conveyed as a soothing fact intended to be listened to only when we are sad, yet it may also evoke positive emotions. The study involved 44 participants who attributed their emotional experiences upon listen to sad music. Ideally, the purpose fulfilled by the study is set to convey the fact that sad music tends to sooth the emotional aches of individuals rather than causing them more pain. The authors state that individuals often wish to avoid negative emotional experiences in their lives. How we often perceive our emotions may be different from how we feel them. Attributes draw from the study reveal that often we listen to sad music to feel positive although we perceive sad music as an implication to negative attributes. The authors hypothesized that felt emotions may not necessarily be corresponding to perceived emotions, especially in responding to music in minor keys. They also hypothesized that when individuals tend to be listening to minor-key music, those with a lot of musical experiences feel more pleasant emotions than what is indicated in their perceptions to the same sad music.

Methods

Participants

The study involved 44 participants (19 males and 25 females) in the mean age of 25.3 years, SD=6.6. Among the participants, 17 of them were professional musicians or level college students who majored in music (the “musician group”; n=17). The other group was composed of working participants or college students not majoring in music (the “non-music group”; n= 27). Participants conceptually signed an informed consent agreement which indicated their agreement of participating in the experiment.

Materials

The materials used comprised of three types of musical excerpts. The pieces of musical stimuli used included: (1) Glinka’s La Separation (F minor), (2) Blumenfeld’s Etude “Sur Mer” (G minor), and (3) Granados’s Allegro de Concerto (C sharp major, excerpt in G major). Granados’s Allegro de Concerto, normally in the key of g major, was transposed into G minor to investigate whether the perceived emotions evoked by sad (minor-key) music was different from felt emotions evoked by the same music. Glinka’s La Separation was transposed into F major and Blumenfeld’s Etude “Sur Mer” into G major. The tempos at which the excerpts were played at included: quarter note= 80 in Glinka’s La Separation, half note = 72 in Blumenfeld’s Etude “Sur Mer”, and quarter mote= 70 in Granados’s Allegro de Concerto. Music familiar to participants was avoided. 62 emotion-related descriptive words were also used in measuring perceived and felt emotions.

Procedure

Individual participants took part in the experiment in a sound-insulated room where that entered and sat across a computer monitor. They each received instructions before signing the consent agreement. The individuals took part in listening to the major and minor key pieces rotationally. They engaged in four tasks. The initial task involved listening to major or minor key pieces then rating using the 62 emotion-related descriptive phrases. They then rated the emotions in the first task. The third task involved rating of the remaining emotion. They then rated the emotion in the third task after listening to a different key of the music from the third task. The participants listened to the different music and evaluated their perceived and felt emotions.

The authors chose to use pieces of music unfamiliar to participants as known pieces of music would have aroused personal memories connected with that music on some of the participants, thus evoking emotions which may influence those memories. The pieces of music unfamiliar to participants resulted to felt emotions experienced by participants while listening to the excerpts rather than from personal memories.

Statistical Analysis

A 2x2x2 ANOVA is a three-way interaction which implies that there is a two-way interaction varying across the levels of another third variable. It is described as a three-way Anova because it analyzes defects of independent variables on the expected outcomes along with the relationship to the outcomes themselves. A 2x2x2 ANOVA is the appropriate analysis to use for the study planned by the authors as it sorts out the 62 emotion-related words and phrases in an essential manner: 2 (perceived/ felt emotions) x (2(major/ minor key) x the 44 participants. ANOVA method divides the authors’ analysis as musical emotion (perceived/ felt) x key (major vs. minor) x musical experience (musicians vs. non-musicians).

Results

A factor analysis was conducted on investigation of the 62 emotion-related descriptive words and phrases. The factor analysis channels the reactions demonstrated by participants to four basic categories simply: tragic emotion (gloomy, meditative, miserable), heightened emotion (overwhelmed, agitated, stimulated), romantic emotion (fascinated, dear, in love), and blithe emotion (merry, animated, feel like dancing).

Factor 1 (Tragic emotion)

The ANOVA revealed significant main effects (for key, musical emotion, and musical experience) for this factor. What it means in saying that these main effects were significant, with respect to tragic emotions is that the main effects were conveyed from the participants’ emotional connection to the tragic experiences relayed by the sad music they listened to. The ANOVA also revealed a significant two-way interaction between key and musical emotion, and the authors ran post hoc tests to understand this interaction. The results of these post hoc tests indicated that the rate of perceived emotions and felt emotions in sad music differed significantly. This implies participants conceptually felt different emotions than what they perceived after listening to sad music. Perceived emotions for tragic emotion were stronger than felt emotions when participants listened to sad music as it connected with their experiences and made allowed them to perceive negative emotions although the sad music made them feel positive from listening to them.

Factor 2 (heightened emotion)

The ANOVA only revealed one significant main effect (for key) for this factor. This main effect tells us that heightened emotions, which includes overwhelming feelings, agitation, and stimulation was highly rated in sad music than in happy music. Essentially, this means that heightened emotions were conveyed by participants after listening to sad music when compared to emotions depicted after listening to happy music (music in a major key).

Factor 3 (romantic emotion)

The ANOVA revealed a significant main effect (for key) for this factor. This main effect tells us that participants perceive and felt same emotions when listening to happy music compered to when listening to sad music. Essentially, happy music aroused similar emotions as to what they perceived yet sad music aroused different emotions from what was perceived. The ANOVA also revealed a significant two-way interaction between key and musical emotion, and the authors ran post hoc tests to understand this interaction. The results of these post hoc tests indicated that the rating of perceived emotions and felt emotions in sad music significantly differed. Felt emotions were rated stronger than perceived emotions for the romantic emotions after participants listened to sad music. Essentially, sad music aroused romantic emotions that were felt and not the negative perceived emotions.

Factor 4 (blithe emotion)

The ANOVA revealed significant main effects (for key and for musical experience) for

this factor. These main effects tell us that felt blithe emotions in sad music was higher than the perceived emotions unlike in happy music where the perceived emotions are higher than felt emotions. Essentially, participants felt increased blithe emotions as sad music reminded them of their experiences unlike happy music which is expected to relay positive aspirations. The ANOVA also revealed a significant two-way interaction between key and musical emotion, and the authors ran post hoc tests to understand this interaction. The results of these post hoc tests indicated that the ratings of perceived emotions and felt emotions in sad music differed significantly. The felt emotions were rated stronger than perceived emotions for blithe emotions in sad music. This was opposite in happy music as participants perceived positive aspects from happy music than from sad music.

Discussion

The authors used 2x2x2 ANOVA in testing their hypothesis which implied that felt emotions do not correspond to what participants emotionally perceived especially when listening to sad music. The results obtained revealed significant two-way interactions among musical and key emotions in romantic, tragic, heightened, and blithe emotions. The post-hoc analyses showed that even tough sad music was perceived as a tragic implication by participants, they actually experienced the tragic emotions on a low degree than expected. The participants felt rather more blithe and romantic emotion than they had had perceived they would feel from listening to sad music. The degree to which participants felt tragic emotions was lower compared to the degree of blithe and romantic emotions felt. The results laid from the study affirm the first hypothesis drawn by the authors. Emotional categories having strong associations with certain keys showed that perceived emotions can be highly rated than the felt emotions.