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The Repeated Recording Illusion: The Effects of Extrinsic and Individual Difference Factors on Musical Judgments

University of California Press
Music Perception: an interdisciplinary journal
Authors:
Manuel Anglada-Tort at Goldsmiths, University of London
Manuel Anglada-Tort
Daniel Müllensiefen at Goldsmiths, University of London
Daniel Müllensiefen
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Abstract

The repeated recording illusion refers to the phenomenon in which listeners are under the impression that they hear different musical stimuli while they are in fact identical. This phenomenon has not yet been studied systematically. Thus, the present paper aims to construct an experimental paradigm to enable the systematic measurement of the repeated recording illusion, investigating individual difference factors that contribute to it as well as extrinsic factors responsible for differences in musical judgements when the acoustic input remains the same. Seventy-two participants were misled to think that they had heard three different musical performances of an original piece when in fact they were exposed to the same repeated recording. Each time, the recording was accompanied by a different text suggesting a low, medium or high prestige of the performer. Most participants (75 %) believed that they had heard different musical performances. High levels of neuroticism and openness made it significantly more likely that an individual would fall for the illusion. Musicians were not any more or any less susceptible to the illusion than nonmusicians. For participants who fell for the illusion, the explicit prestige texts influenced evaluations of the music significantly. The effect of repeated exposure was only significant in the more familiar music condition. These results suggest that musical judgements are sometimes not based on musical cues but are influenced by factors that do not depend on the music itself. The repeated recording illusion can constitute a paradigm for investigating psychological biases and individual differences in aesthetic and musical judgements because the illusion allows for the study of their effects while the music remains the same. Results are interpreted within Tversky and Kahneman’s framework of judgements and decision-making. Pre-press manuscript (accepted in 2017, Music Perception, http://mp.ucpress.edu)
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THE REPEATED RECORDING ILLUSION:THE EFFECTS OF EXTRINSIC
AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE FACTORS ON MUSICAL JUDGMENTS
MANUEL ANGLADA-TORT &DANIEL MU
¨LLENSIEFEN
Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United
Kingdom
T
HE REPEATED RECORDING ILLUSION REFERS TO
the phenomenon in which listeners believe to hear
different musical stimuli while they are in fact identical.
The present paper aims to construct an experimental
paradigm to enable the systematic measurement of this
phenomenon, investigating potentially related extrinsic
and individual difference factors. Participants were told
to listen to ‘‘different’’ musical performances of an orig-
inal piece when in fact they were exposed to the same
repeated recording. Each time, the recording was
accompanied by a text suggesting a low, medium, or
high prestige of the performer. Most participants
(75%) believed that they had heard different musical
performances. Participants with high levels of neuroti-
cism and openness were significantly more likely to fall
for the illusion. While the explicit information pre-
sented with the music influenced participants’ ratings
significantly, the effect of repeated exposure was only
significant in the more familiar music condition. These
results suggest that like many other human judgments,
evaluations of music also rely on cognitive biases and
heuristics that do not depend on the stimuli themselves.
The repeated recording illusion can constitute a useful
paradigm for investigating nonmusical factors because
it allows for the study of their effects while the music
remains the same.
Received: September 22, 2016, accepted February 24,
2017.
Key words: aesthetics, individual differences, explicit
information, music performance, judgments and
preferences
I
N
1977,
THE
G
ERMAN RADIO STATION
WDR 3
conducted an audience participation experiment
during a live program (see the description in Behne,
1987). The radio broadcaster misled the audience to
think that they would hear three different performances
ofthesameexcerptofBruckner’sSymphonyNo.4,
providing brief information about three different con-
ductors (Karl Bo¨hm, Leonard Bernstein, and Herbert
von Karajan) just before each recording was played.
However, the radio broadcaster played the same record-
ing three times. The radio station received 536 calls.
81.7%of the callers were misled and reported differ-
ences between the identical music recordings. Only the
remaining 18.3%of the listeners who called in reported
that there were no differences between the three perfor-
mances. Nevertheless, we note that the audience partic-
ipation experiment had several shortcomings, such as
a lack of control over experimental conditions and
a potential sampling bias for those listeners who
believed they had heard different musical performances
to call the radio station. Therefore, one of the main
motivations of the present paper was the replication
of this phenomenon in an experimental setting.
We will refer to this phenomenon, where listeners are
under the impression that they hear different musical
performances while in fact they are identical, as the
repeated recording illusion. Duerksen (1972) was
amongstthefirstacademicstudiestouseasimilar
approach. He played two tape recordings of an identical
piano performance to music major and nonmusic major
students. Participants were told that one performance
was by an eminent professional pianist and the other
one by a student. Both groups rated technical and musi-
cal characteristics of the music recording consistently
lower when told the performance was by a student than
when told it was by a professional. However, Duerksen
(1972) merely attributed the findings to an effect of
expectations and did not investigate whether partici-
pants believed that they had heard the same or different
musical performances.
There are a number of studies that used similar exper-
imental paradigms, presenting participants with identi-
cal recordings in succession (Behne & Wo¨llner, 2011;
Cavitt, 1997, 2002; Elliott, 1995; Griffiths, 2008; Juch-
niewicz, 2008; Radocy, 1976; Silvey, 2009). The main
purpose of these studies was to investigate nonmusical
factors that influence evaluations of musical perfor-
mances, such as the effect of expectations (Cavitt,
1997, 2002; Duerksen, 1972), authority (Radocy,
1976), musicians’ body movements (Behne & Wo¨llner,
Music Perception,VOLUME 35, ISSUE 1, PP. 94–117, ISSN 0730-7829, ELECTRONIC ISSN 1533-8312. ©2017 BY THE R EGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.PLEASE DIRECT ALL REQUESTS FOR PERMISSION TO PHOTOCOPY OR REPRODUCE ARTICLE CONTENT THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS’S
REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS WEB PAGE,HTTP://WWW.UCPRESS.EDU/JOURNALS.PHP?P¼REPRINTS. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/MP.2017.35.1.94
94 Manuel Anglada-Tort & Daniel Mu¨llensiefen
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... Our finding showing enhanced music liking after analytical knowledge acquisition also aligns with and extends previous evidence on the influential role of source information in aesthetic evaluation (e.g., Anglada-Tort & Müllensiefen, 2017;Anglada-Tort et al., 2019). Importantly, we reveal that analytical knowledge targeting core aspects of the music has a greater appreciative effect than historical knowledge, highlighting the significance of this type of knowledge distinction. ...
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People possessing musical knowledge tend to enjoy music more, but the linkage remains to be determined. Based on the shared affective motion experience model for music appreciation, we hypothesized that acquiring musical knowledge about the music itself, for example, an analytical understanding of music elements and the related emotional expressions, would increase music liking. To test the hypothesis, we asked 48 participants to learn analytical or historical information about a piece of music by watching a pre‐recorded teaching video. Learners' physiological responses, such as skin conductance and heart rate, were recorded during learning. The increase of music liking was observed after both types of knowledge acquisition, but more so for analytical knowledge. Notably, acquiring analytical knowledge made learners' skin conductance more similar, indicating the alignment of physiological responses. This physiological similarity, correlated with analytical knowledge similarity, could mediate the effect of knowledge acquisition on music liking. In sum, this study reveals the impact of analytical knowledge on music enjoyment and the associated neurophysiological mechanism. It extends the theoretical framework of shared affective motion experience to explain how musical knowledge influences music appreciation.
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Humans are the only species capable of experiencing pleasure from esthetic stimuli, such as art and music. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a critical role in esthetic judgments, both in music and in visual art. In the last decade, non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been increasingly employed to shed light on the causal role of different brain regions contributing to esthetic appreciation. In Experiment #1, musician (N = 20) and non-musician (N = 20) participants were required to judge musical stimuli in terms of “liking” and “emotions”. No significant differences between groups were found, although musicians were slower than non-musicians in both tasks, likely indicating a more analytic judgment, due to musical expertise. Experiment #2 investigated the putative causal role of the left dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex (DLPFC) in the esthetic appreciation of music, by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Unlike previous findings in visual art, no significant effects of tDCS were found, suggesting that stimulating the left DLPFC is not enough to affect the esthetic appreciation of music, although this conclusion is based on negative evidence.
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... Programming also influences the evaluation of music (e.g. liking or virtuosity) (Anglada-Tort & Müllensiefen, 2017;Fischinger et al., 2020) and perception of its basic characteristics (Chapman, 1981;North & Hargreaves, 2010;Fischinger et al., 2020). The typical atmosphere of a classical concert hall as a priming or framing factor of music experience has not been analyzed to a comprehensive extent so far . ...
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Digital Concert Experience (DCE) is a research project designed and conducted to contribute to a better understanding of audience experience in online streams of Western classical music in ecologically valid settings. Based on an online survey, a latent profile analysis identified three different audience segments of classical concert streams. These are differentiated by different preferences for stream characteristics. In a subsequent experiment, participants watched one out of four different stream variations and were asked to rate different aspects of their concert experience. Seven main dimensions of concert experience were derived from the questionnaire answers and subsequently analyzed with respect to presented stream variations. Concert streams were found to have the potential to evoke high appreciation of music, but to evoke lower degrees of emotional and immersive experience, according to our results. Social interaction opportunities available during the stream led to increased feelings of social connection. Additional information about a certain piece in the programme had a strong effect on the understanding of it. Moreover, we observed differentiated forms of concert experience within each preference group dependent on presented stream variation. We close the chapter by providing an outlook on our Experimental Concert Research (ECR) project, which aims to holistically explore the concert experience in conventional live concerts with physical co-presence of musicians and audience in an ecologically valid way. Both projects contribute to the empirical study of the classical concert experience with regard to current challenges of classical music in the cultural sector.
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