Psych 3890 Music and the Mind Final Mizzou

What are microstructural details?

Small expressive deviations added by performers to make music sound human and expressive

Why are perfectly mechanical performances considered boring?

Because expressive deviations help communicate musical structure and emotion

What is analysis in music performance research?

Studying how performers naturally relate musical structure to expressive performance

What is analysis-by-synthesis?

Experimentally manipulating performances to test how expressive rules affect listener perception

What is the phrase-arch rule?

Music speeds up and gets louder in the middle of phrases and slows down and softens at the end

What is the duration contrast rule?

Long notes are made slightly longer and short notes slightly shorter

What happens when expressive rules are exaggerated too much?

The structure of the music becomes undermined

What is social facilitation?

The tendency to perform better when being watched by others

When is social facilitation strongest?

When the audience is likely to evaluate the performer positively

What does the Yerkes-Dodson Law describe?

Performance is best at moderate levels of arousal

What happens with too little arousal?

Performance becomes weak or lackluster

What happens with too much arousal?

Performance anxiety and mistakes increase

What is explicit monitoring theory?

Overthinking automatic skills disrupts performance

What is distraction theory in performance anxiety?

Intrusive thoughts distract attention away from the task

Why is music performance considered multisensory?

Because it includes both auditory and visual information

How do visual cues affect music perception?

They enhance emotional understanding of the performance

What is one criticism of blind auditions?

They remove visual emotional information from performances

What musical features influence emotion?

Tempo, mode, dynamics, associations, and cultural conventions

What is the cognitivist position?

Listeners recognize emotion in music without actually feeling it

What is the emotivist position?

Music genuinely causes emotional experiences in listeners

What did Lazarus believe about emotion?

Emotion occurs after cognitive appraisal of events

What did William James believe about emotion?

Emotion is the interpretation of physiological responses

What did Damasio believe about emotion and cognition?

Emotion and cognition operate in parallel

What is Cooke’s Language of Music theory?

The idea that musical intervals naturally communicate specific emotions

According to Cooke, what emotion is associated with major intervals?

Joy or triumph

According to Cooke, what emotion is associated with minor intervals?

Sadness

What is Kivy’s contour-convention theory?

Emotion in music comes from both musical contour and cultural conventions

What is contour in Kivy’s theory?

The resemblance between musical features and emotional behavior

What are conventions in Kivy’s theory?

Culturally learned emotional associations attached to music

What is Meyer’s embodied meaning theory?

Musical meaning comes from expectations being fulfilled or violated

What is embodied meaning?

Meaning created through relationships between musical events

What is designated meaning?

Music directly referring to a specific object, character, or idea

What is an example of designated meaning?

Darth Vader’s musical theme

What does Berlyne’s inverted-U theory describe?

People prefer music with moderate complexity

According to Berlyne, what kind of music is least enjoyable?

Music that is too simple or too unpredictable

What did Mandler believe causes musical emotion?

Violations of expectations that create arousal

How does familiarity affect musical complexity tolerance?

Familiar music allows listeners to tolerate more complexity

What are common physical reactions to emotional music?

Chills, goosebumps, and tears

What is piloerection?

Goosebumps caused by emotional arousal

What physiological measures are used in music emotion research?

Heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, pulse, and skin conductance

What does emotivist evidence suggest?

Music creates genuine emotional and physiological responses

What brain systems are activated by emotional music?

Reward, emotion, and auditory brain systems

What is Contrasted Affect Theory?

The theory that fear can become pleasurable because safety realization occurs after the fear response

Who proposed Contrasted Affect Theory?

David Huron

Why might people enjoy scary or distorted music?

The contrast between fear activation and later safety realization creates pleasure

What is Juslin & Västfjäll’s multiple mechanisms theory?

Music evokes emotion through multiple biological and learned mechanisms

What is rhythmic entrainment?

Synchronizing movement or internal rhythms to a musical beat

What is evaluative conditioning?

Emotional associations formed through repeated pairing with contexts

What is episodic memory in music emotion?

Music triggering autobiographical memories

What is the official definition of music therapy?

Clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions with individualized goals by credentialed professionals

How can music therapy help traumatic brain injury patients?

By recruiting broader brain networks to support language recovery

How is music therapy used in NICUs?

To regulate autonomic functioning in premature infants

How is music therapy used with autism?

To support communication, interaction, and positive behavior

How can music help Alzheimer’s or dementia patients?

Familiar music can temporarily improve memory and responsiveness

What criticism is important in music intervention research?

Researchers must determine whether effects are temporary or long-lasting

What did Darwin propose about music origins?

Music may have evolved through sexual selection

How do fruit fly songs differ from human music?

They are genetically programmed, simple, and instinctive

What functions do gibbon songs serve?

Territory marking and pair bonding

What is complex vocal learning?

Learning songs or vocalizations through experience

Which animals besides humans show vocal learning?

Birds, whales, and seals

Why is vocal learning important?

It allows cultural transmission of music

What does cultural transmission mean in music?

Musical structures and songs are passed through social learning

How does birdsong relate to human music?

Both use stable pitches related to the harmonic overtone series

What shared pitch contour do birdsong and human music show?

Falling pitch contours at the ends of phrases

What do similarities between birdsong and human music suggest?

Music structure is partly rooted in biology and acoustics