Jonna Vuoskoski | University of Oslo (original) (raw)

Papers by Jonna Vuoskoski

Musicae Scientiae

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Psychology of Music, Jan 1, 2010

The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music us... more The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music using two different theoretical frameworks: the discrete emotion model, and the dimensional model of affect. A secondary aim was to introduce a new, improved set of stimuli for the study of music-mediated emotions. A large pilot study established a set of 110 film music excerpts, half were moderately and highly representative examples of five discrete emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness and tenderness), and the other half moderate and high examples of the six extremes of three bipolar dimensions (valence, energy arousal and tension arousal). These excerpts were rated in a listening experiment by 116 non-musicians. All target emotions of highly representative examples in both conceptual sets were discriminated by self-ratings. Linear mapping techniques between the discrete and dimensional models revealed a high correspondence along two central dimensions that can be labelled as valence and arousal, and the three dimensions could be reduced to two without significantly reducing the goodness of fit. The major difference between the discrete and categorical models concerned the poorer resolution of the discrete model in characterizing emotionally ambiguous examples. The study offers systematically structured and rich stimulus material for exploring emotional processing.

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Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Nov 15, 2013

In musical performance, bodily gestures play an important role in communicating expressive intent... more In musical performance, bodily gestures play an important role in communicating expressive intentions to audiences. Although previous studies have demonstrated that visual information can have an effect on the perceived expressivity of musical performances, the investigation of audiovisual interactions has been held back by the technical difficulties associated with the generation of controlled, mismatching stimuli. With the present study, we aimed to address this issue by utilizing a novel method in order to generate controlled, balanced stimuli that comprised both matching and mismatching bimodal combinations of different expressive intentions. The aim of Experiment 1 was to investigate the relative contributions of auditory and visual kinematic cues in the perceived expressivity of piano performances, and in Experiment 2 we explored possible crossmodal interactions in the perception of auditory and visual expressivity. The results revealed that although both auditory and visual kinematic cues contribute significantly to the perception of overall expressivity, the effect of visual kinematic cues appears to be somewhat stronger. These results also provide preliminary evidence of crossmodal interactions in the perception of auditory and visual expressivity. In certain performance conditions, visual cues had an effect on the ratings of auditory expressivity, and auditory cues had a small effect on the ratings of visual expressivity.

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Psychology of Music, Sep 30, 2013

Little is known about how extramusical, contextual information about a piece of music influences ... more Little is known about how extramusical, contextual information about a piece of music influences the emotions induced by that piece. The present study aimed to investigate this question by providing two groups of participants (both n = 30) with two different descriptions regarding the original context of a sad-sounding piece of film music; a description of a concentration camp scene or a description of a nature documentary. The results of these two groups were compared to previously collected data (N = 60), where participants listened to either the same, sad-sounding piece of music without a description, or to neutral-sounding music. The induced emotions were measured as objectively as possible using indirect memory and judgment tasks. The results suggest that contextual information about a musical piece may indeed influence the emotional effects of that piece, as the sad narrative description appeared to intensify the sadness induced by the sad-sounding piece. The narrative descriptions may have enhanced emotion induction via the visual imagery mechanism (suggested by Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008), as 80% of participants in both groups reported thinking about imagery related to the narrative descriptions provided.

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Although people generally avoid negative emotional experiences in general, they often enjoy sadne... more Although people generally avoid negative emotional experiences in general, they often enjoy sadness portrayed in music and other arts. The present study investigated what kinds of subjective emotional experiences are induced in listeners by sad music, and whether the tendency to enjoy sad music is associated with particular personality traits. One hundred forty-eight participants listened to 16 music excerpts and rated their emotional responses. As expected, sadness was the most salient emotion experienced in response to sad excerpts. However, other more positive and complex emotions such as nostalgia, peacefulness, and wonder were also evident. Furthermore, two personality traits – Openness to Experience and Empathy – were associated with liking for sad music and with the intensity of emotional responses induced by sad music, suggesting that aesthetic appreciation and empathetic engagement play a role in the enjoyment of sad music.

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The present study addressed music's disputed ability to induce genuine sadness in listeners by in... more The present study addressed music's disputed ability to induce genuine sadness in listeners by investigating whether listening to sad music can induce sadness-related effects on memory and judgment. Related aims were to explore how the different mechanisms of music-induced emotions are involved in sadness induced by familiar, self-selected music and unfamiliar, experimenter-selected music, and whether the susceptibility to music-induced sadness is associated with trait empathy. One hundred twenty participants were randomly assigned into four conditions with different tasks: listening to unfamiliar sad or neutral music, or to self-selected sad music, or recalling a sad autobiographical event and writing about it. The induced affective states were measured indirectly using a word recall task and a judgment task where participants rated the emotions expressed by pictures depicting facial expressions. The results indicate that listening to sad music can indeed induce changes in emotion-related memory and judgment. However, this effect depends, to some extent, on the music's relevance to the listener, as well as on the personality attributes of the listener. Trait empathy contributed to the susceptibility to sadness induced by unfamiliar music, while autobiographical memories contributed to sadness induced by self-selected music.

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Yksilöllisten erojen merkitys musiikillisten emootioiden …, Jan 1, 2012

The primary aim of this work was to investigate how listener attributes such as personality, empa... more The primary aim of this work was to investigate how listener attributes such as personality, empathy, and mood contribute to different emotional phenomena in the context of music. Predictions arising from personality and emotion theories were applied to music-related emotional phenomena, and tested using methods of experimental psychology. The emotional phenomena under investigation were perceived emotions, felt emotions, and preference for music expressing different emotions. A related aim was to systematically compare the applicability of different emotion models in the measurement of emotions expressed and induced by music. The work comprises five publications, each investigating a different aspect of the main aims. The findings suggest that personality, mood, and empathy contribute notably to individual differences in music-related emotional phenomena. Temporary mood was reliably associated with mood-congruent biases in ratings of perceived emotions, while personality traits correlated with preference ratings for music excerpts expressing different emotions. In the case of music-induced emotions, both mood and personality were associated with the intensity of emotional responses evoked by different types of excerpts, whereas trait empathy contributed to the susceptibility to music-induced sadness. Regarding the results of the emotion model comparisons, it is concluded that the dimensional model of affect may provide the most coherent and reliable ratings in studies where varied musical stimuli are used. Implications for future studies are raised concerning the significance of individual differences in musical contexts, as well as the selection of an appropriate emotion model for the study of emotions represented and induced by music.

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Most previous studies investigating music-induced emotions have applied emotion models developed ... more Most previous studies investigating music-induced emotions have applied emotion models developed in other fields to the domain of music. The aim of this study was to compare the applicability of music-specific and general emotion models – namely the Geneva Emotional Music Scale (GEMS), and the discrete and dimensional emotion models – in the assessment of music-induced emotions. A related aim was to explore the role of individual difference variables (such as personality and mood) in music-induced emotions, and to discover whether some emotion models reflect these individual differences more strongly than others. One hundred and forty-eight participants listened to 16 film music excerpts and rated the emotional responses evoked by the music excerpts. Intraclass correlations and Cronbach alphas revealed that the overall consistency of ratings was the highest in the case of the dimensional model. The dimensional model also outperformed the other two models in the discrimination of music excerpts, and principal component analysis revealed that 89.9% of the variance in the mean ratings of all the scales (in all three models) was accounted for by two principal components that could be labelled as valence and arousal. Personality-related differences were the most pronounced in the case of the discrete emotion model. Personality, mood, and the emotion model used were also associated with the intensity of experienced emotions. Implications for future music and emotion studies are raised concerning the selection of an appropriate emotion model when measuring music-induced emotions.

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Neuroimaging studies investigating the processing of emotions have traditionally considered varia... more Neuroimaging studies investigating the processing of emotions have traditionally considered variance between subjects as statistical noise. However, according to behavioural studies, individual differences in emotional processing appear to be an inherent part of the process itself. Temporary mood states as well as stable personality traits have been shown to influence the processing of emotions, causing trait- and mood-congruent biases. The primary aim of this study was to explore how listeners’ personality and mood are reflected in their evaluations of discrete emotions represented by music. A related aim was to investigate the role of personality in music preferences. An experiment was carried out where 67 participants evaluated 50 music excerpts in terms of perceived emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and tenderness) and preference. Current mood was associated with mood-congruent biases in the evaluation of emotions represented by music, but extraversion moderated the degree of mood-congruence. Personality traits were strongly connected with preference ratings, and the correlations reflected the trait-congruent patterns obtained in prior studies investigating self-referential emotional processing. Implications for future behavioural and neuroimaging studies on music and emotions are raised.

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The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music us... more The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music using two different theoretical frameworks: the discrete emotion model, and the dimensional model of affect. A secondary aim was to introduce a new, improved set of stimuli for the study of music-mediated emotions. A large pilot study established a set of 110 film music excerpts, half were moderately and highly representative examples of five discrete emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness and tenderness), and the other half moderate and high examples of the six extremes of three bipolar dimensions (valence, energy arousal and tension arousal). These excerpts were rated in a listening experiment by 116 non-musicians. All target emotions of highly representative examples in both conceptual sets were discriminated by self-ratings. Linear mapping techniques between the discrete and dimensional models revealed a high correspondence along two central dimensions that can be labelled as valence and arousal, and the three dimensions could be reduced to two without significantly reducing the goodness of fit. The major difference between the discrete and categorical models concerned the poorer resolution of the discrete model in characterizing emotionally ambiguous examples. The study offers systematically structured and rich stimulus material for exploring emotional processing.

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Psychology of Music, Jan 1, 2012

Musical preferences are typically determined by asking participants to indicate their favourite m... more Musical preferences are typically determined by asking participants to indicate their favourite musical genres. These genre-based measures have some considerable pitfalls, since specific pieces of music in a genre might be liked more than the genre itself, and finding consensus to define a genre is often a challenging task. The aims of the present study were to (1) assess how effective genre-based measures are at identifying musical preferences, by comparing them to free responses; (2) demonstrate how the fit can be improved between the genre-based measures and sampled population; and (3) suggest and evaluate methods that use lists of liked and disliked artists to define musical preferences. Two surveys (n = 346 and n = 861) were administered to a university population. Both surveys contained modified versions of the STOMP (Short Test On Musical Preferences, Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003), together with open questions about music that was liked and disliked. We found that for 29% of the individuals, the genre-based measures did not successfully account for their musical preferences. A number of improvements are suggested to optimize the measures. Additionally, we introduce the Artist-based Musical Preferences (AMP) as a more ecologically valid instrument to assess musical preferences.

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Music performance anxiety can be considered a common problem, as approximately one third of profe... more Music performance anxiety can be considered a common problem, as approximately one third of professional musicians suffer from severe performance anxiety. If the underlying causes of performance anxiety would be known better, this problem could be tackled in the early stages of musical training. The aim of this study was to examine the role of personality, self-esteem, and perfectionism in music performance anxiety. The participants were 62 music students from the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. The data was collected using an online questionnaire, which comprised the following measures: a music performance anxiety measure (PAQ; Cox & Kenardy 1993), a personality measure (BFI; John & Srivastava 1999), a self-esteem measure (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; Rosenberg 1965), and a perfectionism measure (MPS; Frost et al. 1990). Regression analysis revealed that low self-esteem and certain dimensions of perfectionism (high doubts about actions and low personal standards) were significant predictors of high performance anxiety. The results suggest that positive experiences and encouragement should be emphasized in educational practices. Performance anxiety and anxiety-related problems could be prevented and reduced by building up music students’ self-esteem.

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Musicae Scientiae

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Psychology of Music, Jan 1, 2010

The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music us... more The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music using two different theoretical frameworks: the discrete emotion model, and the dimensional model of affect. A secondary aim was to introduce a new, improved set of stimuli for the study of music-mediated emotions. A large pilot study established a set of 110 film music excerpts, half were moderately and highly representative examples of five discrete emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness and tenderness), and the other half moderate and high examples of the six extremes of three bipolar dimensions (valence, energy arousal and tension arousal). These excerpts were rated in a listening experiment by 116 non-musicians. All target emotions of highly representative examples in both conceptual sets were discriminated by self-ratings. Linear mapping techniques between the discrete and dimensional models revealed a high correspondence along two central dimensions that can be labelled as valence and arousal, and the three dimensions could be reduced to two without significantly reducing the goodness of fit. The major difference between the discrete and categorical models concerned the poorer resolution of the discrete model in characterizing emotionally ambiguous examples. The study offers systematically structured and rich stimulus material for exploring emotional processing.

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Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Nov 15, 2013

In musical performance, bodily gestures play an important role in communicating expressive intent... more In musical performance, bodily gestures play an important role in communicating expressive intentions to audiences. Although previous studies have demonstrated that visual information can have an effect on the perceived expressivity of musical performances, the investigation of audiovisual interactions has been held back by the technical difficulties associated with the generation of controlled, mismatching stimuli. With the present study, we aimed to address this issue by utilizing a novel method in order to generate controlled, balanced stimuli that comprised both matching and mismatching bimodal combinations of different expressive intentions. The aim of Experiment 1 was to investigate the relative contributions of auditory and visual kinematic cues in the perceived expressivity of piano performances, and in Experiment 2 we explored possible crossmodal interactions in the perception of auditory and visual expressivity. The results revealed that although both auditory and visual kinematic cues contribute significantly to the perception of overall expressivity, the effect of visual kinematic cues appears to be somewhat stronger. These results also provide preliminary evidence of crossmodal interactions in the perception of auditory and visual expressivity. In certain performance conditions, visual cues had an effect on the ratings of auditory expressivity, and auditory cues had a small effect on the ratings of visual expressivity.

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Psychology of Music, Sep 30, 2013

Little is known about how extramusical, contextual information about a piece of music influences ... more Little is known about how extramusical, contextual information about a piece of music influences the emotions induced by that piece. The present study aimed to investigate this question by providing two groups of participants (both n = 30) with two different descriptions regarding the original context of a sad-sounding piece of film music; a description of a concentration camp scene or a description of a nature documentary. The results of these two groups were compared to previously collected data (N = 60), where participants listened to either the same, sad-sounding piece of music without a description, or to neutral-sounding music. The induced emotions were measured as objectively as possible using indirect memory and judgment tasks. The results suggest that contextual information about a musical piece may indeed influence the emotional effects of that piece, as the sad narrative description appeared to intensify the sadness induced by the sad-sounding piece. The narrative descriptions may have enhanced emotion induction via the visual imagery mechanism (suggested by Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008), as 80% of participants in both groups reported thinking about imagery related to the narrative descriptions provided.

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Although people generally avoid negative emotional experiences in general, they often enjoy sadne... more Although people generally avoid negative emotional experiences in general, they often enjoy sadness portrayed in music and other arts. The present study investigated what kinds of subjective emotional experiences are induced in listeners by sad music, and whether the tendency to enjoy sad music is associated with particular personality traits. One hundred forty-eight participants listened to 16 music excerpts and rated their emotional responses. As expected, sadness was the most salient emotion experienced in response to sad excerpts. However, other more positive and complex emotions such as nostalgia, peacefulness, and wonder were also evident. Furthermore, two personality traits – Openness to Experience and Empathy – were associated with liking for sad music and with the intensity of emotional responses induced by sad music, suggesting that aesthetic appreciation and empathetic engagement play a role in the enjoyment of sad music.

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The present study addressed music's disputed ability to induce genuine sadness in listeners by in... more The present study addressed music's disputed ability to induce genuine sadness in listeners by investigating whether listening to sad music can induce sadness-related effects on memory and judgment. Related aims were to explore how the different mechanisms of music-induced emotions are involved in sadness induced by familiar, self-selected music and unfamiliar, experimenter-selected music, and whether the susceptibility to music-induced sadness is associated with trait empathy. One hundred twenty participants were randomly assigned into four conditions with different tasks: listening to unfamiliar sad or neutral music, or to self-selected sad music, or recalling a sad autobiographical event and writing about it. The induced affective states were measured indirectly using a word recall task and a judgment task where participants rated the emotions expressed by pictures depicting facial expressions. The results indicate that listening to sad music can indeed induce changes in emotion-related memory and judgment. However, this effect depends, to some extent, on the music's relevance to the listener, as well as on the personality attributes of the listener. Trait empathy contributed to the susceptibility to sadness induced by unfamiliar music, while autobiographical memories contributed to sadness induced by self-selected music.

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Yksilöllisten erojen merkitys musiikillisten emootioiden …, Jan 1, 2012

The primary aim of this work was to investigate how listener attributes such as personality, empa... more The primary aim of this work was to investigate how listener attributes such as personality, empathy, and mood contribute to different emotional phenomena in the context of music. Predictions arising from personality and emotion theories were applied to music-related emotional phenomena, and tested using methods of experimental psychology. The emotional phenomena under investigation were perceived emotions, felt emotions, and preference for music expressing different emotions. A related aim was to systematically compare the applicability of different emotion models in the measurement of emotions expressed and induced by music. The work comprises five publications, each investigating a different aspect of the main aims. The findings suggest that personality, mood, and empathy contribute notably to individual differences in music-related emotional phenomena. Temporary mood was reliably associated with mood-congruent biases in ratings of perceived emotions, while personality traits correlated with preference ratings for music excerpts expressing different emotions. In the case of music-induced emotions, both mood and personality were associated with the intensity of emotional responses evoked by different types of excerpts, whereas trait empathy contributed to the susceptibility to music-induced sadness. Regarding the results of the emotion model comparisons, it is concluded that the dimensional model of affect may provide the most coherent and reliable ratings in studies where varied musical stimuli are used. Implications for future studies are raised concerning the significance of individual differences in musical contexts, as well as the selection of an appropriate emotion model for the study of emotions represented and induced by music.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Most previous studies investigating music-induced emotions have applied emotion models developed ... more Most previous studies investigating music-induced emotions have applied emotion models developed in other fields to the domain of music. The aim of this study was to compare the applicability of music-specific and general emotion models – namely the Geneva Emotional Music Scale (GEMS), and the discrete and dimensional emotion models – in the assessment of music-induced emotions. A related aim was to explore the role of individual difference variables (such as personality and mood) in music-induced emotions, and to discover whether some emotion models reflect these individual differences more strongly than others. One hundred and forty-eight participants listened to 16 film music excerpts and rated the emotional responses evoked by the music excerpts. Intraclass correlations and Cronbach alphas revealed that the overall consistency of ratings was the highest in the case of the dimensional model. The dimensional model also outperformed the other two models in the discrimination of music excerpts, and principal component analysis revealed that 89.9% of the variance in the mean ratings of all the scales (in all three models) was accounted for by two principal components that could be labelled as valence and arousal. Personality-related differences were the most pronounced in the case of the discrete emotion model. Personality, mood, and the emotion model used were also associated with the intensity of experienced emotions. Implications for future music and emotion studies are raised concerning the selection of an appropriate emotion model when measuring music-induced emotions.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Neuroimaging studies investigating the processing of emotions have traditionally considered varia... more Neuroimaging studies investigating the processing of emotions have traditionally considered variance between subjects as statistical noise. However, according to behavioural studies, individual differences in emotional processing appear to be an inherent part of the process itself. Temporary mood states as well as stable personality traits have been shown to influence the processing of emotions, causing trait- and mood-congruent biases. The primary aim of this study was to explore how listeners’ personality and mood are reflected in their evaluations of discrete emotions represented by music. A related aim was to investigate the role of personality in music preferences. An experiment was carried out where 67 participants evaluated 50 music excerpts in terms of perceived emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and tenderness) and preference. Current mood was associated with mood-congruent biases in the evaluation of emotions represented by music, but extraversion moderated the degree of mood-congruence. Personality traits were strongly connected with preference ratings, and the correlations reflected the trait-congruent patterns obtained in prior studies investigating self-referential emotional processing. Implications for future behavioural and neuroimaging studies on music and emotions are raised.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music us... more The primary aim of the present study was to systematically compare perceived emotions in music using two different theoretical frameworks: the discrete emotion model, and the dimensional model of affect. A secondary aim was to introduce a new, improved set of stimuli for the study of music-mediated emotions. A large pilot study established a set of 110 film music excerpts, half were moderately and highly representative examples of five discrete emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness and tenderness), and the other half moderate and high examples of the six extremes of three bipolar dimensions (valence, energy arousal and tension arousal). These excerpts were rated in a listening experiment by 116 non-musicians. All target emotions of highly representative examples in both conceptual sets were discriminated by self-ratings. Linear mapping techniques between the discrete and dimensional models revealed a high correspondence along two central dimensions that can be labelled as valence and arousal, and the three dimensions could be reduced to two without significantly reducing the goodness of fit. The major difference between the discrete and categorical models concerned the poorer resolution of the discrete model in characterizing emotionally ambiguous examples. The study offers systematically structured and rich stimulus material for exploring emotional processing.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Psychology of Music, Jan 1, 2012

Musical preferences are typically determined by asking participants to indicate their favourite m... more Musical preferences are typically determined by asking participants to indicate their favourite musical genres. These genre-based measures have some considerable pitfalls, since specific pieces of music in a genre might be liked more than the genre itself, and finding consensus to define a genre is often a challenging task. The aims of the present study were to (1) assess how effective genre-based measures are at identifying musical preferences, by comparing them to free responses; (2) demonstrate how the fit can be improved between the genre-based measures and sampled population; and (3) suggest and evaluate methods that use lists of liked and disliked artists to define musical preferences. Two surveys (n = 346 and n = 861) were administered to a university population. Both surveys contained modified versions of the STOMP (Short Test On Musical Preferences, Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003), together with open questions about music that was liked and disliked. We found that for 29% of the individuals, the genre-based measures did not successfully account for their musical preferences. A number of improvements are suggested to optimize the measures. Additionally, we introduce the Artist-based Musical Preferences (AMP) as a more ecologically valid instrument to assess musical preferences.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Music performance anxiety can be considered a common problem, as approximately one third of profe... more Music performance anxiety can be considered a common problem, as approximately one third of professional musicians suffer from severe performance anxiety. If the underlying causes of performance anxiety would be known better, this problem could be tackled in the early stages of musical training. The aim of this study was to examine the role of personality, self-esteem, and perfectionism in music performance anxiety. The participants were 62 music students from the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. The data was collected using an online questionnaire, which comprised the following measures: a music performance anxiety measure (PAQ; Cox & Kenardy 1993), a personality measure (BFI; John & Srivastava 1999), a self-esteem measure (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; Rosenberg 1965), and a perfectionism measure (MPS; Frost et al. 1990). Regression analysis revealed that low self-esteem and certain dimensions of perfectionism (high doubts about actions and low personal standards) were significant predictors of high performance anxiety. The results suggest that positive experiences and encouragement should be emphasized in educational practices. Performance anxiety and anxiety-related problems could be prevented and reduced by building up music students’ self-esteem.

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