Abstract

Emotional visual music is a promising tool for the study of aesthetic perception in human psychology; however, the production of such stimuli and the mechanisms of auditory-visual emotion perception remain poorly understood. In Experiment 1, we suggested a literature-based, directive approach to emotional visual music design, and inspected the emotional meanings thereof using the self-rated psychometric and electroencephalographic (EEG) responses of the viewers. A two-dimensional (2D) approach to the assessment of emotion (the valence-arousal plane) with frontal alpha power asymmetry EEG (as a proposed index of valence) validated our visual music as an emotional stimulus. In Experiment 2, we used our synthetic stimuli to investigate possible underlying mechanisms of affective evaluation mechanisms in relation to audio and visual integration conditions between modalities (namely congruent, complementation, or incongruent combinations). In this experiment, we found that, when arousal information between auditory and visual modalities was contradictory [for example, active (+) on the audio channel but passive (−) on the video channel], the perceived emotion of cross-modal perception (visual music) followed the channel conveying the stronger arousal. Moreover, we found that an enhancement effect (heightened and compacted in subjects' emotional responses) in the aesthetic perception of visual music might occur when the two channels contained contradictory arousal information and positive congruency in valence and texture/control. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to propose a literature-based directive production of emotional visual music prototypes and the validations thereof for the study of cross-modally evoked aesthetic experiences in human subjects.

Highlights

  • To understand the underlying mechanisms of the audiovisual aesthetic experience, we focused on the assessment of intrinsic structural and contextual aspects of stimuli, and the perceived aesthetic evaluations to formalize the process whereby visual music can suggest target emotions

  • The results indicate that all visual-only animations were perceived positively at valence level; there were no clear distinctions of the perceived emotional information among the three animations (V1∼Visual Only Clip 3 (V3)), as was partially shown in the audio clips (A1∼Audio Only Clip 3 (A3))

  • There has been a significant development in theories and experiments that explain the process of aesthetic perception and experience during the past decade

Read more

Summary

Introduction

To understand the underlying mechanisms of the audiovisual aesthetic experience, we focused on the assessment of intrinsic structural and contextual aspects of stimuli, and the perceived aesthetic evaluations to formalize the process whereby visual music can suggest target emotions. We consider it premature to discuss the mechanism of the entire aesthetic experience within our study, we proposed a model of Continuous Auditory-Visual Modulation Integration Perception (Figure 1) to aid in the explanation of our research question. The information-processing model of aesthetic experience describes how aesthetic experiences are involved with cognitive and affective processing and the formation of aesthetic judgments in a number of stages

Methods
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call