Abstract
Can music be rated consistently using nonverbal descriptors such as colours and temperatures? 144 participants rated 6 experimenter-selected and 2 self-selected pieces of music along 15 bipolar icon (graphic) scales intended to portray emotions, and sensory experiences consisting of colour, temperature, shape, speed, texture, and weight. Participants also rated the same pieces using bipolar verbal scales which aimed to encompass the concepts represented by the icons (e.g., the word “red” for the colour red). Furthermore, the icons themselves were subjected to open-ended verbal labelling to validate the icon scale. Colour icons spontaneously evoked a cross-modal association on 67% of occasions: blue being cool, and red/orange being warm or hot, and the icon scale had overall good face validity. Music regularly and consistently evoked multisensory associations (using the icon scale) including shapes, colours, weight, and temperatures, in addition to emotions. Cross-modal perception is indicative of music’s character rather than the enjoyment of the music. The icon scale provides new insights into music perception and for applications where language skill may limit participant expression.
Highlights
Our aesthetic responses to objects are often couched in some form of verbal reports
There is limited consensus on the definition of cross-modal associations, but in the current research, it refers to a general kind of cross-modal connection that individual can experience (Martino & Marks, 2001)
This research was driven by a need to better understand multisensory responses to music and to better enable researchers to gather nonverbal responses to stimuli
Summary
One can describe an object, explain how it makes them feel, say what it reminds them of, and so on Can these kinds of word-based descriptions exhaust our understanding of the aesthetic experience? A piece of music might be described consistently as expressing sadness and beauty. Might it not be blue in colour, or heavy in weight, or feel warm in temperature? There is limited consensus on the definition of cross-modal associations, but in the current research, it refers to a general kind of cross-modal connection that individual (with or without synaesthesia) can experience (Martino & Marks, 2001). The cross-modal connections that are interesting are those that are made regularly and consistently
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