Feeling the Beat: Temporal Predictability is Associated with Ongoing Changes in Music-Induced Pleasantness

Area of Science:

• Music cognition
• Psychoacoustics
• Emotional response to music

Background:

• Music elicits diverse emotional responses influenced by elements like rhythm and melody.
• Listeners' ability to predict music's unfolding is hypothesized to impact emotional experience.
• Temporal predictability, the anticipation of upcoming musical events, is a key aspect.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between temporal predictability and music-induced pleasantness.
• To determine if temporal predictability influences ongoing emotional experience (valence and arousal).

Main Methods:

• Musically trained participants tapped along to musical pieces to operationalize temporal predictability.
• A separate group of participants provided continuous ratings of valence and arousal while listening.
• Analysis correlated temporal predictability with emotional experience measures, validated against a large song database.

Main Results:

• A positive correlation was found between temporal predictability and valence fluctuations in most musical sections.
• This correlation held even when controlling for other musical features.
• A large-scale analysis of annotated musical emotions confirmed the robust link between valence and pulse clarity.

Conclusions:

• Temporal predictability significantly contributes to the hedonic experience of music.
• The findings are particularly relevant for music within the tempo range of clear beat perception.
• Predictability enhances pleasantness, highlighting its role in music's emotional impact.