Grimaud and Eerola (2022) compared instrument ensembles of strings, woodwinds, and brass in a study where participants either rated the emotions they perceived or manipulated musical parameters to produce a certain emotion. They found that strings were associated with increased anger and fear, woodwinds with decreased anger and fear, and brass with decreased fear, in the cases of both emotion perception and production. For the other emotions (joy, sadness, calmness, power, surprise), however, results were less consistent between perception and production, indicating that the emotion-instrument association may also depend on context of the task.

following the constructionist idea that an individual's personality and background will influence the affect they perceive or feel, we considered several sources of individual differences as moderating factors in the effects of instrument family, pitch height, and affect locus.

This research follows a constructionist approach to musical affect (Cespedes-Guevara & Eerola, 2018). That is, although we are interested in the "bottom-up" influence of certain musical features on musical affect, we believe these cannot be adequately evaluated without considering the "top-down" effects of context and individual differences that are present when affects are constructed. The perception or induction of affect does not merely arise in response to a stimulus but is also formed in relation to the individual and the context.

the context of a task (like perception, production, or induction) may change the effect of musical features.

Furthermore, as the method of reporting on perceived and induced affect may influence the construction of an affect (e.g., facilitating categorical perception), we also compare two different affect representations.

This research follows a constructionist approach to musical affect (Cespedes-Guevara & Eerola, 2018). That is, although we are interested in the \'bottom-up\' influence of certain musical features on musical affect, we believe these cannot be adequately evaluated without considering the \'top-down\' effects of context and individual differences that are present when affects are constructed. The perception or induction of affect does not merely arise in response to a stimulus but is also formed in relation to the individual and the context.

Learning Domains