Department of Music, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University and Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 2;18(2):e0281057. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281057. eCollection 2023.
The inverted U hypothesis in music predicts that listeners prefer intermediate levels of complexity. However, the shape of the liking response to harmonic complexity and the effect of musicianship remains unclear. Here, we tested whether the relationship between liking and harmonic complexity in single chords shows an inverted U shape and whether this U shape is different for musicians and non-musicians. We recorded these groups' liking ratings for four levels of harmonic complexity, indexed by their level of acoustic roughness, as well as several measures of inter-individual difference. Results showed that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between harmonic complexity and liking in both musicians and non-musicians, but that the shape of the U is different for the two groups. Non-musicians' U is more left-skewed, with peak liking for low harmonic complexity, while musicians' U is more right-skewed, with highest ratings for medium and low complexity. Furthermore, musicians who showed greater liking for medium compared to low complexity chords reported higher levels of active musical engagement and higher levels of openness to experience. This suggests that a combination of practical musical experience and personality is reflected in musicians' inverted U-shaped preference response to harmonic complexity in chords.
音乐中的倒 U 假说预测听众更喜欢中等复杂程度的音乐。然而，对于和声复杂度的喜好反应的形状和音乐才能的影响仍不清楚。在这里，我们测试了在单个和弦中，喜好与和声复杂度之间的关系是否呈倒 U 形，以及这种 U 形在音乐家和非音乐家之间是否不同。我们记录了这两组人对四种和声复杂度水平的喜好评分，这些水平由其声学粗糙度指数来表示，以及几个个体差异的度量指标。结果表明，在音乐家和非音乐家中，和声复杂度与喜好之间存在倒 U 形关系，但两组的 U 形形状不同。非音乐家的 U 形更向左偏斜，对低和声复杂度的喜好程度最高，而音乐家的 U 形更向右偏斜，对中低复杂度的评价最高。此外，与低复杂度和弦相比更喜欢中复杂度和弦的音乐家报告说他们有更高水平的主动音乐参与和更高水平的经验开放性。这表明，实际的音乐经验和个性的结合反映在音乐家对和弦和声复杂度的倒 U 形偏好反应中。
