Sight vs. sound in the judgment of music performance: Cross-cultural evidence from classical piano and Tsugaru shamisen competitions use asterix (*) to get italics

Gakuto Chiba, Yuto Ozaki, Shinya Fujii, Patrick E. SavagePlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2021

<p style="text-align: justify;">​​Which information dominates in evaluating performance in music? Both experts and laypeople consistently report believing that sound should be the most important domain when judging music competitions, but experimental studies of Western participants rating video-only vs. audio-only versions of 6-second excerpts of Western classical performances have shown that in at least some cases visual information can play a stronger role. However, whether this phenomenon applies generally to music competitions or is restricted to specific repertoires or contexts is disputed. In this Registered Report, we focus on testing the generalizability of sight vs. sound effects by replicating previous studies of classical piano competitions with Japanese participants, while also expanding the same paradigm using new examples from competitions of a traditional Japanese folk musical instrument, the Tsugaru shamisen. . For both classical piano and Tsugaru shamisen, we ask participants to choose the winner between the 1st- and 2nd- placing performers in 5 competitions and the 1st-place and low-ranking performers in 5 competitions (i.e., 40 performers total from 10 piano and 10 shamisen competitions). &nbsp;We will test the following three predictions twice each (once for piano and once for shamisen): 1) an interaction is predicted between domain (video-only vs. audio-only) and variance in quality (choosing between 1st and 2nd place vs. choosing between 1st and low-placing performers); 2) visuals are predicted to trump sound when variation in quality is low (1st vs. 2nd place); and 3) sound is predicted to trump visuals when variation in quality is high (1st vs. low-placings). Data from pilot experiments (n = 9 participants) suggest that participants are mostly able to correctly select the actual winning performers based on short excerpts at levels above chance. In Stage 2, we will collect a full sample of 155 participants in order to achieve 80% power to detect effects of at least Cohen’s <em>d</em> = 0.4. Our results will reveal the generalizability of sight vs. sound effects to non-Western participants and musical traditions, and may have practical applications to evaluation criteria for performers, judges, and organizers of competitions, concerts, and auditions.​​</p>

music cognition, cross-cultural, cultural evolution, audiovisual, performance studies

NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).

Social sciences

2021-09-24 08:59:26

Yuki Yamada

Kyoshiro Sasaki