Effects of Tempo and Situational Arousal on the Listener's Perceptual and Affective Responses to Music

Abstract

Based on previous research, this study formulates hypotheses concerning (1) the psychophysical relationship between musical tempo and perceived activity, (2) a nonmonotonic hedonic effect of musical tempo on affective responses, and (3) a shift in this preference function due to differences in situational arousal. An experiment manipulates tempo in the same piece ot music at 14 different speeds varying by equal percentage increases. T he findings appear to support (1) a strong psychophysical relationship between a multi-item index of perceived activity and the logarithm of musical tempo, (2) a nonmonotonic hedonic curve wherein affective responses reach their most favourable peak at an intermediate level of musical tempo, and (3) a sympathic shift of this single-peaked preference function to the right with increases in situational arousal.