2023/05/23
Keio University
A research team—consisting of Gakuto Chiba and Yuto Ozaki from the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University; their academic advisor, Associate Professor Patrick Savage (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies); and co-researcher Associate Professor Shinya Fujii (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)—conducted the first fully public Registered Report in the field of music research and published their research paper in the academic journal "Collabra: Psychology" on May 22, 2023 (local time).
To investigate which senses are relied upon in the evaluation of musical performances, the research team designed an experiment controlling for performer quality (1st vs. 2nd place, 1st vs. lower-ranked) and viewing conditions (video-only vs. audio-only) using materials from classical piano and Tsugaru-shamisen competitions. They conducted an online experiment asking 155 Japanese participants to judge the winner. The results confirmed an interaction between the relative quality of the performers and the visual/auditory stimuli, and this interaction was found to be common across cultures. On the other hand, the study also discovered cultural factors in the balance between sight and sound in judging musical performances, showing that visual judgment was dominant when evaluating between top-tier classical piano performers, whereas auditory judgment was dominant when evaluating between top- and lower-ranked Tsugaru-shamisen performers.
For the full press release, please see below.