Evaluation of product sound design within the context of emotion design and emotional branding

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2005Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 111-122)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 127 leavesThe main purpose of this thesis is to set out the relationships between the work of product designers and the perceptions of costumers regarding the acceptability of product sounds. Product design that provides aesthetic appeal, pleasure and satisfaction can greatly influence success of a product. Sound as a cognitive artifact, plays a significant role in the cognition of product interaction and in shaping its identity. This thesis will review emotion theories end their application to sound design and sound quality modeling, the measurement of emotional responses to sound, and the relationship between psycho-acoustical sound descriptions and emotions. In addition to that, affects of sounds to emotionally significant brands will be evaluated so as to examine marketing values. One of the main purposes of chapter 2 is to prove knowledge about psychoacoustics; as product sound quality is a basic understanding of the underlying psychoacoustics phenomena. Perception; particularly sound perception and its elements are described during chapter 2. Starting with the description of sound wave and how our hear works, sound perception and auditory sensation is reviewed in continuation. In chapter 3, product sound quality concept and its evaluation principles are reviewed. Thus, in order to understand the coupling between the acoustic perception and the product design; knowledge of general principles for product sound quality are required. Chapter 4 can be considered as two main sections. .How does emotion act as a delighter in product design?. is examined to better understand customer and user experiences impacting pleasure-ability in first section. In the second section, emotion is evaluated through sound design. A qualitative evaluation is done so as to examine cognition and emotion in sound perception. Chapter 5 leads subject through emotional branding. Sounds that carry the brand.s identity are evaluated within. Sound design is re-evaluated as marketing strategy and examined with several instances. Keywords: Product sound design, psychoacoustics, product sound quality, emotion design, emotional branding

The nature of design and style in music

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1939. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Perception of isolated chords: Examining frequency of occurrence, instrumental timbre, acoustic descriptors and musical training

This study investigated the perception of isolated chords using a combination of experimental manipulation and exploratory analysis. Twelve types of chord (five triads and seven tetrads) were presented in two instrumental timbres (piano and organ) to listeners who rated the chords for consonance, pleasantness, stability and relaxation. Listener ratings varied by chord, by timbre, and according to musical expertise, and revealed that musicians distinguished consonance from the other variables in a way that other listeners did not. To further explain the data, a principal component analysis and linear regression examined three potential predictors of the listener ratings. First, each chord’s frequency of occurrence was obtained by counting its appearances in selected works of music. Second, listeners rated their familiarity with the instrumental timbre in which the chord was played. Third, chords were described using a set of acoustic features derived using the Timbre Toolbox and MIR Toolbox. Results of the study indicated that listeners’ ratings of both consonance and stability were influenced by the degree of musical training and knowledge of tonal hierarchy. Listeners’ ratings of pleasantness and relaxation, on the other hand, depended more on the instrumental timbre and other acoustic descriptions of the chord

The influence of music on the emotional interpretation of visual contexts

This thesis explores the effects of music upon the cognitive processing of visual information. The objective is to address how alterations of specific aspects within the musical structure may influence the interpretation of visual scenarios. Background is provided from film-sound theory, studies of the expressive capabilities of sound in film, theories of connotation related to musical tonality, music cognition and implications of neuroscientific research on human emotion. Two studies follow, one empirical and the other the creation of an intermedia-based analytical tool supporting experimental design. The empirical research is focused on the influence of tonal dissonance, using an invariant visual scene. The results show strong evidence in support of the effect of tonal dissonance level (in film music) on interpretations of emotion in a short animated film. These confirm previous research by this author on how music may assign meaning within audiovisual contexts. The design of experimental intermedia tools is aimed at exploring the various ways in which music may shape the semantic processing of visual contexts, and to analyze how these processes might be evaluated in an empirical setting. These designs incorporate a variety of potential variables in both musical sound and transformations of the visual stimuli for experimental purposes. The conclusion discusses further research envisioned for systematic evaluations of the multiple and subtle ways music functions in the comprehension of visual domains

Relationships between musical features and music-evoked emotions and memories

Tavoitteet Musiikin sosioemotionaaliset terveyshyödyt on tunnettu jo kauan. Erityisesti musiikin kyky herättää tunteita on kiinnittänyt tutkijoiden huomion tunteiden ja musiikin ominaisuuksien välisiin yhteyksiin. Tunnekokemuksen voimakkuuden tiedetään myös olevan yhteydessä niin omaelämäkerrallisten muistojen vahvistumiseen kuin niiden muistista hakemiseenkin. Tiedetään, että musiikkia sekä omaelämäkerrallisia muistoja prosessoidaan suurelta osin samoilla aivoalueilla, erityisesti etuotsalohkon keskiosassa. Musiikin ominaisuuksien ja omaelämäkerrallisten muistojen välistä yhteyttä ei ole kuitenkaan tutkittu aiemmin. Tämän tutkimuksen ensimmäisenä tutkimuskysymyksenä on se, voiko kappaleen omaelämäkerrallista tärkeyttä selittää joillakin musiikin piirteillä. Toisena tutkimuskysymyksenä on selvittää, onko tunnekokemuksella, ja erityisesti sen voimakkuudella, välittävä vaikutus tähän yhteyteen. Menetelmät Koehenkilöt (n =113, 86 naista) olivat terveitä, iältään 60-86 vuotiaita aikuisia (M = 70.72, SD = 5.39). He kuuntelivat kokeen aikana 70 katkelmaa musiikkikappaleista ja arvioivat jokaista kappaletta sen herättämän vireystilamuutoksen, tunnekokemuksen voimakkuuden, miellyttävyyden, tuttuuden ja omaelämäkerrallisten muistojen suhteen. Kappaleiden musiikilliset piirteet eriytettiin käyttämällä musiikkitiedonhakuohjelmistoa, jonka jälkeen niihin sovellettiin pääkomponenttianalyysia. Lopuksi, regressioanalyysia käytettiin selvittämään muodotettujen pääkomponenttien ja koehenkilöiden tekemien arvioiden välistä yhteyttä. Päätulokset ja yhteenveto Vähäisempi pulssin voimakkuus, soinnillinen kirkkaus ja alemmissa keskitason taajuuksissa tapahtuva fluktuaatio olivat parhaita selittäjiä suuremmalle omaelämäkerralliselle tärkeydelle, kappaleen tuttuudelle ja tunnekokemuksille, joita kappaleet herättivät. Tunnekokemuksen voimakkuus, ja osittain myös miellyttävyys, välittivät musiikillisten piirteiden vaikutusta kappaleen autobiografiseen tärkeyteen. Nämä tulokset lisäävät toistaiseksi vähäistä tietoa musiikin herättämistä omaelämäkerrallisista muistoista tiettyjen musiikillisten piirteiden kontekstissa.Objectives Socioemotional health benefits of music have been recognized for a long time. Especially the ability of music to evoke emotions has led researchers to pay attention to relationships between emotions and specific properties of music. Emotional intensity is also known to be linked to more efficient consolidation and recall of autobiographical memories. Music and autobiographical memories are known to be largely processed by the same neural system, especially in the medial prefrontal cortex. However, the relationship between musical properties and music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAM) has not been studied before. The first research question of this study was that can some acoustic (musical) features explain the autobiographical salience of the song. The second research question was to determine if that relationship is mediated by subjective emotions evoked by the song, especially the intensity of evoked emotions. Methods Participants (n =113, 86 females) were healthy older adults aged between 60 and 86 years (M = 70.72, SD = 5.39). Participants listened 70 song excerpts during the experiment and rated them on valence, arousal, emotional intensity, familiarity, and autobiographical memories evoked by the song. The musical features of the songs were extracted using music information retrieval (MIR) software, followed by principal component analysis. The relationship between musical features and listeners' ratings was assessed using regression analyses. Main results and conclusions Lower pulse strength, brightenss, and fluctuation in low-middle frequencies were the best predictors of higher autobiographical salience, familiarity and emotional responses evoked by the songs. The intensity of emotions and, to lesser extent, pleasantness had a mediative effect on the relationship between musical features and autobiographical salience. These results add to the still scarce knowledge about MEAMs in the context of specific musical features

The aural skills acquisition process of undergraduate electroacoustic (EA) music majors in the context of a new aural learning method

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityElectroacoustic (EA) musicians require aural skills that exist beyond tonality and meter; however, specialized ear training courses for EA music are rare in university and college music programs that offer EA studies (EaSt) in their curricula. Since 2005, this researcher has been developing and teaching EA aural training at a Canadian university in that was inspired by concepts from Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA) studies, primarily integration and segregation. In the 2009/10 academic year, the researcher conducted an action study with his intact EA aural training class of 25 first year undergraduate students majoring in EaSt for the purposes of better understanding and improving the students' aural skill acquisition process. and of refining the teaching and learning sequence. The action study was organized into four cycles of observation, critical reflection, and action, and focused on optimizing and autonomizing the skill acquisition process within the large, varied group. Actions were designed in response to critical reflection on emerging problems, evaluations of students' views about the process, their moods and attitudes, and measurements of students' achievements-with specific attention to eight EA-oriented skills and seven tonal and metric skills. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered from questionnaires, in-class surveys and tests, homework, and competence tests provided evidence of skill acquisition, primarily in loudness discrimination, timbral discrimination, tonal awareness, interval discrimination, meter discrimination, and descriptive ability. The most notable emerging problems in the skill acquisition process were related to the group's variety of ability levels, including imbalances in difficulty levels, in students' level of interest in the activities, and in the all-inclusive effectiveness of the training. The main transformational aspects of the action study were autonomization of the skill acquisition process at home through weekly reflective practice reports and developing a cooperative learning environment in the classroom through regular in-class discussion

Early and Late Stage Mechanisms for Vocalization Processing in the Human Auditory System

The human auditory system is able to rapidly process incoming acoustic information, actively filtering, categorizing, or suppressing different elements of the incoming acoustic stream. Vocalizations produced by other humans (conspecifics) likely represent the most ethologically-relevant sounds encountered by hearing individuals. Subtle acoustic characteristics of these vocalizations aid in determining the identity, emotional state, health, intent, etc. of the producer. The ability to assess vocalizations is likely subserved by a specialized network of structures and functional connections that are optimized for this stimulus class. Early elements of this network would show sensitivity to the most basic acoustic features of these sounds; later elements may show categorically-selective response patterns that represent high-level semantic organization of different classes of vocalizations. A combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrophysiological studies were performed to investigate and describe some of the earlier and later stage mechanisms of conspecific vocalization processing in human auditory cortices. Using fMRI, cortical representations of harmonic signal content were found along the middle superior temporal gyri between primary auditory cortices along Heschl\u27s gyri and the superior temporal sulci, higher-order auditory regions. Additionally, electrophysiological findings also demonstrated a parametric response profile to harmonic signal content. Utilizing a novel class of vocalizations, human-mimicked versions of animal vocalizations, we demonstrated the presence of a left-lateralized cortical vocalization processing hierarchy to conspecific vocalizations, contrary to previous findings describing similar bilateral networks. This hierarchy originated near primary auditory cortices and was further supported by auditory evoked potential data that suggests differential temporal processing dynamics of conspecific human vocalizations versus those produced by other species. Taken together, these results suggest that there are auditory cortical networks that are highly optimized for processing utterances produced by the human vocal tract. Understanding the function and structure of these networks will be critical for advancing the development of novel communicative therapies and the design of future assistive hearing devices