Perception of Loudness Is Influenced by Emotion

Loudness perception is thought to be a modular system that is unaffected by other brain systems. We tested the hypothesis that loudness perception can be influenced by negative affect using a conditioning paradigm, where some auditory stimuli were paired with aversive experiences while others were not. We found that the same auditory stimulus was reported as being louder, more negative and fear-inducing when it was conditioned with an aversive experience, compared to when it was used as a control stimulus. This result provides support for an important role of emotion in auditory perception

Physical measurements and subjective characterization of pipe organ mechanical key actions

Musical instruments do not only provide auditory or visual information but they also convey haptic feedback to the performer. One might consider that the auditory feedback is the only crucial information that the musician requires. However, as perception of most objects and events are multisensory, sensation and perception of playing a musical instrument is also multisensory. The present thesis sets out to develop a methodology to measure and characterize the properties of the organ key mechanics that determine haptic sensation of pipe organ playing. A framework is proposed here with the purpose to develop the methodology to objectively measure and subjectively characterize mechanical key action properties. The methods for the objective characterization will be explained using results of detailed measurements and a framework for subjective characterization of the haptic properties is proposed.There are a number of components in the mechanical key action that contributes to the overall force feedback to the organist. It is a complex mechanical system and no two key has identical construction. This makes it difficult to model the key action mathematically, since one needs a different form of a model for each key. Therefore, force feedback at the console as a function of key-fall and velocity was chosen to be measured to reveal the dynamic behavior of the key action. To have objective measurements and to be able to control for the key velocity, a controllable linear actuator was used to press the keys. From the results of these measurements a number of parameters were extracted to characterize dynamic system behavior. These parameters can be used for comparison of different keys within an instrument as well as overall comparison of different instruments. The study of the role of haptic sensation of organ playing requires subjective characterization of the key action. Since this part is ongoing work, only the methodology is described here. Based on an online survey among expert as well as novice organists on haptic sensation of organ playing, a set of semantic differential scales were devised. These semantic differential scales will be used in subjective experiments, with the aim to reveal the underlying dimensions of the haptic perception of the particular organs. Once the subjective characters of the key actions are revealed, they will be linked to the physical system and the objective characteristics to study the salient key action properties

Physical measurements and subjective characterization of pipe organ mechanical key actions

Musical instruments do not only provide auditory or visual information but they also convey haptic feedback to the performer. One might consider that the auditory feedback is the only crucial information that the musician requires. However, as perception of most objects and events are multisensory, sensation and perception of playing a musical instrument is also multisensory. The present thesis sets out to develop a methodology to measure and characterize the properties of the organ key mechanics that determine haptic sensation of pipe organ playing. A framework is proposed here with the purpose to develop the methodology to objectively measure and subjectively characterize mechanical key action properties. The methods for the objective characterization will be explained using results of detailed measurements and a framework for subjective characterization of the haptic properties is proposed.There are a number of components in the mechanical key action that contributes to the overall force feedback to the organist. It is a complex mechanical system and no two key has identical construction. This makes it difficult to model the key action mathematically, since one needs a different form of a model for each key. Therefore, force feedback at the console as a function of key-fall and velocity was chosen to be measured to reveal the dynamic behavior of the key action. To have objective measurements and to be able to control for the key velocity, a controllable linear actuator was used to press the keys. From the results of these measurements a number of parameters were extracted to characterize dynamic system behavior. These parameters can be used for comparison of different keys within an instrument as well as overall comparison of different instruments. The study of the role of haptic sensation of organ playing requires subjective characterization of the key action. Since this part is ongoing work, only the methodology is described here. Based on an online survey among expert as well as novice organists on haptic sensation of organ playing, a set of semantic differential scales were devised. These semantic differential scales will be used in subjective experiments, with the aim to reveal the underlying dimensions of the haptic perception of the particular organs. Once the subjective characters of the key actions are revealed, they will be linked to the physical system and the objective characteristics to study the salient key action properties

Emotional Influences on Auditory Perception and Attention

The auditory perception is a fundamental part of our interactions with and experience of the external environment. We receive considerable amount of information from our surroundings through sounds. The auditory system takes care of this continuous flow of information in a seemingly effortless manner. It functions as an adaptive and cognitive alarm system that scans our surroundings, detects and analyzes the significant events, and signals for attention shifts to objects of interest. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the influence of emotions on the perception of sounds, and proposes that the affective experience is integral to the auditory perception. In particular, the current research explored how the affective qualities of auditory stimuli may modulate the way we attend to and perceive the sounds around us.In Paper I, employing an affective learning paradigm, the author investigated whether the learned emotional meaning of an otherwise meaningless sound could influence the perception of a basic auditory feature: loudness. The main focus of Papers II and III was on the emotional modulations of spatial auditory perception. Paper II presents a study that set out to investigate whether the affective quality of sounds can provide exogenous cues of the orientation of spatial attention. Paper III concerns the potential of the auditory spatial information to possess emotional value and modulate attention. Finally, in Paper IV, the authors investigated the importance of the emotional information for the auditory perception in the presence of a complex environment with a number of concurrent sounds.Overall, it was found that both the loudness perception and the spatial auditory perception can be modulated by emotional significance, and that auditory-induced emotion is constructed using the available information in the auditory stimuli involving the spatial dimension. Further, the current research provided evidence that the emotional salience provides cues for the allocation of attention in the auditory modality.Taken together, the current research set out to investigate the influence of the emotional salience on auditory perception. Perception is our everyday tool to navigate our surrounding world; and the finding that emotions can modulate the way we perceive our surroundings may help to improve the quality of everyday environments that we all occupy

Emotional Influences on Auditory Perception and Attention

The auditory perception is a fundamental part of our interactions with and experience of the external environment. We receive considerable amount of information from our surroundings through sounds. The auditory system takes care of this continuous flow of information in a seemingly effortless manner. It functions as an adaptive and cognitive alarm system that scans our surroundings, detects and analyzes the significant events, and signals for attention shifts to objects of interest. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the influence of emotions on the perception of sounds, and proposes that the affective experience is integral to the auditory perception. In particular, the current research explored how the affective qualities of auditory stimuli may modulate the way we attend to and perceive the sounds around us.In Paper I, employing an affective learning paradigm, the author investigated whether the learned emotional meaning of an otherwise meaningless sound could influence the perception of a basic auditory feature: loudness. The main focus of Papers II and III was on the emotional modulations of spatial auditory perception. Paper II presents a study that set out to investigate whether the affective quality of sounds can provide exogenous cues of the orientation of spatial attention. Paper III concerns the potential of the auditory spatial information to possess emotional value and modulate attention. Finally, in Paper IV, the authors investigated the importance of the emotional information for the auditory perception in the presence of a complex environment with a number of concurrent sounds.Overall, it was found that both the loudness perception and the spatial auditory perception can be modulated by emotional significance, and that auditory-induced emotion is constructed using the available information in the auditory stimuli involving the spatial dimension. Further, the current research provided evidence that the emotional salience provides cues for the allocation of attention in the auditory modality.Taken together, the current research set out to investigate the influence of the emotional salience on auditory perception. Perception is our everyday tool to navigate our surrounding world; and the finding that emotions can modulate the way we perceive our surroundings may help to improve the quality of everyday environments that we all occupy

Auditory attentional selection is biased by reward cues

Auditory attention theories suggest that humans are able to decompose the complex acoustic input into separate auditory streams, which then compete for attentional resources. How this attentional competition is influenced by motivational salience of sounds is, however, not well-understood. Here, we investigated whether a positive motivational value associated with sounds could bias the attentional selection in an auditory detection task. Participants went through a reward-learning period, where correct attentional selection of one stimulus (CS+) lead to higher rewards compared to another stimulus (CS-). We assessed the impact of reward-learning by comparing perceptual sensitivity before and after the learning period, when CS+ and CS-were presented as distractors for a different target. Performance decreased after reward-learning when CS+ was a distractor, while it increased when CS- was a distractor. Thus, the findings show that sounds that were associated with high rewards captures attention involuntarily. Additionally, when successful inhibition of a particular sound (CS-) was associated with high rewards then it became easier to ignore it. The current findings have important implications for the understanding of the organizing principles of auditory perception and provide, for the first time, clear behavioral evidence for reward-dependent attentional learning in the auditory domain in humans

The continuous and changing impact of affect on risky decision-making

Affective experience has an important role in decision-making with recent theories suggesting a modulatory role of affect in ongoing subjective value computations. However, it is unclear how varying expectations and uncertainty dynamically influence affective experience and how dynamic representation of affect modulates risky choices. Using hierarchical Bayesian modeling on data from a risky choice task (N = 101), we find that the temporal integration of recently encountered choice parameters (expected value, uncertainty, and prediction errors) shapes affective experience and impacts subsequent choice behavior. Specifically, self-reported arousal prior to choice was associated with increased loss aversion, risk aversion, and choice consistency. Taken together, these findings provide clear behavioral evidence for continuous affective modulation of subjective value computations during risky decision-making.Funding Agencies|Linkoping University; Vetenskapsradet [2017-02470]</p

The goal-relevance of affective stimuli is dynamically represented in affective experience

Affect is a continuous and temporally dependent process that represents an individuals ongoing relationship with its environment. However, there is a lack of evidence on how factors defining the dynamic sensory environment modulate changes in momentary affective experience. Here, we show that goal-dependent relevance of stimuli is a key factor shaping momentary affect in a dynamic context. Participants (N = 83) viewed sequentially presented images and reported their momentary affective experience after every fourth stimulus. Relevance was manipulated through an attentional task that rendered each image either task-relevant or task-irrelevant. Computational models were fitted to trial-by-trial affective responses to capture the key dynamic parameters explaining momentary affective experience. The findings from statistical analyses and computational models showed that momentary affective experience was shaped by the temporal integration of the affective impact of recently encountered stimuli, and that task-relevant stimuli, independent of stimulus affect, prompted larger changes in experienced pleasantness compared with task-irrelevant stimuli. These findings clearly show that dynamics of affective experience reflect goal-relevance of stimuli in our surroundings.Funding Agencies|Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [2017-02470]</p