Crystal Pelkey pressentation PSY 363

Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music.:

Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music. Crystal Pelkey Central Washington University

Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music.:

Nostalgia can be defined as a sentimental longing for the past. According to Barrett, et al. nostalgia is commonly brought about by listening to music (2010). Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music.

Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music.:

Research Question: Can reading song lyrics evoke a nostalgic experience for a listener, just as listening to the same song would? Hypothesis Statement: Those who listen to a song are more likely to feel nostalgia than those who read the same song’s lyrics. Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music.

Barrett, Grimm, Robins, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Janata (2010):

Hypothesis: This study attempts to classify the structure of music-evoked nostalgia and the individual differences of persons experiencing it. The hypothesis states that nostalgia is more likely to be felt by a listener when the music is familiar to them and when the listener is more prone to feelings of nostalgia. Methods: Thirty short clips of music from the Billboard Top-100 hits are presented to each participant. After each song was heard questions were asked regarding how nostalgic the song made the participant feel, the song familiarity, and discrete emotions felt. Results: Twenty-six percent of 6,720 songs were rated as “somewhat nostalgic” and positive emotions were felt more when the song was rated as being nostalgic, the most common positive emotion felt was “love.” Barrett, Grimm, Robins, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Janata (2010)

Barrett, Grimm, Robins, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Janata (2010):

What it means: The more familiar a song was, the more likely it was rated as being nostalgic. The main point: The study attempted to categorize emotions and discover what other factors make up a music-evoked nostalgic experience. How it relates: This study used music to trigger a nostalgic experience by exposing participants to familiar music. The bottom line: Nostalgia seems to be brought about by being exposed to music that is familiar to the listener. How it fits: The two other studies, which will be discussed, also look at how music causes an emotional reaction in participants. Barrett, Grimm, Robins, Wildschut, Sedikides, & Janata (2010)

Hunter, Schellenberg, & Shimmack (2010):

Hypothesis: It was predicted that how the music was perceived as either happy or sad would also have an effect on the listener feeling happy, or sad. Methods: There were forty-nine participants. Each participant was tested individually and listened to all 32 song excerpts and was then asked if they felt happy or sad after hearing each excerpt and if the song sounded happy or sad. Results: There were significant main effects that found perceived responses were higher than those felt, and happiness were higher than sadness ratings. What it means: Emotions were effected by the tempo and mode of the music (fast-slow, major-minor). The main point: How a song is perceived or how it “sounds” has an effect on how it makes a listener “feel.” Hunter, Schellenberg, & Shimmack (2010)

Hunter, Schellenberg, & Shimmack (2010):

How it relates: Music is used to evoke emotions, which is also the main point of the current study. The bottom line: The way a song sounds or is perceived has an effect on what emotions are felt when hearing that song. If a song “sounds” happy, a listener is more likely to feel happy when listening to it. How it fits: This study is similar to the previous discussed, by investigating emotions being brought about by listening to music. However, in this study the perceived emotions expressed by a song are compared to the actual emotions felt by the listener. Hunter, Schellenberg, & Shimmack (2010)

Juslin, Liljestrom, Vastfjall, Barradas, & Silva (2008):

Hypothesis: Musical episodes were thought to be more associated with more positive emotions than the emotions felt during non-musical episodes. Methods: Thirty-two college students participated in this study. The participants were given a palmtop computer that they would carry with them for two weeks, which would beep at them seven times a day and then ask them a series of questions. Results: Thirty-seven percent of the time the participants were “beeped” there was music involved. Out of these times involving music, 64% of the participants reported the music had an influence on how they felt. What it means: Thirty-seven percent of the time that the participant was prompted to answer questions, there was music involved. When music was involved the participant felt more positive emotions than when it was not. The main point: This study sought to compare emotions when music was present and when music was not present. Juslin , Liljestrom , Vastfjall , Barradas , & Silva (2008)

Juslin, Liljestrom, Vastfjall, Barradas, & Silva (2008):

How it relates: This study focused on music and how it evokes strong emotions in its listeners, similar to the current study. The bottom line: It is very interesting to see how highly involved humans are with music and the positive effect that hearing music can have on emotions. How it fits: Once again, just as in the previous two studies, music-evoked emotions are the focus in this study. However, instead of just focusing on nostalgia, this study sought to encompass all emotions felt when listening to music. Juslin , Liljestrom , Vastfjall , Barradas , & Silva (2008)

Methods:

Participants There were ten participants used in this study, n=10. The participants consisted of nine students and one faculty member from a Psychology 363 class. Convenience sampling was used, as all the participants were from a Psychology 363 class. Methods

Methods:

Design Between subjects, single factor. The IV is music, which has two levels. Music is presented to the participant in song form to be heard and as lyrics, to be read. The DV is nostalgia; this was measured by having the participants answer a questionnaire after hearing a song or reading lyrics. This was measured using a likert scale, which is interval. The participants were also asked how many memories they associated with each song, this was measured using ratio scale. Methods

Methods:

Materials/Procedure Stimuli used were short excerpts of fifteen songs randomly selected from Billboard Top 100 popular music hits from the years of 1988-2003, these were downloaded from iTunes. The songs were also typed up as lyrics. The participants were exposed to the music by listening to a song for the experimental group or by reading lyrics in the control group. A definition of nostalgia was read to the participants before they began. The participants answered two questions after every song. The study lasted about 15 minutes for each participant. Methods

Results:

The data was analyzed in two ways. As an independent measures t-test, which compared the average nostalgia and average memories felt by both groups. As a one-way ANOVA comparing all of the songs read and heard, separately. Results

Results:

Independent measures t-test. There was not a significant difference between the participants who read the lyrics or heard the songs. The average nostalgia rating for the group who read lyrics was M=3.13, SD = .58. For the second group, who heard the songs the average nostalgia rating was M=3.7, SD = .47. The average memories associated for the first group, who read lyrics was M = .84, SD = .43 For the second group, who heard songs, the average memories associated were M=1.56, SD = .57 Although the there were differences between the average memories recorded in each group it was not enough to be significant. ( t (8) = -2.26, p = .054). Results

Results:

Average nostalgia felt and average memories associated, for group 1 and group 2. Results

Results:

Results were also analyzed using a one-way ANOVA to any significant differences in the groups between the nostalgia and memories, that were associated with each song. There were certain songs that evoked more nostalgia or memories than others, but again, the results were not statistically significant for all of the songs. Memories for song #5 TLC – Creep, F (1,8) = 16.00, p = .004. Memories for song #6 Sting – Fields of Gold, F (1,8) = 14.08, p = .006. Nostalgia for song #14 Enya – Only Time, F (1,8) = 9.524, p = .015. Memories for song #14 Enya – Only Time, F (1,8) = 12.522, p = .008. Results

Results:

Results

Results:

Results

Discussion of Results:

Fail to reject the null hypothesis, the results were not statistically significant at a .05 alpha level, although when analyzing the memories, the result came close to being significant ( t (8) = -2.26, p = .054). The results did not show a statistically significant difference in the nostalgia felt by the participant or the memories recorded by the participants between the two groups. When using one-way ANOVA to compare the nostalgia and memories for every song, it is interesting to note, that there was more of a difference in the means of the memories recorded between the two groups, then the means of the nostalgia rating between the two groups. However, it was not enough to be statistically significant. The songs which prompted the most the most responses of nostalgia and/or memories from the participants were TLC – Creep, Sting – Fields of Gold, and Enya – Only Time. Discussion of Results

Discussion:

Application of results: Despite the failure to reject the null hypothesis, there were mean differences among the two groups in the area of memories recorded that were very close to being statistically significant. Limitations: Nostalgia is an abstract idea and very hard to define and explain. Because of this fact, it may be hard to answer questions regarding how nostalgic one feels. Memories seem to be easier to quantify and record as data F uture directions. Focus mainly on memories associated with the music and the song familiarity, instead of just nostalgia as DV. Using a wider range of music and lyrics. Using more songs from recent years would also cater to a larger age range of participants. A larger sample size, n>30. Discussion

References :

Barrett, F., Grimm, K., Wildschut, T., Robins, R., Sedikides, C., & Janata, P. (2010). Music-Evoked Nostalgia: Affect, Memory, and Personality. American Psychological Association, 10 (3), 390-403. doi:10.1037/a0019006 Hunter, P., Schellenberg, G., & Schimmack, U. (2010) Feelings and Perceptions of Happiness and Sadness Induced by Music: Similarities, Differences, and Mixed Emotions. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, (4) 1, 47-56. doi : 10.1037/a0016873 Juslin , P., Liljestrom , S., Vastfjall , D., Barradas , G., & Silva, A. (2008) Experience sampling study of emotional reactions to music: listener, music, and situation. Emotion, (8) 5, 668-683. doi : 10.1037/a0013505 References

Evoking a Nostalgic Experience with Music.:

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