Development of ecologically valid and standardized music stimuli for studying the perception of emotion in music

Developing ecologically valid yet standardized stimuli for the study of the emotional perception of music presents a significant challenge. We outline two independent studies, aimed at creating stimuli for exploring emotions perceived by three classical piano compositions compared to three original, unknown compositions. Both studies used the Genova Emotional Music Scale-9 (GEMS-9) (Zentner et al., 2008), which is a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 is the lowest and 7 is the highest. In the initial study, 29 participants rated the perceived emotional content in an online survey. Results revealed that all compositions were rated highest for their intended target emotions, (mean rating above 3) with classical compositions outperforming the original pieces. In the subsequent study, the original compositions underwent modifications, followed by a repeat of the ratings of 39 new participants in a similar online study. All compositions were rated highest (above a mean of 3) for their target emotions. The most significant disparity between studies 1 and 2 was observed for the uneasy original composition, where we altered dissonance and tempo. Similarly, the vital original composition exhibited significant rating differences between the two studies, with alterations in tempo and dynamics. In contrast, the sublime composition, altered in harmony and dynamics, did not show a significant difference between the two studies.