Odors are notoriously difficult to describe, but they seem prone to a variety of crossmodal associations. In the present study, we generalize the previously-shown association between odors (from ...perfumery) and pitch (Belkin et al. 1997) to odors related to food and drink (in this case those associated with wine). We also demonstrate that, to a lesser extent (25% of the odor tested), participants preferentially match specific odors to certain types of instruments. The ratings of the odors along a number of dimensions are used in principal components analysis (PCA) to explore the psychological dimensions underlying the odor-pitch associations. The results demonstrate that both pleasantness and complexity, but not intensity, appear to play a role when choosing a pitch to match an odor. Our results suggest that these features of odor stimuli constitute psychological dimensions that can be consistently matched to auditory features.
Music encoding can link disparate types of musical data for the purposes of archiving and search. The encoding of human response data explicitly in relation to musical notes facilitates the study of ...the ways humans engage with music as performers and listeners. This paper reflects on the developments and trends in formal music encoding systems as well as the types of data representations used in corpora released by researchers working on expert music analyses, musical performances, and listener responses. It argues that while the specificity (and often simplicity) afforded by project-specific encoding formats may be useful for individual research projects, larger-scale interdisciplinary research would be better served by explicit, formalized linking of data to specific musical elements. The paper concludes by offering some concrete suggestions for how to achieve this goal.
► The role of pleasantness in flavour–note crossmodal associations was assessed. ► Samples of dark, milk, and marzipan-filled chocolate were presented. ► Participants matched the taste/flavour to a ...musical note (varying in pitch and timbre). ► Pleasantness ratings for a single chocolate type did not affect the choice of pitch. ► The choice of musical instrument was not independent of the pleasantness ratings.
Although several crossmodal associations involving taste and olfaction have been reported recently, the mechanism(s) by which they operate are still poorly understood. In the present study, we explored the role of a single parameter that has been suggested to play an important role in taste/flavour–musical note association, namely pleasantness. Chocolate was chosen as a stimulus as it elicits a wide range of pleasantness ratings (especially in the case of dark chocolate). Participants tasted three types of chocolate (dark, milk, and marzipan-filled) and had to match their flavour with a musical note (choosing both the pitch and the instrument playing the note). The results demonstrated that, while there was an overall correlation between pleasantness ratings and the chosen pitch, it disappeared when a single stimulus was considered in isolation, suggesting that pleasantness is not solely responsible for the associations between tastes/flavours and pitch. By contrast, pleasantness affects the choice of instrument even when a single stimulus is considered. The role of pleasantness in driving associations between tastes/flavours and musical notes, while important in the choice of instrument, is thus not as essential for the choice of pitch as has been suggested previously.
We report two experiments designed to investigate cross-modal correspondences between a range of seven olfactory stimuli and both the pitch and instrument class of sounds as well as the angularity of ...visually presented shapes. The results revealed that odors were preferentially matched to musical features: For example, the odors of candied orange and iris flower were matched to significantly higher pitches than the odors of musk and roasted coffee. Meanwhile, the odor of crème brûlée was associated with a more rounded shape than the musk odor. Moreover, by simultaneously testing cross-modal correspondences between olfactory stimuli and matches in two other modalities, we were able to compare the ratings associated with each correspondence. Stimuli judged as happier, more pleasant, and sweeter tended to be associated to both higher pitch and a more rounded shape, whereas other ratings seemed to be more specifically correlated with the choice of either pitch or shape. Odors rated as more arousing tended to be associated with the angular shape, but not with a particular pitch; odors judged as brighter were associated with higher pitch and, to a lesser extent, rounder shapes. In a follow-up experiment, we investigated whether people could match specific pieces of music (composed to represent odors) to three of the odors (candied orange, crème brûlée, and ginger cookies). In one case (candied orange), a majority of the participants matched the odor to the intended piece of music. In another case (ginger cookies), another piece of music (than the one intended) was preferred. Finally, in the third case (crème brûlée), people showed no preference in matching the odor to the pieces of music. Both theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Musical pitch estimation is used to recognize the musical note pitch or the fundamental frequency (
) of an audio signal, which can be applied to a preprocessing part of many applications, such as ...sound separation and musical note transcription. In this work, a method for musical note recognition based on the classification framework has been designed using an optimization-based neural network (OBNN). A broad range of survey and research was reviewed, and all revealed the methods to recognize the musical notes. An OBNN is used here in recognizing musical notes. Similarly, we can progress the effectiveness of musical note recognition using different methodologies. In this document, the most modern investigations related to musical note recognition are effectively analyzed and put in a nutshell to effectively furnish the traits and classifications.
This study compared young adult men and women regarding the discrimination of musical notes following acute ingestion of alcohol. It included 20 men and 20 women aged 18-30 years (women: M = 21.95, ...SD = 3.14; men: M = 21.65, SD = 2.73). This was a discrimination test of musical notes through the psychophysical forced-choice method, in which participants had to choose between two alternatives: the musical note that contained the sound frequency related to note D, F, or A, after the presentation of a standard sound frequency. The results showed significant differences between groups when comparing men and women after the ingestion of alcohol only in the D note. We found also significant differences in the comparison group of women under the influence of alcohol with each other, in the D note, and the group of men under the influence of alcohol among themselves in the F note. These results suggest that acute alcohol ingestion can change the auditory perception of men and women regarding discriminating specific musical notes (sound frequencies).
Our research aim is that even caregivers who are musical novices perform part of a music therapy activity. In this paper, we present an accompaniment system for calming the symptoms of patients with ...dementia with mental instability who repeat stereotypical behaviors and utterances. This system converts patients’ utterances into pitches in response to an operator’s key entry and automatically plays a cadence based on those pitches. The cadence begins on a chord that resonates with a patient’s emotions and finishes on a chord that calms his symptoms. Because the use of this system is simple, even musical novices can use it to calm dementia patients’ continuous stereotypical utterances.
► The use of synaesthetic metaphors/imagery in advertising has recently increased. ► We investigated the case of Walkers’ Sensations range of crisps. ► The packaging of their seven flavours uses ...different colours and patterns. ► The packaging does not reflect crossmodal associations shown by our participants. ► Crossmodal associations should be carefully considered when using synaesthetic imagery.
The use of synaesthetic metaphors or imagery in product advertisements and packaging has increased in popularity in recent years. However, it is often unclear whether the crossmodal associations used (e.g., between instruments and flavours) really correspond to those held by the target consumers. In the present study, we investigated the case of the packaging used for the Walkers’ Sensations range of crisps. The packaging includes specific colours, patterns, and, in some cases, pictures of musical instruments associated with the various flavours in the range. The results demonstrated that although the different flavours of crisp were matched with musical notes of different pitches, there were no significant differences in the class of instruments chosen to match any of the flavours. Analysis of the visual matches made by participants revealed that different flavours of crisp were matched with different colours, although interestingly the choice often did not match the colour that had been chosen for the packaging. There were no significant differences in the choice of visual pattern that participants matched to the various flavours. These results underline the need to carefully consider the crossmodal correspondence of features in different sensory modalities, in order to avoid incongruent matching in multisensory communications.
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