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Screen shot examples of "happy" morphed slides used in the implicit emotional valence task. (A) Full "happy" emotional expression slide (Rank 12, weight 1/78; see Method). (B) Neutral expression (Rank 1, weight 12/78). (C) Intermediate morphed slide between "happy" and "neutral" (Rank 5, weight 8/78). Pictures are used with permission from the NimStim set of facial expressions (Tottenham et al., 2009). This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
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Music plays a significant role in human life. It is a form of art and entertainment and a powerful medium for interpersonal interaction. The experience of listening to music is often emotional. Previous research has elucidated many of the mechanisms that effect an emotional response in the listener. In contrast, much less is known about how joint m...
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Context 1
... the left side of the screen was the question, "sad?" or "happy?" As each slide was presented, the child had to click one of two buttons at the bottom of the screen, "yes" or "no" (see Figure 2) according to whether they thought the person in the picture was sad/happy or not. The emotion recognition score was computed as the weighted sum of the number of "yes" slide selections. ...
Context 2
... emotion recognition score was computed as the weighted sum of the number of "yes" slide selections. Slides were weighted according to their rank along the range between full "sad" or full "happy" (Rank 1) and "neutral" (Rank 12) divided by 78 (the maximum possible score, if "yes" is selected for all slides; see examples in Figure 2). The experiment was run using a custom written Matlab (student version) program. ...
Citations
... Finger-tapping provides an appropriate experimental paradigm for investigating intentional synchronization. While some studies assessed the effects of interpersonal finger tapping on emotional response (e.g., Rabinowitch & Cross, 2019;Zhang et al., 2016), the literature on the reciprocal effect is scarce. Addressing this issue is of pressing interest not only for fundamental science but also for human joint activity such as sports, military drills, and ensemble music performance, where intentionality underlies the ability to synchronize and generate potential positive consequences such as increased cohesion, empathy, and group efficacy. ...
Emotions play a fundamental role in human interactions and trigger responses in physiological, psychological, and behavioral modalities. Interpersonal coordination often entails attunement between individuals in various modalities. Previous research has elucidated the mechanisms of interpersonal synchronization and the emotions aroused by joint action: cardiac activity aligns in disputing marital couples, spectators share enjoyment in observing live dance performances, and joint finger-tapping evokes positive emotions. However, little is known about the impact of emotions on intentional interpersonal synchronization. To address this problem, we conducted an experiment in 2022 asking 60 participants to engage in a three-way finger-tapping synchronization task. We systematically induced emotional states (positive, neutral, and negative) with social comparison feedback using success–failure manipulations. An analysis of behavior synchronization using the Kuramoto order parameter revealed that negative emotion induction significantly diminished time spent in synchrony compared to positive induction. Moreover, the results exposed incremental struggles in attaining higher levels of synchronization (Q2–Q3) after the induction of negative emotions. These outcomes further substantiate the necessity of integrating the indices of agents’ emotions into interpersonal synchronization and coordination models. We discuss the implications of this work for research on interpersonal emotion in joint action and applied outcomes in emotion-aware technologies and interventions.
... This more parsimonious explanation, however, is unlikely to explain the effect as there is significant research suggesting synchrony in music and dance increases positive affect, generates feelings of social closeness, and facilitates social bonding (Knight et al. 2017;Rabinowitch and Cross 2019;Tarr et al. 2014Tarr et al. , 2015Tarr et al. , 2016. While this research largely deals with interpersonal synchrony in collective movement or music-making exercises (i.e., kinaesthetic feedback), studies on haptic technologies also show that people are sensitive to auditor-haptic time delays and prefer shorter gaps between auditory and haptic feedback via a haptic device (Montag et al. 2011;Stupacher et al. 2017). ...
Today, some of the most widely attended concerts are in virtual reality (VR). For example, the videogame Fortnite recently attracted 12.3 million viewers sitting in homes all over the world to a VR Travis Scott rap concert. As such VR concerts become increasingly ubiquitous, we are presented with an opportunity to design more immersive virtual experiences by augmenting VR with other multisensory technologies. Given that sound is a multi-modal phenomenon that can be experienced sonically and vibrationally, we investigated the importance of haptic feedback to musical experiences using a combination of qualitative and empirical methodologies. Study 1 was a qualitative study demonstrating that, unlike their live counterparts, current VR concerts make it harder for audiences to form a connection with artists and their music. Furthermore, VR concerts lack multisensory feedback and are perceived as less authentic than live concert experiences. Participants also identified a variety of different kinds of touch that they receive at live concerts and suggested that ideal VR concerts would replicate physical touch and thermal feedback from the audience, emotional touch, and vibrations from the music. Specifically, users advocated for the use of haptic devices to increase the immersiveness of VR concert experiences. Study 2 isolated the role of touch in the music listening experience and empirically investigated the impact of haptic music players (HMPs) on the audio-only listening experience. An empirical, between-subjects study was run with participants either receiving vibrotactile feedback via an HMP (haptics condition) or no vibrotactile feedback (control) while listening to music. Results indicated that listening to music while receiving vibrotactile feedback increased participants’ sense of empathy, parasocial bond, and loyalty towards the artist, while also decreasing participants’ feelings of loneliness. The connection between haptics condition and these dependent variables was mediated by the feeling of social presence. Study 2 thus provides initial evidence that HMPs may be used to meet people’s need for connection, multisensory immersion, and complex forms of touch in VR concerts as identified in Study 1.
... Notably, humans tend to synchronize their movements when performing together rhythmic actions, even when synchrony is not required, such as when walking or rocking together (Demos et al., 2012;Nessler & Gilliland, 2009;van Ulzen et al., 2008;Zivotofsky & Hausdorff, 2007) or when conversing (Abney et al., 2014;Condon & Ogston, 1971;Fusaroli & Tylén, 2016;Richardson et al., 2008). Moreover, interpersonal synchrony seems to associate with positive emotional valence compared to asynchrony (Rabinowitch & Cross, 2019), suggesting a possible inherent predisposition to synchronize with others and to thus successfully collaborate (Rabinowitch & Meltzoff, 2017). ...
... The term interpersonal synchrony as used here comprises a broad and varied spectrum of movements and activities that all share a continuous temporal alignment and coordination between the individuals performing them. These movements and activities include finger tapping [18][19][20], walking [21], drumming [22], clapping [23], bouncing [24,25], swinging [26,27], dancing [28], singing [29], conducting [30], playing music [11], [31], and even painting [32]. In this respect, the general term interpersonal synchrony encompasses several specific concepts such as 'sensorimotor synchronization' [e.g., [20]], 'behavioral synchrony' [e.g., [33,34]], and 'interpersonal entrainment' [e.g., [35]]. ...
... The experience of synchronous interaction has repeatedly been shown to positively affect diverse aspects of subsequent social behavior, including stronger coordination, cooperation and bonding between interacting individuals. As mentioned, these effects are evident already in young children [18,19,23,24,26,27], suggesting that they play an important role in the foundations and development of human social behavior. Thus, it is often conjectured that the experience of synchrony during joint music engagement is paramount to music-induced social cohesion, due to enhanced coordination and cooperation between the players [37], [8], [13]. ...
... Finally, several studies [18], [49], [46], [51], [52], [28] have found also positive effects of synchrony experience on self, as revealed by both emotional and physiological measures, suggesting that joint synchrony experience generates certain self-gratification. Specifically, performing synchronized arm curls together with an experimenter improved participants' self-esteem, as measured by a standard questionnaire [49]. ...
Joint engagement in music often facilitates positive social interaction, effectively shifting participants' perspective from the individual to the collective. The result is tight coordination and uniformity between participants, but at the same time, also remarkable flexibility and creativity. How does music achieve such a fine balance between the strict alignment necessary for coordination, and the substantial latitude necessary for experimentation? To address this question, I propose to analyze joint music engagement within the tight-loose theoretical framework broadly used in the social sciences. Tight-loose theory was originally developed for distinguishing between two archetypical cultural tendencies. On the one hand, tightness, which denotes stringent adherence to social norms, and on the other hand, looseness, which refers to a more flexible and less restrictive attitude towards norms. I posit that the flexible form of collaboration characteristic of musical interaction is due to a coexistence of tightness and looseness within joint engagement in music. I argue that the tight aspects of music can be attributed to its rhythmic structure, which requires continuous and precise temporal alignment between participants. Indeed, when experienced on its own, outside of a musical context, interpersonal synchrony has been repeatedly shown to enhance diverse positive social capacities such as bonding, collaboration and affiliation between interacting individuals, but at the expense of increasing conformity, blind obedience and even hostility towards non-group members. These effects are consistent with synchrony driving a tight interaction, inducing a sense of common group membership (CGM), which can endow music with necessary rigor and order. In contrast, the loose side of music may pertain to the ambiguity in meaning and intention expressed by music, which leaves ample room for interpretation and improvisation. I thus propose that the combined tight-loose nature of music, can simultaneously enhance positive social behaviors and reduce negative ones, leading to a tolerant form of group membership (TGM).
In this paper we suggest that basic forms of musical entrainment may be considered as intrinsically creative, enabling further creative behaviors which may flourish at different levels and timescales. Rooted in an agent's capacity to form meaningful couplings with their sonic, social, and cultural environment, musical entrainment favors processes of adaptation and exploration, where innovative and functional aspects are cultivated via active, bodily experience. We explore these insights through a theoretical lens that integrates findings from enactive cognitive science and creative cognition research. We center our examination on the realms of groove experience and the communicative and emotional dimensions of music, aiming to present a novel preliminary perspective on musical entrainment, rooted in the fundamental concepts of meaning-making and creativity. To do so, we draw from a suite of approaches that place particular emphasis on the role of situated experience and review a range of recent empirical work on entrainment (in musical and non-musical settings), emphasizing the latter's biological and cognitive foundations. We conclude that musical entrainment may be regarded as a building block for different musical creativities that shape one's musical development, offering a concrete example for how this theory could be empirically tested in the future.
Synchronization of movement enhances cooperation and trust between people. However, the degree to which individuals can synchronize with each other depends on their ability to perceive the timing of others’ actions and produce movements accordingly. Here, we introduce an assistive device—a multi-person adaptive metronome—to facilitate synchronization abilities. The adaptive metronome is implemented on Arduino Uno circuit boards, allowing for negligible temporal latency between tapper input and adaptive sonic output. Across five experiments—two single-tapper, and three group (four tapper) experiments, we analyzed the effects of metronome adaptivity (percent correction based on the immediately preceding tap-metronome asynchrony) and auditory feedback on tapping performance and subjective ratings. In all experiments, tapper synchronization with the metronome was significantly enhanced with 25–50% adaptivity, compared to no adaptation. In group experiments with auditory feedback, synchrony remained enhanced even at 70–100% adaptivity; without feedback, synchrony at these high adaptivity levels returned to near baseline. Subjective ratings of being in the groove, in synchrony with the metronome, in synchrony with others, liking the task, and difficulty all reduced to one latent factor, which we termed enjoyment. This same factor structure replicated across all experiments. In predicting enjoyment, we found an interaction between auditory feedback and metronome adaptivity, with increased enjoyment at optimal levels of adaptivity only with auditory feedback and a severe decrease in enjoyment at higher levels of adaptivity, especially without feedback. Exploratory analyses relating person-level variables to tapping performance showed that musical sophistication and trait sadness contributed to the degree to which an individual differed in tapping stability from the group. Nonetheless, individuals and groups benefitted from adaptivity, regardless of their musical sophistication. Further, individuals who tapped less variably than the group (which only occurred ∼25% of the time) were more likely to feel “in the groove.” Overall, this work replicates previous single person adaptive metronome studies and extends them to group contexts, thereby contributing to our understanding of the temporal, auditory, psychological, and personal factors underlying interpersonal synchrony and subjective enjoyment during sensorimotor interaction. Further, it provides an open-source tool for studying such factors in a controlled way.
