Experiment Analysis

The following is a short analysis based on a similar experiment in my field. 

Thayer and Levenson (1983) conducted an experiment entitled "Effects of music on psychophysiological responses to a stressful film". 

They believed that music was an influence whether it was to influence shopping habbits, increase work productivity, treat mental health issues and cause feelings within an image that may otherwise have not been felt. 

The researchers took an industrial safety video that lasted 12 minutes and scored to opposing soundtracks for it, one 'horror' score and one 'documentary' score. These were shown to  two different audience groups with the third group watching the video with no score at all. Both the horror and documentary scores were written to conventional compositional techniques. 

The  horror score used diminish 7th chords constructed repetitively with harsh musical timbres to draw attention to the scenes involving accidents in the film. The music began before each accident to create a sense of anxiety leading up to the attack, the score would then naturally end after each accident at the next cut in the film. 

The documentary music was composed using major 7th chords in an active chord progression use to draw attention away from any one part of the film. This was used to relief anxiety and keep the viewers shock factor to a minimum. 

The volunteers were studied through measurements of  heart rate, somatic activity, skin conductance level, pulse amplitude, pulse transmission rate and a self-report of anxiety.

The data was collected, analysed then presented in response peaks to show how the audience reacted to each of the accidents shown. 

The horror movie score proved to gain the largest reaction form the audience as stress levels elevated on all of the experiments measured. The film shown with no music at all proved to be the least stressful of the films  whilst the documentary music results showed a sence of relax whilst the accidents were shown. 

To conclude the experiment, it was summed up that yes, music can alter the stress levels of an audience towards a piece of film although was noted that there may be a preconceived cognitive response in the audience to certain compositional techniques used especially within the creation of anxiety in a "horror" piece.