Suspense and Music Cognition

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Overview ------------------------------------------------- The focus of this paper and experiment will be on the limits of rhythmic entrainment in response to unexpectedness and suspense, and the resulting emotions that follow from the denial or fulfillment of expectations. The paper will begin with a brief background that will help give a foundation to rhythmic entrainment as well as the definition of suspense and other established theories that will be utilized in my experiment such as expectancy and emotional response. ------------------------------------------------- Much research has already been put forth on the subject of entrainment. To begin simply, meter and rhythm are the foundations of entrainment. At this point it is imperative to define meter and rhythm. Justin London puts an importance on the separation of rhythm and meter. According to London, rhythm involves the patterns of duration that are phenomenally present in the music while: Meter involves our initial perception as well as the subsequent anticipation of a series of beats that we abstract from the rhythmic surface of the music while it unfolds in time. In psychological terms, rhythm involves the structure of the temporal stimulus while meter involves our perception and cognition of such a stimulus. (2004 pg. 4) London’s explanation of meter and rhythm do well to hint at the overlying purpose of meter and rhythm; they both serve as a focus for attention to successive beats. Beats are perceived pulses that mark equally spaced points in time, either in the form of sounded events or hypothetical (unsounded) time points. Beat perception is established by the presence of musical events; however, once a sense of beat has been established, it may continue in the mind of the listener even if the event train temporarily comes into conflict with the pulse series, or after the event train

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