Visual gesticulation, not sound, dominates judgments of musical performance
Evidence
Tsay (2013) tested the popular notion that “sound is the most important source of information in evaluating performance in music.” He found that both novices and professional musicians were able to identify the winners of prerecorded live music competitions better when viewing a video of the event in silence than when listening only, or viewing and listening together. The evaluation of musical performances was found to be dominated by the visual impact of gesticulations, not audible output. Remarkable. It is no wonder that the visual aesthetics of loudspeakers precondition our reactions to the sounds they produce. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 45
Categorization
- XREF: Extends the non-auditory bias theme already flagged in paragraph 33, and parallels the visual-bias findings of the violin study (43). — connects to: Musicians do not reliably align with ordinary listeners in judgments; Visual and contextual cues bias human judgments of sound quality; Visual appearance of loudspeakers shifts listener preference ratings — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1058 (+3 more)
- SEED: Arguable implication for audio reviewers and hi-fi culture: sighted evaluations of gear are hopelessly confounded — worth an essay on why blind testing is the only honest way.
Related
- Musicians do not reliably align with ordinary listeners in judgments (similarity 0.90)
- Visual and contextual cues bias human judgments of sound quality (similarity 0.88)
- Visual appearance of loudspeakers shifts listener preference ratings (similarity 0.82)
- Sighted loudspeaker evaluations are contaminated by non-auditory visual and social cues (similarity 0.82)
- Musicians make poor or unreliable subjective loudspeaker evaluators (similarity 0.81)
- Seeing the loudspeakers during evaluation actively stresses trained listeners (similarity 0.81)
- Listeners judge loudspeakers equally well on studio-produced popular music (similarity 0.80)
- Musicians judge loudspeakers on different rationales and can be inconsistent raters. (similarity 0.80)
- Recognizing reproduced-sound deficiencies is a universal skill independent of taste (similarity 0.80)
- Sighted evaluations stress trained listeners who no longer accept visual bias. (similarity 0.79)
- Sighted listeners recall prior ratings and ignore audible position differences (similarity 0.79)
- Human sound-quality judgments are skewed by expectation biases, not just the sound itself. (similarity 0.79)
- Hi-fi enthusiasts judge sound quality more reliably than untrained musicians do (similarity 0.79)
- Musicians who are not audio enthusiasts judge loudspeakers on different rationales (similarity 0.79)
- Subjective experience dictates which measurements matter in audio research (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Visual appearance of loudspeakers shifts listener preference ratings
#corroborates(0.90) — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1058 - Visual bias consistently outranks sound in public nature exhibits
#corroborates(0.80) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1379 - Synchronized visual motion captures perceived sound direction within 30 degrees
#corroborates(0.80) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1466