The Effect of Temperament Systems on Emotion Induction and Verbal Identification Performance of Makams in Turkish Makam Music

There are various musical features that are yet to be studied in music with regard to cognitive processing and emotional meaning. This thesis aimed to explore one of these features – the effect of the temperament system on emotion induction and verbal identification performance in Turkish makam music. In particular, employing the assumptions of statistical learning in music and music expectation theories which argue that listeners anticipate most strongly the sound sequences to which they have been most frequently exposed. This exploratory aim was investigated in three different experiments. The first experiment explored whether presenting an unfamiliar tonal context within a culturally and formally familiar and unfamiliar temperament system might cause different reactions in terms of the emotion induction of that unfamiliar tonal context and verbal identification of presented musical structure. Moreover, the first experiment also served as a pilot study that tested the thesis’s preliminary predictions and the proposed method. The second experiment investigated the first experiments’ findings by extending exposure time and using novel stimuli. Furthermore, Experiment 2 also included another experimental paradigm to test whether the surrounding musical/cultural environment might affect the participants’ experience of temperament systems even though they were educated in the Western music tradition. While the previous two experiments indicated a potential effect of veridical expectations while experiencing temperament systems, the third experiment aimed to explore the existence of temperament systems in schematic expectations. Overall, the findings of the thesis indicated that the intensity of emotions differed according to the familiar and unfamiliar temperament systems; familiar temperament systems induced more vitality when compared to unfamiliar temperament systems. Furthermore, the experience of uneasy emotions (e.g. sadness, tension) was congruent between the type of ear training course and type of stimulus temperament. However, the congruency effect was not observed in all conditions and differed according to the ear training course, temperament system and country variables. On the other hand, neither temperament systems nor temperament-based ear training courses influenced the verbal identification performance. Also, the ‘goodness-of-fit’ ratings indicated that temperament systems might be encoded in schematic memory as a consequence of statistical exposure and might be stronger in smaller intervals and when combined with a familiar syntax. While there were no constant findings that temperament systems are in place in all situations, the findings indicated that temperament systems are a musical component that might independently influence emotion induction in music.