Mozart is still blue: a comparison of sensory and verbal scales to describe qualities in music

An experiment was carried out in order to assess the use of non-verbal sensory scales for evaluating perceived music qualities, by comparing them with the analogous verbal scales. Participants were divided into two groups; one group (SV) completed a set of non-verbal scales responses and then a set of verbal scales responses to short musical extracts. A second group (VS) completed the experiment in the reverse order. Our hypothesis was that the ratings of the SV group can provide information unmediated (or less mediated) by verbal association in a much stronger way than the VS group. Factor analysis performed separately on the SV group, the VS group and for all participants shows a recurring patterning of the majority of sensory scales versus the verbal scales into different factors. Such results suggest that the sensory scale items are indicative of a different semantic structure than the verbal scales in describing music, and so they are indexing different qualities (perhaps ineffable), making them potentially special contributors to understanding musical experience.