Investigating the Role of Auditory and Tactile Modalities in Violin Quality Evaluation

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112552
• Publication Date: 2014-12-04T19:42:21Z
• Authors: Indiana Wollman; Claudia Fritz; Jacques Poitevineau; Stephen McAdams
• Keywords: Modalities; Auditory perception

The role of auditory and tactile modalities involved in violin playing evaluation was investigated an experiment employing a blind task under different conditions: i) normal conditions, ii) with masking, iii) vibrotactile masking. Under each condition, 20 violinists evaluated five violins according to criteria related sound characteristics rated their overall quality relative preference. Results show that both feedback are important the violinists' evaluations but importance depends on violinist, type (different ratings or preference). In this way, were found be accurately predicted by rating criteria, which also proved perceptually relevant violinists, poorly correlated preference ratings; suggests two types (overall vs preference) may stem from decision-making strategies. Furthermore, experimental design confirmed agree more than actual for violins. particular, greater agreement violin. Nevertheless, study reveals there fundamental differences way players interpret evaluate criterion, explain why correlating physical properties perceptual has been challenging so far field musical acoustics.