I—Derek Matravers

ABSTRACT Jerrold Levinson maintains that he is a realist about aesthetic properties. This paper considers his positive arguments for such a view. An argument from Roger Scruton, that aesthetic realism would entail the absurd claim that many aesthetic predicates were ambiguous, is also considered and it is argued that Levinson is in no worse position with respect to this argument than anyone else. However, Levinson cannot account for the phenomenon of aesthetic autonomy: namely, that we cannot be put in a position to make an aesthetic judgement by testimony alone. Finally, Levinson's views on the ontology of aesthetic properties are considered and found wanting.     

Expressiveness does predict well-being

Previous studies of sex role and well-being have yielded mixed results on the relationship between expressive traits and well-being. This may be due to methodological inconsistencies, problems inherent in early sex role inventories, and narrow definitions of well-being. This study assessed the relationship between the instrumental and expressive traits on the Short Bem Sex Role Inventory (SBSRI) and a composite picture of well-being, including depression, positive affect, affect balance, life satisfaction, and affect intensity, in a sample of primarily white middle-class college students. The two scales of the SBSRI predicted most aspects of well-being equally well, yielding two independent main effects. The expressive scale was the only significant predictor of affect intensity. Expressiveness scores were positively correlated with affect intensity overall, and with positive affect intensity in particular. It is suggested that the SBSRI is tapping two factors of a general positive self-schema, rather than sex role per se.Funds for this study were provided by the University of Pennsylvania Psychology Department. Many thanks to Martin Seligman and Janet Spence for their helpful comments on several drafts. Thanks also to Jay Hull and George Wolford for their help with statistical queries.     

Expressiveness in musical emotions

This study was designed to investigate how emotion category, characterized by distinct musical structures (happiness, sadness, threat) and expressiveness (mechanical, expressive) may influence overt and covert behavioral judgments and physiological responses in musically trained and untrained listeners. Mechanical and expressive versions of happy, sad and scary excerpts were presented while physiological measures were recorded. Participants rated the intensity of the emotion they felt. In addition, they monitored excerpts for the presence of brief breaths. Results showed that the emotion categories were rated higher in the expressive than in the mechanical versions and that this effect was larger in musicians. Moreover, expressive excerpts were found to increase skin conductance level more than the mechanical ones, independently of their arousal value, and to slow down response times in the breath detection task relative to the mechanical versions, suggesting enhanced capture of attention by expressiveness. Altogether, the results support the key role of the performer’s expression in the listener’s emotional response to music.     

Sex,Sex Roles,and Emotional Expressiveness

Differences in emotional expressiveness between males and females have generally been attributed to sex-role socialization, but most studies have not included measures of sex-role orientation. We hypothesized that sex role would be a more salient factor than sex and that androgynous and feminine persons would be more expressive than masculine and undifferentiated individuals. Data were gathered from 230 college students using Bem's (1975) Sex-Role Inventory and Balswick's (1975) Expression of Emotion Scale. Both hypotheses were supported.     

Musical minds

Music might be described as just a special form of noise, but evidence is accumulating to show that listening to it can lead to pronounced physiological and emotional responses. In a recent article, Trainor et al. have shown that specific aspects of musical structure are processed automatically in the human brain, raising the question of whether our response to music has specifically evolved or merely occurs as a side-effect of neural architecture.     

Students' Perceptions of Expressiveness: Age and Gender Effects on Teacher Evaluations

In this study we investigated the relationship between college students' perceptions of professors' expressiveness and implicit age and gender stereotypes. Three hundred and fifty-two male and female students watched slides of an age- and gender-neutral stick figure and listened to a neutral voice presenting a lecture, and then evaluated it on teacher evaluation forms that indicated 1 of 4 different age and gender conditions (male, female, “old,” and “young”). Main and interaction effects indicated that students rated the “young” male professor higher than they did the “young” female, “old” male, and “old” female professors on speaking enthusiastically and using a meaningful voice tone during the class lecture regardless of the identical manner in which the material was presented. Implications of biased teacher-expressiveness items on student evaluations are discussed.     

概念提示和音乐经验对音乐张力感知发展的影响

以小四、初二和高二年级中有音乐经验和无音乐经验的学生为被试,采用等级量表评定法,通过两个实验,分别在无概念提示和有概念提示的条件下,要求被试对音乐旋律片段的张力进行判断,探讨概念提示和音乐经验对于音乐张力感知的影响。结果发现：（1）音乐张力感知是一个随个体成熟而不断发展的过程,小学四年级到初中二年级之间音乐张力感知变化较大,到高中二年级趋于稳定;音乐训练经验仅对小学四年级被试的音乐张力感知有促进作用;（2）概念提示有助于小学四年级被试对音乐张力概念的理解,而对高二被试无显著促进作用,说明音乐张力概念的掌握     

Kant's Musical Antiformalism

According to the orthodox view of Kant's philosophy of music, Kant is the founder of musical formalism, the view that music is pure, contentless form, and appreciated as such. On this orthodox view, Kant is an innovator in philosophy of music, though his views are confused and sometimes contradictory. Sometimes, we are told, Kant indicates that music is a fine art and sometimes that it is merely an agreeable art. None of the orthodox position is correct. Kant's views on music are familiar, even a little old fashioned for their time. His views are consistent. He believes that some music is fine art and that the fine arts are imitative arts. Imitative arts have content, and Kant believes that at least some music has content. Our views on Kant's philosophy of music ought to be thoroughly revised.     

音乐之脑

回顾并总结了近年来对音乐认知神经基础的研究结果,包括人类感知乐曲的音高、理解音乐的结构和意义中的脑基础,音乐家和普通人在音乐认知上的脑功能差异,以及东西方听众在聆听本土和非本土音乐时的脑活动差异,并对国内利用脑功能成像技术和事件相关电位技术研究音乐认知的前景作出展望