With over 560 citations reported on Google Scholar by April 2018, a publication by Juslin and Gabrielsson (1996) presented evidence supporting performers' abilities to communicate, with high accuracy, their intended emotional expressions in music to listeners. Though there have been related studies published on this topic, there has yet to be a direct replication of this paper. A replication is warranted given the paper's influence in the field and the implications of its results. The present experiment joins the recent replication effort by producing a five-lab replication using the original methodology. Expressive performances of seven emotions (e.g., happy, sad, angry, etc.) by professional musicians were recorded using the same three melodies from the original study. Participants (N = 319) were presented with recordings and rated how well each emotion matched the emotional quality using a 0-10 scale. The same instruments from the original study (i.e., violin, voice, and flute) were used, with the addition of piano. In an effort to increase the accessibility of the experiment and allow for a more ecologically-valid environment, the recordings were presented using an internet-based survey platform. As an extension to the original study, this experiment investigated how musicality, emotional intelligence, and emotional contagion might explain individual differences in the decoding process. Results found overall high decoding accuracy (57%) when using emotion ratings aggregated for the sample of participants, similar to the method of analysis from the original study. However, when decoding accuracy was scored for each participant individually the average accuracy was much lower (31%). Unlike in the original study, the voice was found to be the most expressive instrument. Generalized Linear Mixed Effects Regression modelling revealed that musical training and emotional engagement with music positively influences emotion decoding accuracy.

In a widely cited study, Levitin (1994) suggested the existence of absolute pitch memory for music in the general population beyond the rare trait of genuine absolute pitch (AP). In his sample, a significant proportion of non-AP possessors were able to reproduce absolute pitch levels when asked to sing very familiar pop songs from memory. Forty-four percent of participants sang the correct pitch on at least one of two trials, and 12% were correct on both trials. However, until now, no replication of this study has ever been published. The current paper presents the results of a large replication endeavour across six different labs in Germany and the UK. All labs used the same methodology, carefully replicating Levitin's original experiment. In each lab, between 40 and 50 participants were tested (N = 277). Participants were asked to sing two different pop songs of their choice. All sung productions were compared to the original songs. Twenty-five percent of the participants sang the exact pitch of at least one of the two chosen songs Article at UNIV OF CONNECTICUT on April 11, 2015 msx.sagepub.com Downloaded from and 4% hit the right pitches for both songs. Our results generally confirm the findings of Levitin (1994). However, the results differ considerably across laboratories, and the estimated overall effect using metaanalysis techniques was significantly smaller than Levitin's original result. This illustrates the variability of empirical findings derived from small sample sizes and corroborates the need for replication and metaanalytical studies in music psychology in general.

In this article, we address the current state and general role of replication in empirical sciences in general and music psychology in particular. We argue that replication should be an integral part of the quality management of science because it helps to improve and maintain the general benefit of empirical sciences by enhancing the confidence in scientific phenomena and theories. Replicating empirical experiments has two major benefits: (1) It increases the sheer number of observations and (2) it provides independent evidence which works as a safety net against methodological fallacies, causally influential but unknown (i.e., random) factors, researcher degrees of freedom, and outright fraud. Furthermore, we argue that for low-gain/low-cost sciences such as music psychology, measures to ensure quality standards, in particular the amount of replication experiments conducted, can be expected to be lower than in high gain/high cost sciences. These lower expectations stem from the general acknowledgments that in low-gain/low-cost sciences (1) research resources are normally scarce and (2) the consequences of inadequate theories are relatively harmless. We argue that the view of music psychology as a low-cost/low-gain science can explain the striking lack of replication studies and meta-analyses. We also discuss possible counter-measures to enhance the reliability of music-psychological knowledge

The pitch identification performance of absolute pitch possessors has previously been shown to depend on pitch range, key color, and timbre of presented tones. In the present study, the dependence of pitch identification performance on key color and timbre of musical tones was examined by analyzing hit rates, reaction times, and pupillary responses of absolute pitch possessors (n = 9) and nonpossessors (n = 12) during a pitch identification task. Results revealed a significant dependence of pitch identification hit rate but not reaction time on timbre and key color in both groups. Among absolute pitch possessors, peak dilation of the pupil was significantly dependent on key color whereas the effect of timbre was marginally significant. Peak dilation of the pupil differed significantly between absolute pitch possessors and nonpossessors. The observed effects point to the importance of learning factors in the acquisition of absolute pitch.

The present study investigates the decay of pitch memory over time. In a delayed pitch comparison paradigm, participants had to memorize the pitch of a Shepard tone, with silent, overt, or without any rehearsal. During overt rehearsal, recordings of the rehearsing were effectuated. Performance was best for silent rehearsal and worst for overt rehearsal. The differences, although partially significant, were not marked. The voice pitch during overt rehearsal was compatible with a random walk model, providing a possible explanation of why rehearsal does not improve the retention of the pitch trace.