Mira Müller Livres

Aesthetic responses to music are crucial for music reception, yet there has been limited psychological and neuroscientific research on aesthetic music processing. This thesis presents four studies using behavioral and electrophysiological methods to explore music aesthetic processing and its sub-processes. Study 1 examines the aesthetic judgment process, comparing music experts and laypersons. Study 2 investigates the interaction between musical experience and taste in shaping momentary aesthetic judgments of musical stimuli. Recognizing that aesthetic responses often occur spontaneously outside the lab, Study 3 explores these processes during incidental music listening using electrophysiological measures. Study 4 further investigates spontaneous responses in an incidental listening context through the affective priming paradigm. The findings indicate that highly experienced participants approach aesthetic music processing more cognitively than affectively. ERP results from Studies 1 and 3 suggest that experienced listeners have a richer information base from perceptual and cognitive analyses, aiding their aesthetic judgments. They also engage in spontaneous affective evaluations (Study 4), indicating a capacity to consider affective aspects in their judgments. Additionally, accounting for the effects of musical taste is essential for studies on aesthetic music processing and could enhance research on music perception and cogn