The Effects of Video Mood Congruency on Music Perception and Memory

Abstract

There have been a number of studies that have analyzed the effects that a musical soundtrack has on one's interpretation of a film. More specifically, previous research has shown that music has the ability to affect the emotional impact of a scene and provide an overall framework that guides one's interpretation and memory for film information. The present research considers the effects of video on music appreciation and memory. Participants were presented with a set of songs that varied in affect of their music, lyrics, and if present, video and were asked to perform a number of tasks that included: an interpretation of the song, perceptual judgment ratings, adjective selection, and a surprise memory task. Overall, results from the study showed that the presence of video affected and enhanced participants' perceptual ratings, adjective selection, and memory but, had no significant effect on interpretation. In addition, our results indicate that music is the dominant component of a song and it is most important to preserve affect-congruity of music and video to elicit effects on behavior. The support and expansion of Cohen (2005)'s CAM model is discussed along with suggested avenues for future research and practical applications for musical artists.