The Role of Music on the Segmentation of Film

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to compare a purely percussive, non-melodic soundtrack with a melodic orchestral soundtrack and to examine their effects on the segmentation of a short, animated video. We expected no difference between the two soundtracks. Participants segmented five different combinations of video and music: (1) the video alone, (2) the melodic soundtrack alone, (3) the non-melodic soundtrack alone, ( 4) the video with the melodic soundtrack and (5) the video with the non-melodic soundtrack. We found that the melodic piece had a stronger effect on the combined video with melodic soundtrack. However further analysis revealed unforeseen variables that impacted this result. These unforeseen variables may have impacted previous research and thus the major contribution of this study is the potential improvement to research methodology for future research that involves the comparison of segmentation patterns of multiple stimuli.