Relationships between surprise, liking, and error perception in musical listening

Abstract

A large part of musical enjoyment stems from the interplay between predictability and surprise that evolves throughout a melody, and yet more extreme violation of musical predictions results in perception of an error. The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between liking and predictability in music and establish whether a relationship exists between the degree of unpredictability of a pitch and perception of an error. Moreover, we investigated whether certain individual differences between participants, or the musical style of the stimuli, affect these relationships between predictability and liking, surprise, or error perception. In the series of three experiments, participants were evaluated for musical background, personality traits, and creativity. They were then presented with classical or jazz melodies comprising varying degrees of predictability and reported liking, surprise, and error perception after each melody. We manipulated the predictability of musical notes using a computational model as a way of introducing gradated unpredictability. The results showed that participants had a strong preference for the most predictable melodies. Very unpredictable melodies, as identified by the model, were more often perceived as containing errors, but error perception was more forgiving in jazz compared to classical melodies. There was no evidence that individual differences such as creativity and openness to experience had any association with liking, surprise, or error perception. These results suggest predictability is a strong factor in both liking and error perception in musical listening. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)