Effect of task constraints on the perceptual evaluation of violins

Results from two previous studies that involved free-playing evaluative tasks showed that players are selfconsistent in their preference for violins and tend to agree of what particular qualities they look for in an instrument (in this case, “richness” and “dynamic range”). However, a significant lack of agreement between violinists was observed, likely because diff erent players evaluate the same perceptual attributes in diff erent ways. The present study thus investigated whether there will be more inter-player agreement if musicians evaluate violin richness and dynamic range by playing only certain notes in certain registers. Results showed that the more focused the task, the more self-consistent violinists are and the more they agree with each other. We further examined the evaluation of richness from playing versus listening tasks and observed that players were better able to discriminate between violins in the former than in the latter. Finally, the potential correlation of spectral centroid and tristimulus with violin richness were examined. Results showed that the perception of richness is likely associated with the relative amount of low- and mid-frequency partials in a given sound (i.e., low spectral centroid and high tristimulus 1 and 2), though more exploration would be necessary before drawing any conclusions.