The effects of familiarity and audiovisual stimuli on preference for classical music

This study examined the impact of visual material on students' attitudes toward traditional music genres. Eight classes of 7 th-grade students listened to 12 classical music excerpts, either with or without audiovisual stimuli. Students rated both their familiarity with and preference for each excerpt. A significant relationship between familiarity and preference was found. Presenting a video clip along with the music resulted in higher ratings of both familiarity and preference compared to audio-only, although the difference in preference was not statistically significant when familiarity was controlled. Among the three types of video presentations used in the study - unrelated, related, and performing ensemble - the unrelated-video condition is the only one for which the audiovisual group preferred the music more than the audio-only group.