Cognitive Mechanism Of Music Aesthetic Judgment:Intuition Or Thinking

There are two thinking systems in human cognitive reasoning: one is fast,intuitive and high-capacity heuristic,which does not occupy or occupies little cognitive resources(system1);the other one is a slow,reflective and low-capacity analytical process,which occupies more cognitive resources(system 2).We here aimed to determine which thinking system the aesthetic judgment of music was.Regarding the evolutionary origin of music and the musical similarity between humans and animals,the aesthetic judgment of music may be an intuitive process,which was highly correlated with mathematical intuition for both music experts and the public.In contrast,the view that "Aesthetics needs thinking" proposed by Kant has been supported by the interference to the performance of picture’ aesthetic judgment by simultaneous activities.Based on the dual system theory,three experiments were used to explore how participants without music training made aesthetic judgment.According to the “Equal Temperament”,an arithmetic sequence is usually regarded as equal in human ears.A total of 120 stimuli,each stimulus consists of three items,were selected as experimental material and divided into four groups: “triad and arithmetic sequence(e.g.,1,3,5)”,“triad and non-arithmetic sequence(e.g.,3,5,1)”,“non-triad and arithmetic sequence(e.g.,2,3,4)” and “non-triad and non-arithmetic sequence(e.g.,1,4,5)”.In order to examine the similarity between music and mathematics,Experiment 1 adopted a three-factor(triad or not,arithmetic sequence or not,task types)within-subject design to determine the effect of four different stimuli on aesthetic and rule judgment tasks.Experiment 2 further distinguished whether the effect of sequence rules on aesthetic judgment was based on mathematical intuition or mathematical thinking.Therefore,participants completed three tasks respectively: aesthetic judgment,"aesthetic judgment + mathematical estimation" and "aesthetic judgment + mental calculation",in which the aesthetic judgment task displayed the auditory materials and the other tasks presented visual materials.To dissociate the working memory effect from mathematical processes,Experiment 3 compared the tasks of "aesthetic judgment + visuospatial working memory"(Experiment 3a)and "aesthetic judgment + phonological working memory"(Experiment 3b)to Experiment 2.Experiment 1 showed that participants performed better in rule judgment than aesthetic judgment,tending to judge the arithmetic sequence materials as more beautiful.In other words,music experience was pretty important for laymen,and the aesthetic judgment may be noninstinctive.Experiment 2 not only showed the same aesthetic judgment tendency as experiment1,but also found that the two additional tasks of mathematical estimation and mental calculation,especially the latter,prolonged the reaction time of aesthetic judgment and narrowed the gap between the aesthetic scores of different materials.Experiment 3 suggested that the effects of mathematical estimation task was similar to visual spatial working memory task,and mental calculation task was analogous to phonological working memory task on aesthetic judgment.Therefore,the occupation of cognitive resources by working memory profoundly affected musical aesthetic judgment.In summary,laymen’s judgment on the music aesthetic was based on the sequence rule,which was in line with Kant’s proposition of "aesthetic needs thinking" rather than intuitive judgment.Moreover,although only a few studies carried out on the relationship between music and mathematics under dual system theory,this study focused on the relationship between music aesthetics and mathematical process,providing a new perspective.Finally,the discussion of aesthetic intuition and thinking can provide evidence for the debate on nature or nurture of aesthetic ability.