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Sight vs. sound in the judgment of music performance: Evidence from Tsugaru shamisen competitions in Japan [Stage 1 Registered Report]

Which information dominates in evaluating performance in music? Both experts and laypeople consistently report believing that sound should be the most important domain when judging music competitions, but experimental studies comparing video-only vs. audio-only versions of performances have showed that in at least some cases visual information can play a stronger role. However, whether this phenomenon applies generally to music competitions or is restricted to specific repertoires or contexts is disputed. In this Registered Report, we focus on testing which type of information might be most impactful in a unique cultural setting and musical tradition that has historically excluded the use of and dependence on visual information. We use 27 performances of “Tsugaru Jongara Bushi” from 9 categories of national competitions in performing on the Tsugaru shamisen, a traditional Japanese musical instrument, to evaluate two hypotheses: 1) visuals are predicted to trump sound when variation in quality is low (e.g., choosing between 1st place vs. 2nd place), 2) sound is predicted to trump visuals when variation in quality is high (e.g., choosing between 1st/2nd place and those who did not place among the top finalists). Data from pilot experiments (n = 11 participants) suggest that participants are able to correctly select the actual non-placing competition participants based on short excerpts at levels above chance. In Stage 2, we will collect a full sample of 97 participants in order to achieve 95% power to detect effects of at least d = 0.4 using our within-subjects design. Our results leverage the characteristics of a unique non-Western musical tradition not previously empirically tested with such paradigms, and may have practical applications to evaluation criteria for performers, judges, and organizers of competitions, concerts, and auditions.