Some Effects of Expectation on Evaluation of Recorded Musical Performance

passive receiver. The individual, on the contrary, is 'prepared,' either implicitly or explicitly, for certain kinds of input; the input is actively dealt with on the basis of this preparation. The fate of any input is at least partly dependent on the nature of the preparation.1 Applying Dember's theory in a musical context, the present study examined the effect of two different explicit preparations on evaluations of the same performance by groups of college music and nonmusic majors. Music and nonmusic majors were assumed to have different implicit preparations. Two questions were asked: (1) Is there any difference in the way listeners rate a recorded musical performance when told it is a professional performance and when told it is a student performance? (2) Is there any difference between the ratings assigned by music majors and nonmusic majors listening under the same conditions? It seemed reasonable to assume that if the differing information was believed by the subjects, it would lead to differing expectations in listening. If so, the professional performance would probably be expected to be superior. It is possible that the music majors' background might make them less subject than nonmusic majors to influence by the explicit preparation used in this study. It is also possible, however, that the music majors would expect to hear more and finer differences between the professional and the student performances, and thus be even more subject than nonmusic majors to influence by explicit preparation.