Chimps like Indian, African music over Western: Study

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 27 Juni 2014 | 22.10

NEW DELHI: Chimpanzees seem to like Indian and African music over Western music, finds new research conducted by scientists at Emory University, US. But what chimps like the best is silence. The findings are published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Previous research had used only different types of Western music — pop, blues and classical — and found that chimps preferred silence over the music. Emory University researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center decided to check out the chimps' response to completely different music.

"Past research has focused only on Western music and has not addressed the very different acoustic features of non-Western music. While nonhuman primates have previously indicated a preference among music choices, they have consistently chosen silence over the types of music previously tested," said study coauthor Frans de Waal, according to an APA statement

Sixteen adult chimps in two groups were given the opportunity to listen to African, Indian or Japanese music playing on a portable stereo near their outdoor enclosure over 12 consecutive days, for 40 minutes each morning, the APA said.

When African and Indian music was played near their large outdoor enclosures, the chimps spent significantly more time in areas where they could best hear the music. When Japanese music was played, they were more likely to be found in spots where it was more difficult or impossible to hear the music. The African and Indian music in the experiment had extreme ratios of strong to weak beats, whereas the Japanese music had regular strong beats, which is also typical of Western music.

Another portable stereo not playing any music was located at a different spot near the enclosure to rule out behavior that might be associated with an object rather than the music. The different types of music were at the same volume but played in random order. Each day, researchers observed the chimps and recorded their location every two minutes with handwritten notes. They also videotaped the activity in the enclosure. The chimps' behavior when the music was played was compared to their behavior with no music.

"Chimpanzees may perceive the strong, predictable rhythmic patterns as threatening, as chimpanzee dominance displays commonly incorporate repeated rhythmic sounds such as stomping, clapping and banging objects," said de Waal, according to an APA statement.

Previous research has found that some nonhuman primates prefer slower tempos, but the current findings may be the first to show that they display a preference for particular rhythmic patterns, according to the study. "Although Western music, such as pop, blues and classical, sound different to the casual listener, they all follow the same musical and acoustic patterns. Therefore, by testing only different Western music, previous research has essentially replicated itself," the authors wrote. The study was published in APA's Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition.

"Chimpanzees displaying a preference for music over silence is compelling evidence that our shared evolutionary histories may include favoring sounds outside of both humans' and chimpanzees' immediate survival cues," said lead author Morgan Mingle of Emory and Southwestern University in Austin. "Our study highlights the importance of sampling across the gamut of human music to potentially identify features that could have a shared evolutionary root."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=American Psychological Association,Yerkes National Primate Research Center,Southwestern University,Emory University US,Emory University


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