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[nullmouse]

From this week's Science:

A new study finds that monkeys prefer silence to music, suggesting that some of the acoustic preferences that underlie music are unique to humans.
Cognitive scientists Joshua McDermott of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Marc Hauser of Harvard University put tamarins and marmosets in an apparatus with two chambers, each rigged to play music whenever an animal entered. In one experiment, the musical choices were a flute lullaby (65.26 beats per minute) and Alec Empire's electronic techno hit "Nobody Gets Out Alive" (369.23 beats per minute). The monkeys spent an average of about two-thirds of their time on the lullaby side, showing that they prefer slower tempos. But when given the choice of silence, lullabies, or a Mozart concerto, they spent most of their time avoiding music altogether. A similar experiment with eight humans showed a distinct preference for music--especially lullabies--over silence, the authors report in the September issue of Cognition."

I suppose this proves Darwin's theory of eveolution, as I'm not too fond of Alec Empire either, much like my simian ancestors.

[lepeep]

they should have tried a load of chin stroking orang utan's on some merzbow or matmos...

[goldengates]

he he

I would have liked to see what humans in "apparatus with two chambers" would look like? They must have been pretty dumb cause you would think that the first instinct would be to look for the door!

The more I think about it, the more ridiculous that experiment sounds! Can you picture the people, wandering from chamber to chamber, pondering whether they liked having music while they sat there or not....how strange!

[666]

im sure the monkey would have enjoyed Alec Empire if they had put the animal onto drugs like LSD.
now THAT would be an interesting study....

[nullmouse]

A human experiment involving one room with loud, abrasive music and a second with chilled, laid-back sounds you say? My first thought was Moshulu on a Friday

[Savant]

but they just play pop music in the main room...