Embodying music: Matching music and dance in memory

We examined the ability to detect a match between a piece of music and a da nce intended to express it. We used three pieces of music and three dances, and we presented these under the four following conditions. (1) Sequential selection: participants were presented with a piece of music and then sele cted, from among three sequentially presented dances, the one that best mat ched the music; or they were presented with a dance and then selected, from among three sequentially presented musical pieces, the one that best match ed the dance. (2) Sequential judgment: participants were presented with a p iece of music followed by a dance, or with a dance followed by I piece of m usic, and decided how well these matched. (3) Simultaneous judgment: partic ipants were presented simultaneously with a piece of music and a dance and decided how well these matched. (4) Isolated presentation: participants wer e presented with either a dance or a musical piece and answered questions a bout its characteristics and their responses to it. Participants in the fir st three conditions answered similar questions about how they made their de cision about the match between music and dance. A total of 942 university s tudents participated. In the sequential selection condition, participants s uccessfully matched the music with the dance intended to express it. In the sequential judgment and simultaneous judgment conditions, participants ack nowledged matches between congruent music and dance, but also noted matches between music and dance not intended to be congruent. The various means by which participants detected a match between music and dance are examined.