Abstract
This research examined the effectiveness of visual stimulus materials in eliciting preschool children's affective response to musical chords. Subjects were 35 preschoolers (mean age=5.0 years). In Experiment I variations in subjects' liking for eight colored square cards and colored eggs was determined. The colors used were red, blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, brown and white. In Experiment II children were asked to match each of the eight colored model eggs with acoustic stimuli, using five consonant and three dissonant piano tones. Subjects chose one colored egg to match each musical chord. In Experiment I children showed greater variability in liking for the model eggs than for the eight colored figure cards. In Experiment II, the model eggs the subjects liked were matched with consonances, while the model eggs they disliked were matched with dissonant tones. In addition, the preschoolers had some difficulty expressing their liking for the chords verbally. These results indicate that visual stimulus materials are an effective way to elicit preschoolers' likes and dislikes.
