A knowing ear: The effect of explicit information on children's experience of a musical performance

Program notes are distributed before performances at arts centers throughout the country, but research on the effects of this kind of explicit information on audience experience has led to contradictory findings. This study experimentally manipulated the kind of information given to 506 schoolchildren attending a music performance at a local arts center, and assessed the effects of this information on their enjoyment of, attention to, and comprehension of the performance. Results suggest that explicit information of the sort found in a program note can elevate the attention children pay to a performance and their comprehension of it. Program notes did not as a rule elevate enjoyment, except in the case of a subgroup of participants for whom the performance was likely a new experience. This difference suggests that listeners' prior experience may be an important mediating factor in the relationship between program notes and enjoyment.