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What It Sounds Like: Familiarity, Musical Affinity, and ADHD in Adolescents’ Perception of Musical Emotions

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Adam Robaczewski^1,2,3,4,5 (), Erika Harkins^1,2,3,4,5, Pénélope Pelland-Goulet^1,2,3,4,5, Nathalie Gosselin^1,2,3,4,5; ¹University of Montreal, ²MUSEC (Laboratory on Music, Emotion, and Cognition), ³BRAMS (International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound research), ⁴CRBLM (Center for Reasearch on Brain, Language, and Music), ⁵CIRCA (Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Brain and Learning)

Music serves as a powerful tool for emotional regulation during adolescence, a period characterized by heightened affective sensitivity. Yet, little is known about how adolescents, with or without ADHD, perceive musical emotions and how individual differences influence these perceptions. This online study examined the effects of familiarity with musical excerpts, ADHD diagnosis, and musical affinity on adolescents’ emotional judgments of music. A total of 138 adolescents (38 with ADHD, 100 neurotypical) rated 55 musical excerpts on three emotional dimensions, namely emotional valence, arousal, and familiarity, using 10-points Likert scales. Musical affinity was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct encompassing musical experience, listening diversity, and receptivity to musical emotions. Two distinct musical affinity profiles (low vs. high) were identified through a cluster analysis. ANCOVAs provided the effects of musical affinity, ADHD, and familiarity with musical excerpts on emotional ratings. Familiarity strongly affected perceived emotional valence and arousal. High-affinity adolescents evaluated musical excerpts as more pleasant and familiar, while arousal ratings did not differ between musical affinity profiles. The influence of familiarity on emotional valence had a stronger impact among lower-affinity listeners. ADHD diagnosis did not significantly affect emotional judgments, suggesting comparable perception of musical emotions across groups. These findings clarify how adolescents with ADHD perceive musical emotions, implying that musical emotion perception remains largely intact in this population. In summary, this study contributed to a better understanding of how individual differences (musical affinity profile, ADHD), jointly shape adolescents’ emotional perception of music, which is relevant for the development of future music-based intervention.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding