ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with variability. The structure of variability of human movement and interaction in response to music, natural features of the behavior of living organisms, pertains to an interdisciplinary domain. In order to understand human responses in a musical context, researchers should avoid playing the role of a "regulator". The chapter also deals with considerations of the distribution of samples. Deviations from the normal distribution occur very often in human responses. The chapter presents generalized linear modeling (GLM) as a valuable tool to handle such complex datasets. Datasets from experiments in systematic musicology are by definition complex sets. A complete design exists of pre-and post-survey data and the responses and factor levels from the experiment. In all cases, the models have to be considered as mixed. Continuous, nominal, dichotomous, and ordinal variables can be simultaneously present in the outcome.
