Abstract
Music listening experiences dynamically unfold over time. However, as previous research has relied predominantly on short music excerpts and retrospective post-listening self-reports, how qualitative thought content unfolds during extended listening remains underexplored. Crucially, addressing this requires effective real-time sampling, yet direct empirical comparisons of such methods––i.e., experimenter-led versus participant-led approaches––and their impact on data quality and listener experience are remain lacking. To address these gaps, the present study systematically compared three experience-sampling methodologies (probe-caught, self-caught, and a retrospective control) using participants’ own smartphones during an 18-minute video of a classical music performance. While the control group yielded significantly fewer thoughts, both experimental groups (probe- and self-caught) reported a comparable total number of thoughts. The probe-caught method exhibited greater inter-participant stability and generated significantly more detailed qualitative descriptions. Importantly, participants’ subjective perceived interference on their listening experience was low and did not differ across groups, confirming that real-time thought reporting did not disrupt the natural listening experience compared with traditional retrospective reporting. By validating the efficiency, stability, and minimal invasiveness of the probe-caught method, this study provides an empirical foundation for future research investigating real-time subjective experiences across diverse listening environments.