The effect of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

The effect of font boldness, noise disturbance and time pressure on human error in the context of cloud change operation

This study investigated the number of operator errors, task completion time, and workload of subjects at different levels by imposing conditions such as focused text boldness, noise disturbance, and time pressure to simulate a realistic cloud change business process in the laboratory. Results of the study showed that the text bolding of important content reduced the number of errors, whereas noise interference increased the number of errors. Text boldness only reduced the number of corrected errors, and noise interference only increased the number of uncorrected errors. Moreover, bolding was found to have different effects on the number of errors under different noise levels and time pressure levels, with text boldness significantly reducing the number of total errors only in quiet or low time pressure states. Time pressure had no effect on cloud change task error counts, but high time pressure resulted in higher subjective workload.

Effects of background music on numerical and spatial location working memory: differences between extraverts and introverts

This experimental research explored background music's influence on the performance of numerical and spatial location working memory of extraverts and introverts. Sixty participants (30 extraverts and 30 introverts) were asked to complete numerical and spatial location working memory tests, under the conditions of background music and silence. Results showed a main negative effect of background music on the participants' performance of spatial location working memory. A significant interaction effect between music and personality (extroversion and introversion) on this performance was also observed. It revealed that a more negative effect of music in introverts as compared with extroverts. In contrast, no main or interaction effect was observed for the performance of numerical working memory. According to the influence of music on working memory, introversion-extraversion personality factors of workers such as cashiers or drivers require consideration.

The role of mood and arousal in the effect of background music on attentional state and performance during a sustained attention task

Across two online experiments, this study explored the effect of preferred background music on attentional state and performance, as well as on mood and arousal, during a vigilance task. It extended recent laboratory findings-showing an increase in task-focus and decrease in mind-wandering states with music-to environments with more distractions around participants. Participants-people who normally listen to background music during attention-demanding tasks-completed the vigilance task in their homes both with and without their chosen music and reported their attentional state, subjective arousal, and mood valence throughout the task. Experiment 1 compared music to relative silence and Experiment 2 compared music against the backdrop of continuous noise to continuous noise alone. In both experiments, music decreased mind-wandering and increased task-focus. Unlike in previous laboratory studies, in both experiments music also led to faster reaction times while increasing low-arousal external-distraction states. Importantly, mood and arousal increased with music and were shown to mediate its effects on reaction time and for the first time attentional state, both separately and together. Serial mediation effects were mostly confined to models where mood was entered first and arousal second and were consistent with the mood-arousal account of the impact of background music listening.

The dual effect of background music on creativity: perspectives of music preference and cognitive interference

Music, an influential environmental factor, significantly shapes cognitive processing and everyday experiences, thus rendering its effects on creativity a dynamic topic within the field of cognitive science. However, debates continue about whether music bolsters, obstructs, or exerts a dual influence on individual creativity. Among the points of contention is the impact of contrasting musical emotions-both positive and negative-on creative tasks. In this study, we focused on traditional Chinese music, drawn from a culture known for its 'preference for sadness,' as our selected emotional stimulus and background music. This choice, underrepresented in previous research, was based on its uniqueness. We examined the effects of differing music genres (including vocal and instrumental), each characterized by a distinct emotional valence (positive or negative), on performance in the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). To conduct this study, we utilized an affective arousal paradigm, with a quiet background serving as a neutral control setting. A total of 114 participants were randomly assigned to three distinct groups after completing a music preference questionnaire: instrumental, vocal, and silent. Our findings showed that when compared to a quiet environment, both instrumental and vocal music as background stimuli significantly affected AUT performance. Notably, music with a negative emotional charge bolstered individual originality in creative performance. These results lend support to the dual role of background music in creativity, with instrumental music appearing to enhance creativity through factors such as emotional arousal, cognitive interference, music preference, and psychological restoration. This study challenges conventional understanding that only positive background music boosts creativity and provides empirical validation for the two-path model (positive and negative) of emotional influence on creativity.

Background Music and Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment: The Role of Interindividual Differences

BACKGROUND

Recent research has shown that background music may improve memory consolidation and retrieval. Nevertheless, in the clinical conditions preceding dementia such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), there is no current evidence speaking to what effect background music during memory tasks has on impaired cognition.

OBJECTIVE

Across three experiments, we investigated if background music is able to improve memory performance, the most impacted cognitive domain in amnestic MCI.

METHODS

We tested the effect of background music by using a face recognition memory task in patients with amnestic MCI. In Experiment 1, we tested the effect of background music on memory when it was played solely during an encoding phase. In Experiment 2, we explored effects of background music when played during both encoding and recognition phases. In Experiment 3, we explored the role of musically induced arousal on memory.

RESULTS

The main finding from these three experiments was that background music played during a memory task did not improve or worsen participant performance. However, when exposed to high-arousal music, memory performance was predicted by individual mood regulation. For low-arousal music conditions, there was a negative relationship between rating scores for music pleasantness and performance on the memory task.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that the benefits of background music on memory in individuals with MCI are modulated by interindividual preferences towards music.

Emotionally congruent music and text increase immersion and appraisal

Numerous studies indicate that listening to music and reading are processes that interact in multiple ways. However, these interactions have rarely been explored with regard to the role of emotional mood. In this study, we first conducted two pilot experiments to assess the conveyed emotional mood of four classical music pieces and that of four narrative text excerpts. In the main experiment, participants were asked to read the texts while listening to the music and to rate their emotional state in terms of valence, arousal, and dominance. Subsequently, they rated text and music of the multisensory event in terms of the perceived mood, liking, immersion, and music-text fit. We found a mutual carry-over effect of happy and sad moods from music to text and vice versa. Against our expectations, this effect was not mediated by the valence, arousal, or dominance experienced by the subject. Moreover, we revealed a significant interaction between music mood and text mood. Texts were liked better, they were classified as of better quality, and participants felt more immersed in the text if text mood and music mood corresponded. The role of mood congruence when listening to music while reading should not be ignored and deserves further exploration.

Differential Background Music as Attentional Resources Interacting with Cognitive Control

We examined the effects of background music on cognitive task performances using different musical arrangements from an excerpt of Mozart's Piano Sonata K.448. The participants were 126 university students: 70 music majors and 56 nonmusic majors. Three types of musical arrangements were used as background conditions: rhythm-only, melody, and original music conditions. Participants were asked to perform cognitive tasks in the presence of each music condition. The participants' percentage of completed items and accuracy on these tasks were compared for music and nonmusic majors, controlling for the effect of perceived level of arousal and their performance during no background music. Whether a participant's perceptions of background music predicted their cognitive performance was also analyzed. We found that music majors demonstrated decreased task performance for the original background condition, while nonmusic majors demonstrated no significant differences in performance across the arrangements. When pitch or rhythm information was modified, emotional valence and arousal were perceived differently. Perception of the complexity of the background music depending on the arrangement type differed between music majors and nonmusic majors. While the perceived complexity significantly predicted nonmusic majors' cognitive performance, its predictive effect was not found in music majors. The findings imply that perceptions of musical arrangements in terms of expectancy and complexity can be critical factors in determining how arrangements affect concurrent cognitive activity, while suggesting that music itself is not a facilitating or detrimental factor for cognitive performance.

Dissociable effects of music and white noise on conflict-induced behavioral adjustments

Auditory stimuli, encompassing a continually expanding collection of musical genres and sonic hues, present a safe and easily administrable therapeutic option for alleviating cognitive deficits associated with neuropsychological disorders, but their effects on executive control are yet to be completely understood. To better understand how the processing of certain acoustic properties can influence conflict processing, we had a large of cohort of undergraduate students complete the Stroop colour and word test in three different background conditions: classical music, white noise, and silence. Because of pandemic guidelines and the necessity to run the experiment remotely, participants also completed the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), so that the reliability and consistency of acquired data could be assessed. We found that white noise, but not classical music increased the response time difference between congruent (low conflict) and incongruent (high conflict) trials (conflict cost), hence impairing performance. Results from the WCST indicated that home-based data collection was reliable, replicating a performance bias reported in our previous laboratory-based experiments. Both the auditory stimuli were played at a similar intensity, thus their dissociable effects may have resulted from differing emotional responses within participants, where white noise, but not music elicited a negative response. Integrated with previous literature, our findings indicate that outside of changes in tempo and valence, classical music does not affect cognitive functions associated with conflict processing, whilst white noise impairs these functions in a manner similar to other stressors, and hence requires further research before its implementation into neuropsychiatric care.

Physical Activity and Music to Counteract Mental Fatigue

Mental fatigue impairs both cognitive and physical performance. Bioactive substances (e.g., caffeine) have been used to counteract mental fatigue but could have side effects. The present study aimed to test two non-bioactive strategies to counteract mental fatigue: physical activity and listening to music. The participants first performed an arm-pointing task, then carried out a 32-min cognitively demanding task to induce mental fatigue (TLDB task), followed by another arm-pointing task at the end of the experiment. Between the end of the cognitively demanding task and the last arm-pointing task, 20 min went during which participants performed either 15 min of physical activity, of listening to music or of discussion (control). The subjective feeling of mental fatigue was assessed before each arm-pointing task and after the cognitively demanding task. For "physical activity" and "listening to music" groups, EEG was recorded at rest after each evaluation of subjective feeling of mental fatigue and during the cognitively demanding task. An increase in alpha power during the cognitively demanding task evidenced the presence of mental fatigue, without recovery during the following 20-min period. In the control condition, the arm-pointing task performance was deteriorated 20-min after the cognitively demanding task, while it remained stable after both physical activity and listening to music. Furthermore, recovery on the subjective feeling of mental fatigue was similar for both groups. The present results suggested that practicing physical activity and listening to music could be efficient strategies to counteract the negative effects of mental fatigue on motor performances.

Do you listen to music while studying? A portrait of how people use music to optimize their cognitive performance

The effect of background music (BGM) on cognitive task performance is a popular topic. However, the evidence is not converging: experimental studies show mixed results depending on the task, the type of music used and individual characteristics. Here, we explored how people use BGM while optimally performing various cognitive tasks in everyday life, such as reading, writing, memorizing, and critical thinking. Specifically, the frequency of BGM usage, preferred music types, beliefs about the scientific evidence on BGM, and individual characteristics, such as age, extraversion and musical background were investigated. Although the results confirmed highly diverse strategies among individuals regarding when, how often, why and what type of BGM is used, we found several general tendencies: people tend to use less BGM when engaged in more difficult tasks, they become less critical about the type of BGM when engaged in easier tasks, and there is a negative correlation between the frequency of BGM and age, indicating that younger generations tend to use more BGM than older adults. The current and previous evidence are discussed in light of existing theories. Altogether, this study identifies essential variables to consider in future research and further forwards a theory-driven perspective in the field.

Effects of background noise and extraversion on reading comprehension performance

This study was concerned with the effects of acoustic distraction at work. Using a within-subject study we aimed to investigate the effect of background distraction on cognitive performance. In the presence of silence, white noise, and sirens, 55 fluent English speakers completed three equivalent variations of a reading comprehension task. As predicted, there was a significant main effect of background sound, with poorer performance in the presence of distraction (particularly sirens), but no interaction was found between distraction and extraversion. Thus, the findings partially replicated previous research in terms of distraction but were inconsistent with regard to the Eysenckian theory of arousal differences between introverts and extraverts. Implications of the effect of sirens on those they are not designed to alert are considered. Limitations of this study are also considered. Practitioner Summary: This study was concerned with whether white noise and the sound of sirens affects reading comprehension. We found that compared to doing a highly involving and demanding cognitive task in silence, siren noise has the most significant negative effect on performance. Compared to working silence, white noise also reduced the efficiency of text comprehension. There were no introvert-extravert effects.

The effects of background music on neural responses during reading comprehension

The effects of background speech or noise on visually based cognitive tasks has been widely investigated; however, little is known about how the brain works during such cognitive tasks when music, having a powerful function of evoking emotions, is used as the background sound. The present study used event-related potentials to examine the effects of background music on neural responses during reading comprehension and their modulation by musical arousal. Thirty-nine postgraduates judged the correctness of sentences about world knowledge without or with background music (high-arousal music and low-arousal music). The participants’ arousal levels were reported during the experiment. The results showed that the N400 effect, elicited by world knowledge violations versus correct controls, was significantly smaller for silence than those for high- and low-arousal music backgrounds, with no significant difference between the two musical backgrounds. This outcome might have occurred because the arousal levels of the participants were not affected by the high- and low-arousal music throughout the experiment. These findings suggest that background music affects neural responses during reading comprehension by increasing the difficulty of semantic integration, and thus extend the irrelevant sound effect to suggest that the neural processing of visually based cognitive tasks can also be affected by music.

Unsupervised assessment of cognition in the Healthy Brain Project: Implications for web-based registries of individuals at risk for Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTION

Web-based platforms are used increasingly to assess cognitive function in unsupervised settings. The utility of cognitive data arising from unsupervised assessments remains unclear. We examined the acceptability, usability, and validity of unsupervised cognitive testing in middle-aged adults enrolled in the Healthy Brain Project.

METHODS

A total of 1594 participants completed unsupervised assessments of the Cogstate Brief Battery. Acceptability was defined by the amount of missing data, and usability by examining error of test performance and the time taken to read task instructions and complete tests (learnability).

RESULTS

Overall, we observed high acceptability (98% complete data) and high usability (95% met criteria for low error rates and high learnability). Test validity was confirmed by observation of expected inverse relationships between performance and increasing test difficulty and age.

CONCLUSION

Consideration of test design paired with acceptability and usability criteria can provide valid indices of cognition in the unsupervised settings used to develop registries of individuals at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Acoustic comfort in open-plan offices: the role of employee characteristics

Purpose

This paper aims to determine the extent to which employees’ experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices are determined by specific characteristics (including demographic information, task characteristics, and personality traits).

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was distributed to the occupants of three open-plan office sites and was completed by 166 employees in total.

Findings

The results indicated that acoustic comfort in open-plan offices is largely determined by noise sensitivity. Higher noise sensitivity was associated with more negative ratings of acoustical quality, more perceived disturbance by speech and more difficulties in concentration. More negative experiences were also reported by employees with lower interactivity with colleagues.

Practical implications

There is significant inter-individual variability in experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices. As such, workplace practitioners should consider acoustic and behavioural solutions for introducing a greater diversity of functional workspaces within the office, so that employees can choose the most suitable working area for their requirements.

Originality/value

Whereas the majority of past acoustics research has been laboratory-based, this study is conducted in real office environments with a representative sample of knowledge workers.

Eysenck's Theory of Personality and the Role of Background Music in Cognitive Task Performance: A Mini-Review of Conflicting Findings and a New Perspective

The question of whether background music is able to enhance cognitive task performance is of interest to scholars, educators, and stakeholders in business alike. Studies have shown that background music can have beneficial, detrimental or no effects on cognitive task performance. Extraversion—and its postulated underlying cause, cortical arousal—is regarded as an important factor influencing the outcome of such studies. According to Eysenck's theory of personality, extraverts' cortical arousal at rest is lower compared to that of introverts. Scholars have thus hypothesized that extraverts should benefit from background music in cognitive tasks, whereas introverts' performance should decline with music in the background. Reviewing studies that have considered extraversion as a mediator of the effect of background music on cognitive task performance, it is demonstrated that there is as much evidence in favor as there is against Eysenck's theory of personality. Further, revisiting Eysenck's concept of cortical arousal—which has traditionally been assessed by activity in the EEG alpha band—and reviewing literature on the link between extraversion and cortical arousal, it is revealed that there is conflicting evidence. Due to Eysenck's focus on alpha power, scholars have largely neglected higher frequency bands in the EEG signal as indicators of cortical arousal. Based on recent findings, it is suggested that beta power might not only be an indicator of alertness and attention but also a predictor of cognitive task performance. In conclusion, it is proposed that focused music listening prior to cognitive tasks might be a more efficient way to boost performance than listening to background music during cognitive tasks.

Three Effective Ways to Nurture Our Brain

Abstract. A growing body of research suggests that physical activity, healthy eating, and music can, either directly or indirectly, have positive effects on our brain and cognition. More specifically, exercising and eating seem to enhance cognitive abilities, such as memory, creativity, and perception. They also improve academic performance and play a protective role from many degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Concerning music, research has shown that there exists a general positive relation between music aptitude and cognitive functioning. Furthermore, the presence of music seems to create a positive mood and a higher arousal, which translates into better performance in many cognitive tasks. This literature review provides an overview of the major empirical findings in this domain. Studies on both healthy and clinical individuals are reviewed and discussed. We conclude with suggestions for educators, policymakers, people in helping professions, and any others interested in making informed decisions about possible ways to nurture their own brain or the brain of the people they are trying to help. We also provide suggestions for additional research on this important topic.

Exploring the effect of sound and music on health in hospital settings: A narrative review

BACKGROUND

Sound in hospital space has traditionally been considered in negative terms as both intrusive and unwanted, and based mainly on sound levels. However, sound level is only one aspect of the soundscape. There is strong evidence that exploring the positive aspect of sound in a hospital context can evoke positive feelings in both patients and nurses. Music psychology studies have also shown that music intervention in health care can have a positive effect on patient's emotions and recuperating processes. In this way, hospital spaces have the potential to reduce anxiety and stress, and make patients feel comfortable and secure. This paper describes a review of the literature exploring sound perception and its effect on health care.

DATA SOURCES AND REVIEW METHODS

This review sorted the literature and main issues into themes concerning sound in health care spaces; sound, stress and health; positive soundscape; psychological perspective of music and emotion; music as a complementary medicine for improving health care; contradicting arguments concerning the use of music in health care; and implications for clinical practice. Using Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest Central, MEDLINE, and Google, a literature search on sound levels, sound sources and the impression of a soundscape was conducted. The review focused on the role and use of music on health care in clinical environments. In addition, other pertinent related materials in shaping the understanding of the field were retrieved, scanned and added into this review.

RESULTS

The result indicated that not all noises give a negative impression within healthcare soundscapes. Listening to soothing music was shown to reduce stress, blood pressure and post-operative trauma when compared to silence. Much of the sound conveys meaningful information that is positive for both patients and nurses, in terms of soft wind, bird twitter, and ocean sounds.

CONCLUSIONS

Music perception was demonstrated to bring about positive change in patient-reported outcomes such as eliciting positive emotion, and decreasing the levels of stressful conditions. Whilst sound holds both negative and positive aspects of the hospital ecosystem and may be stressful, it also possesses a soothing quality that induces positive feelings in patients. Conceptualizing the nature of sound in the hospital context as a soundscape, rather than merely noise can permit a subtler and socially useful understanding of the role of sound and music in the hospital setting, thereby creating a means for improving the hospital experience for patients and nurses.

EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task

As tantalizing as the idea that background music beneficially affects foreign vocabulary learning may seem, there is-partly due to a lack of theory-driven research-no consistent evidence to support this notion. We investigated inter-individual differences in the effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. Based on Eysenck's theory of personality we predicted that individuals with a high level of cortical arousal should perform worse when learning with background music compared to silence, whereas individuals with a low level of cortical arousal should be unaffected by background music or benefit from it. Participants were tested in a paired-associate learning paradigm consisting of three immediate word recall tasks, as well as a delayed recall task one week later. Baseline cortical arousal assessed with spontaneous EEG measurement in silence prior to the learning rounds was used for the analyses. Results revealed no interaction between cortical arousal and the learning condition (background music vs. silence). Instead, we found an unexpected main effect of cortical arousal in the beta band on recall, indicating that individuals with high beta power learned more vocabulary than those with low beta power. To substantiate this finding we conducted an exact replication of the experiment. Whereas the main effect of cortical arousal was only present in a subsample of participants, a beneficial main effect of background music appeared. A combined analysis of both experiments suggests that beta power predicts the performance in the word recall task, but that there is no effect of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. In light of these findings, we discuss whether searching for effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning, independent of factors such as inter-individual differences and task complexity, might be a red herring. Importantly, our findings emphasize the need for sufficiently powered research designs and exact replications of theory-driven experiments when investigating effects of background music and inter-individual variation on task performance.

Musical preferences and learning outcome of medical students in cadaver dissection laboratory: A Nigerian survey

Background music has been reported to enhance learning in the cadaver dissection laboratory. This study was designed to determine the impact of various forms of musical genre and some of their characteristics on students' learning outcome in the dissection laboratory. Some selected musical genre in vocal and non-vocal forms and at different tempi and volume were played as background music (BM) to 253 Medical and Dental students during various sessions of cadaver dissection. Psychological Stress assessment was done using Psychological stress measure-9. Participants love for music, preferred musical genre and other musical characteristics were assessed. The impact of the various musical genre and their characteristics on learning was done via written examination on the region dissected during each musical session. A positive relationship was noted between students' preference for musical genre during leisure with their preference for BM during private study time (P<0.01). Statistically significant differences (P<0.01) were established in the impacts of the selected musical genre on some selected learning factors. Country and Classical music gave the highest positive impact on the various learning factors in CDL followed by R&B. No significant difference was noted between the cognitive values of vocal and non-vocal music. Classical music most effectively reduced the stress induced by dissection in the CDL while Reggae and High life musical genre created a more stressful environment than regular background noise (P<0.01). Moderate volume level and Tempo were most preferred during both cadaver dissection activity and leisure hours. This study shows statistically significant differences in the cognitive values of some of the studied musical genre and their various characteristics. The inability to isolate the particular musical genre with these desired properties could account for the controversies in the reports of the role of music in academic environment.

Individual differences in distractibility: An update and a model

This paper reviews the current literature on individual differences in susceptibility to the effects of background sound on visual-verbal task performance. A large body of evidence suggests that individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) underpin individual differences in susceptibility to auditory distraction in most tasks and contexts. Specifically, high WMC is associated with a more steadfast locus of attention (thus overruling the call for attention that background noise may evoke) and a more constrained auditory-sensory gating (i.e., less processing of the background sound). The relation between WMC and distractibility is a general framework that may also explain distractibility differences between populations that differ along variables that covary with WMC (such as age, developmental disorders, and personality traits). A neurocognitive task-engagement/distraction trade-off (TEDTOFF) model that summarizes current knowledge is outlined and directions for future research are proposed.

An investigation of cognitive test performance across conditions of silence, background noise and music as a function of neuroticism

The present study investigates the role of trait neuroticism on cognitive performance under distraction. Seventy participants were given a personality test and then undertook a number of different cognitive tasks in silence, in the presence of popular music and in background noise. It was predicted that performance on a general intelligence test, a test of abstract reasoning, and a mental arithmetic task would be adversely affected by background sounds. It was predicted that neuroticism would be negatively correlated with performance on the mental arithmetic task but only when the individuals were working in the presence of background sound. Stable vs. unstable participant's performance on a mental arithmetic task during noise was significantly higher as predicted. The results provided partial support for the hypotheses and are discussed with respect to previous findings in the literature on personality (particularly introversion-extraversion) and distraction on cognitive task performance. Limitations are noted.

Is Intelligence Enhanced by Letter Priming? A Failure to Replicate the Results of Ciani and Sheldon (2010)

Previous research has suggested that motivational processes outside an individual's conscious awareness may be primed so as to enhance or impair cognitive performance. The present study involved a conceptual replication of the 2010 study of Ciani and Sheldon (Experiments 1 and 2), employing the same materials and task, to test whether exposure to the letter A before an analogies test improved performance and the letter F impaired it, relative to the neutral letter J. It also examined the effect of pre-exposing participants before testing to a positive or negative verbal passage concerning letter grades. Priming was not found to have any effect: the participants ( N = 116), under both pre-exposure conditions, gave analogies scores which were virtually identical whether they had been primed with A, F, or J, thus contradicting the previous results. It is concluded that there is a pressing need for more replications of priming experiments as well as other studies.