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Kurzom N, Mendelsohn A. A tradeoff between musical tension perception and declarative memory. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 29:1913-1924. [PMID: 35381912 PMCID: PMC8983033 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02095-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Successful formation of long-term declarative memory is influenced, among other things, by attention, emotion, and deviation from expectations. A unique form of expectation can be elicited through musical tension, evoked by the prolongation of certain musical progressions. We examined the effect that musical tension exerts on the formation of declarative memory, by composing three original music pieces that contained tension segments, achieved by delays in release from dominant to tonic harmonies. Music-evoked tension was validated using music information retrieval (MIR) analysis, as well as skin conductance response (SCR) measures. Indeed, tension-evoking musical excerpts were associated with heightened SCR, corroborated by increased subjective ratings of tension, as compared to neutral excerpts. In the main experiment, 50 participants listened to the three musical pieces while they were presented with unique images that were randomly assigned to four conditions: tension, tension-release, neutral music, and silence. One day later, their memory for the images was examined using a recognition test. We found that memory performance was enhanced for images presented during both neutral and tense music compared to silence. Moreover, we observed a tradeoff effect between post-experiment tension perception and memory, such that individuals who perceived musical tension as such displayed reduced memory performance for images encoded during musical tension, whereas tense music benefited memory for those with lower musical tension perception. Understanding the interrelations between musical components, which exert powerful and fundamental responses in humans, and cognitive faculties, may provide insights as to the basic features of memory formation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nawras Kurzom
- Sagol Department of Neurobiology, University of Haifa, 3498838, Haifa, Israel
- The Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making (IIPDM), University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Avi Mendelsohn
- Sagol Department of Neurobiology, University of Haifa, 3498838, Haifa, Israel.
- The Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making (IIPDM), University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
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2
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Nadon É, Tillmann B, Saj A, Gosselin N. The Emotional Effect of Background Music on Selective Attention of Adults. Front Psychol 2021; 12:729037. [PMID: 34671300 PMCID: PMC8521063 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Daily activities can often be performed while listening to music, which could influence the ability to select relevant stimuli while ignoring distractors. Previous studies have established that the level of arousal of music (e.g., relaxing/stimulating) has the ability to modulate mood and affect the performance of cognitive tasks. The aim of this research was to explore the effect of relaxing and stimulating background music on selective attention. To this aim, 46 healthy adults performed a Stroop-type task in five different sound environments: relaxing music, stimulating music, relaxing music-matched noise, stimulating music-matched noise, and silence. Results showed that response times for incongruent and congruent trials as well as the Stroop interference effect were similar across conditions. Interestingly, results revealed a decreased error rate for congruent trials in the relaxing music condition as compared to the relaxing music-matched noise condition, and a similar tendency between relaxing music and stimulating music-matched noise. Taken together, the absence of difference between background music and silence conditions suggest that they have similar effects on adult’s selective attention capacities, while noise seems to have a detrimental impact, particularly when the task is easier cognitively. In conclusion, the type of sound stimulation in the environment seems to be a factor that can affect cognitive tasks performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Éva Nadon
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Music, Emotions, and Cognition Research Laboratory (MUSEC), Center for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Metropolitain Montreal (CRIR), Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Arnaud Saj
- Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Metropolitain Montreal (CRIR), Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Nathalie Gosselin
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Music, Emotions, and Cognition Research Laboratory (MUSEC), Center for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
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Proverbio AM, De Benedetto F, Ferrari MV, Ferrarini G. When listening to rain sounds boosts arithmetic ability. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0192296. [PMID: 29466472 PMCID: PMC5821317 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2017] [Accepted: 01/10/2018] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Studies in the literature have provided conflicting evidence about the effects of background noise or music on concurrent cognitive tasks. Some studies have shown a detrimental effect, while others have shown a beneficial effect of background auditory stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of agitating, happy or touching music, as opposed to environmental sounds or silence, on the ability of non-musician subjects to perform arithmetic operations. Fifty university students (25 women and 25 men, 25 introverts and 25 extroverts) volunteered for the study. The participants were administered 180 easy or difficult arithmetic operations (division, multiplication, subtraction and addition) while listening to heavy rain sounds, silence or classical music. Silence was detrimental when participants were faced with difficult arithmetic operations, as it was associated with significantly worse accuracy and slower RTs than music or rain sound conditions. This finding suggests that the benefit of background stimulation was not music-specific but possibly due to an enhanced cerebral alertness level induced by the auditory stimulation. Introverts were always faster than extroverts in solving mathematical problems, except when the latter performed calculations accompanied by the sound of heavy rain, a condition that made them as fast as introverts. While the background auditory stimuli had no effect on the arithmetic ability of either group in the easy condition, it strongly affected extroverts in the difficult condition, with RTs being faster during agitating or joyful music as well as rain sounds, compared to the silent condition. For introverts, agitating music was associated with faster response times than the silent condition. This group difference may be explained on the basis of the notion that introverts have a generally higher arousal level compared to extroverts and would therefore benefit less from the background auditory stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Mado Proverbio
- Neuro-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- * E-mail:
| | - Francesco De Benedetto
- Neuro-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Maria Vittoria Ferrari
- Neuro-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Giorgia Ferrarini
- Neuro-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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Küssner MB. 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. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1991. [PMID: 29184523 PMCID: PMC5694457 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2017] [Accepted: 10/31/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mats B Küssner
- Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Daoussis L, Mc Kelvie SJ. Musical Preferences and Effects of Music on a Reading Comprehension Test for Extraverts and Introverts. Percept Mot Skills 2016. [DOI: 10.2466/pms.1986.62.1.283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
In an initial survey of musical preferences, undergraduate groups of 22 extraverts and 26 introverts (defined on the basis of a median split of their scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory) both chose and rated rock and roll as their favourite class of music. In addition, although extraverts reported working with music twice as much (50% of the time) as introverts (25%), both groups indicated that, when they played background music while studying, they kept the volume soft. Different groups of 24 extraverts and 24 introverts, equally split into music and no-music conditions, were then individually administered a retention test for two passages which they had just read. All subjects who heard music were played rock and roll at a low volume. Scores for extraverts were similar in the two conditions, but those for introverts were significantly poorer in the presence than in the absence of music. These results are interpreted as supporting a general model of arousal and performance in which the effects of extraversion and musical stimulation interact.
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Sogin DW. Effects of Three Different Musical Styles of Background Music on Coding by College-Age Students. Percept Mot Skills 2016. [DOI: 10.2466/pms.1988.67.1.275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
This study examined the effects of different styles of background music on task performances of college students. In addition, students' perceptions of the music and the effect these perceptions had on performance were investigated. 96 undergraduate nonmusic majors were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: task only, task and classical background music, task and jazz background music, and task and popular background music. The performance task consisted of 220 eye/hand coordination problems, and a questionnaire was subsequently administered to the task plus background music groups to assess perception of the background environment. Analysis indicated that the experimental conditions had no significant effect on task performance.
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du Toit K, Heyns PM, Sharp AA, de Bruin GP. 'n Vergelyking van die invloed van barokmusiek en tradisionele Afrikamusiek op die leesontwikkeling van swart studente. SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2016. [DOI: 10.1177/008124639602600405] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
'n Vergelyking van die invloed van barokmusiek en tradisionele Afrikamusiek op die leesontwikkeling van swart studente is in hierdie studie getref. Die resultate dui daarop dat, alhoewel die studente almal by die leesontwikkelingsprogram baat gevind het, die barokmusiek en die Afrikamusiek geen gedifferensieerde bydrae tot hul leesontwikkeling gemaak het nie. Dit blyk ook dat die studente wat aan Afrikamusiek blootgestel was, dit as meer steurend ervaar het. Hierteenoor het die studente wat aan die barokmusiek blootgestel was, dit as minder steurend ervaar en die indruk gehad dat die musiek tot hul prestasie bygedra het.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karina du Toit
- Departement Sielkunde, UOVS, Posbus 339, Bloemfontein 9300, Suid-Afrika
| | - P. Malan Heyns
- Departement Sielkunde, UOVS, Posbus 339, Bloemfontein 9300, Suid-Afrika
| | - Alta A. Sharp
- Departement Sielkunde, UOVS, Posbus 339, Bloemfontein 9300, Suid-Afrika
| | - Gideon P. de Bruin
- Studentevoorligtingsdiens, UOVS, Posbus 339, Bloemfontein 9300, Suid-Afrika
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Proverbio AM, Mado Proverbio CAA, Lozano Nasi V, Alessandra Arcari L, De Benedetto F, Guardamagna M, Gazzola M, Zani A. The effect of background music on episodic memory and autonomic responses: listening to emotionally touching music enhances facial memory capacity. Sci Rep 2015; 5:15219. [PMID: 26469712 PMCID: PMC4606564 DOI: 10.1038/srep15219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2015] [Accepted: 09/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate how background auditory processing can affect other perceptual and cognitive processes as a function of stimulus content, style and emotional nature. Previous studies have offered contrasting evidence, and it has been recently shown that listening to music negatively affected concurrent mental processing in the elderly but not in young adults. To further investigate this matter, the effect of listening to music vs. listening to the sound of rain or silence was examined by administering an old/new face memory task (involving 448 unknown faces) to a group of 54 non-musician university students. Heart rate and diastolic and systolic blood pressure were measured during an explicit face study session that was followed by a memory test. The results indicated that more efficient and faster recall of faces occurred under conditions of silence or when participants were listening to emotionally touching music. Whereas auditory background (e.g., rain or joyful music) interfered with memory encoding, listening to emotionally touching music improved memory and significantly increased heart rate. It is hypothesized that touching music is able to modify the visual perception of faces by binding facial properties with auditory and emotionally charged information (music), which may therefore result in deeper memory encoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Mado Proverbio
- Milan-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milan, 20126, Italy
| | | | - Valentina Lozano Nasi
- Milan-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milan, 20126, Italy
| | - Laura Alessandra Arcari
- Milan-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milan, 20126, Italy
| | - Francesco De Benedetto
- Milan-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milan, 20126, Italy
| | - Matteo Guardamagna
- Milan-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milan, 20126, Italy
| | - Martina Gazzola
- Milan-Mi Center for Neuroscience, Dept. of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milan, 20126, Italy
| | - Alberto Zani
- IBFM-CNR, Via Fratelli Cervi, Milan, 20090, Italy
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Brown LA, de Bruin N, Doan JB, Suchowersky O, Hu B. Novel Challenges to Gait in Parkinson's Disease: The Effect of Concurrent Music in Single- and Dual-Task Contexts. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2009; 90:1578-83. [DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2009.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2009] [Revised: 03/05/2009] [Accepted: 03/19/2009] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Abstract
The purpose of this work was to examine whether fast and slow musical tempi have different effects on selective attention evaluated through ERPs and task performance. A high demanding visual selective attention task was performed by the subjects: without music (BL) and with Bach's music in slow (ST) and fast tempi (FT). Difference waves were obtained substracting non-target from target. FT caused a reduction in reaction time and N2d and P3d latencies and in P3d amplitude. N2d latency was longer in ST than BL and FT. Music played in FT induced a faster stimuli evaluation and response than ST.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claudia Amezcua
- Instituto de Neurociencias de la Universidad de Guadalajara Guadalajara, México
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The distracting effects of vocal and instrumental music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 1999. [DOI: 10.1016/s0191-8869(98)00249-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Furnham A, Gunter B, Peterson E. Television distraction and the performance of introverts and extroverts. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 1994. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.2350080708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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Abstract
Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of music tempo on task performance. In Study 1, 44 undergraduate business students were asked to be "workers" in a stock market project by collecting closing stock prices and calculating the percentage of change in the price from week to week. Subjects were randomly divided into groups such that they either listened to fast-paced music while they worked, to slow-paced music, or to no music. Analyses of variance and covariance were conducted on both the quantity and quality of the subjects' work, using music listening habits as a covariate. There were no differences in either the quantity or quality of the work produced by the groups. There were some methodological concerns regarding Study 1, so a second study was conducted. The 70 undergraduate business students in Study 2 completed the same task under the same music conditions as in Study 1. Analyses of variance indicated women performed significantly better than men, performance was significantly higher in the rock condition than in the heartbeat condition, and subjects in the rock condition had a significantly higher perceived level of distraction by the music.
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Geringer JM, Nelson JK. Effects of background music on musical task performance and subsequent music preference. Percept Mot Skills 1979; 49:39-45. [PMID: 503757 DOI: 10.2466/pms.1979.49.1.39] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The present study examined the effects of background music on performance of a musical task and on subsequent preference for that music. 60 music and 60 non-music majors heard background music in music-only or music-plus-task conditions, and a third group heard no music in a task-only condition. A preference test of four musical excerpts, including the background [corrected] music excerpt, was administered subsequently to all three groups of subjects. Although music majors scored higher than non-majors, background music did not differentially affect task scores. Music students exhibited a differential preference following both musical conditions, while non-music subjects demonstrated differential preference only following the music-only condition.
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