There is a lack of empirical studies incorporating background music (BM) and sounds (SFX) to instructional videos to facilitate students’ learning. A design-based research study was conducted to enhance student engagement and motivation including four iterative formative evaluations. In the first iteration, graduate students’ reactions were examined to understand the potential influences of BM and SFX in the learning experience. The second iteration consisted of a small-group session focused on describing students’ levels of engagement, motivation, and learning while using videos that included BM and SFX. In the third iteration, a field test was conducted to explore the effects of BM and SFX on students’ engagement, motivation, and learning. The fourth iteration collected experts’ feedback to inform future research and practice. Results showed beneficial effects of BM and SFX for motivation, engagement, and potential learning. Practical guidelines are suggested for faculty and instructional designers to implement BM and SFX on instructional videos. The paper concludes by posing an emergent theory: the design and integration of BM and SFX need to balance the motivational improvements with the challenges of cognitive dissonance and overload.

Improving Instructional Videos with Background Music and Sound Effects: A Design-Based Research Approach

Although listening to background music is common, there is no consensus about its effects on cognitive-task performance. One potential mediating factor that could resolve the inconsistency in findings is arousal. To explore the role of arousal in mediating the effect of background music, this survey study directly explored people’s background music listening habits during a variety of everyday tasks varying in their complexity including studying, reading, driving, and monotonous tasks. Out of the 197 participants, most participants reported listening to background music during driving or monotonous tasks but fewer did so during studying or reading. Participants who did listen to music during studying or reading mostly reported choosing instrumental music and listening to music to calm them down. Contrarily, participants who listened to music during driving or monotonous tasks reported choosing vocal music more often and listening to music to feel energised. In sum, results revealed clearly different patterns in background music listening habits between tasks varying in their complexity that are consistent with arousal mediating the effect of background music. The results also revealed that people have an implicit awareness of the effects of background music and match the music to their needs as dictated by the specific task.

Making sense of background music listening habits: An arousal and task-complexity account

During a live concert, the mind can wander to unrelated thoughts such as personal concerns or past memories or to vivid images that are inspired by the music. This is an omnipresent phenomenon commonly referred to as mind-wandering. Psychological research on mind-wandering has explored its main characteristics, such as frequency, phenomenology, and impact on mood, both in the laboratory and in daily life contexts. This study aimed to harness the ecological setting of a live music concert to examine the occurrence and content of mind-wandering, as well as visual mental imagery as a mode through which mind-wandering occurs, and its relationship with the concertgoers’ moods before and after the music event. A self-report questionnaire ( n = 43) was used to collect data at two concerts of ambient music given as part of the CTM Festival. Findings suggest that mind-wandering occurs extensively in a concert environment. While mind-wandering episodes feature negative themes and moods—in the form of dark content of the visual mental imagery associated with the program’s musical tone—the concert environment still contributes to participants feeling more inspired afterward. Overall, this study points to the potential of live music contexts to stimulate a beneficial style of mind-wandering (i.e., one that leads to a positive impact on mood and imagery), and its findings are in line with those of previous research showing that live concerts lead to increased well-being of concertgoers. Implications for well-being and a call for more systematic research on this subject are discussed.

Mind-wandering during contemporary live music: An exploratory study

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.

/pdf/the-emotional-effect-of-background-music-on-selective-4lbo9i11sw.pdf

The Emotional Effect of Background Music on Selective Attention of Adults.

In a social environment, various types of stress can be overwhelming. Humans frequently encounter these stressful situations in social life. Stress is divided into physical stress and mental stress; the latter is induced by heavy mental workloads and has become a huge social problem, leading to mental disorders and possibly suicide in the worst scenario. Investigations into monitoring mental stress and reducing stressful conditions are, therefore, important for its prevention. In the present study, we focused on autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) sound, which is known to improve the human mental condition through its comforting and relaxing effects. We investigated the effect of ASMR on the mental workload induced by mental tasks by the evaluation of EEG activation patterns in normal subjects. Our results showed a significant decrease in alpha-band activity and a significant increase in gamma (high beta)-band activity under the induction of mental workload by mental tasks compared to the resting condition. When applying ASMR sound, alpha- and gamma-band activity under the induction of mental workload by mental tasks was restored to the level of the resting condition. In conclusion, these results indicate that ASMR sound reduces the mental stress induced by mental workload.

/pdf/capacity-of-autonomous-sensory-meridian-response-on-the-2v2w4ue7.pdf

Capacity of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response on the Reduction of Mental Stress

Although many people listen to music while performing tasks that require sustained attention, the literature is inconclusive about its effects. The present study examined performance on a sustained-attention task and explored the effect of background music on the prevalence of different attentional states, founded on the non-linear relationship between arousal and performance. Forty students completed a variation of the Psychomotor Vigilance Task—that has long been used to measure sustained attention—in silence and with their self-selected or preferred music in the background. We collected subjective reports of attentional state (specifically mind-wandering, task-focus and external distraction states) as well as reaction time (RT) measures of performance. Results indicated that background music increased the proportion of task-focus states by decreasing mind-wandering states but did not affect external distraction states. Task-focus states were linked to shorter RTs than mind-wandering or external distraction states; however, background music did not reduce RT or variability of RT significantly compared to silence. These findings show for the first time that preferred background music can enhance task-focused attentional states on a low-demanding sustained-attention task and are compatible with arousal mediating the relationship between background music and task-performance.

/pdf/the-effect-of-preferred-background-music-on-task-focus-in-4hnzlohnhs.pdf

The effect of preferred background music on task-focus in sustained attention.

The 14th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus21) was held in a hybrid format that allowed both in-person and online participants to join. The SysMus conference series aims to foster a dynamic and interdisciplinary environment for students and early career researchers to share and discuss their work in the fields of systematic musicology and its related disciplines. This year at SysMus21, a total number of 26 oral and 35 poster presentations were held, covering a range of topics including well-being, data science, absorption and imagery, social connections, rhythm and groove, music information retrieval, sociology, cognition, and emotion. An introductory talk was given by Peter Vuust (Center for Music in the Brain, Aarhus University, Denmark), and two keynotes were presented by Jonna Vuoskoski (RITMO Center, University of Oslo, Norway) and Nori Jacoby (Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany). Additionally, four workshops were held by Caitlyn Trevor, Joshua Bamford, Niels Christian Hansen, and Svenja Reiner, focusing on research skills relevant for developing a career in academia. In this report, an overview of the conference is provided including a summary of keynotes, presentations, workshops, and social activities, as well as a review of the advantages and challenges of the hybrid set-up.

https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043221076613

The 14th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus21)

People tend to participate in musical activities—whether it is making or listening to music—for reasons that are related to basic psychological needs. This study explored whether the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) has changed the reasons for participating in musical activities and examined the relationship between these reasons and well-being during as well as before the pandemic. In total, 246 people (between 18 and 35 years) completed a survey during the pandemic, which contained questions relating to the reasons for participating in musical activities—namely the promotion of identity and agency, mood regulation, relaxation and company, enjoyment—and to subjective and eudaimonic well-being before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. Results showed that during the pandemic compared with before, people more often chose music to promote identity and agency, mood regulation, and relaxation and company. Two of the reasons that were invoked more often—namely identity and agency and mood regulation—positively predicted eudaimonic and subjective well-being, respectively, during the pandemic as well as before. Thus, people’s reasons for participating in musical activities during the pandemic compared with before changed in a direction consistent with increasing both eudaimonic and subjective well-being.

https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356221124034

Luca Kiss

Papers

The effect of preferred background music on task-focus in sustained attention.

Making sense of background music listening habits: An arousal and task-complexity account

The 14th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus21)

Reasons for participating in musical activities and their relationship with well-being during and before Covid-19