Many people use music as an antidote to alleviate the emotional effects of anxiety and stress that result when performing various complex cognitive processing activities. It is important to understand the effect that music has on cognitive performance to justify why so many people often turn to music to boost their cognitive performance. There is extensive research that has been done, and it clearly documents the effect that music has on cognitive performance. Some studies have been conducted with the goal of understanding the effect that musical distraction has on cognitive task performance, and the findings suggest that music improves cognitive performance (Soto, 2009). However, there is a challenge in drawing a concrete conclusion from either of these findings because the concept of the effect of music is extensive and it depends on a variety of aspects, from the genre to the volume or intensity of the music played and also the personality of the listener. In light of these results, this paper aims at analyzing three Imperial papers that look into the effect that music has on cognitive performance and come up with a more solid conclusion from the findings of these papers.
The first article of consideration is “ The interplay between Affect and Arousal in Recognition Memory ” (Greene, Bahri & Soto, 2010), which studies the interplay between effect and arousal in recognition memory. The study is on the emotional influences that are imposed on memory with the suggestion that memory and cognitive performance are enhanced by the congruency of the emotional state of an individual during retrieval and encoding stages. In addition, the study suggests the existence of close links between the memory processes and emotions other than the encoding process. There is different understanding when it comes to the variations of the emotional arousal, and in this case, it is music. (Greene et al., 2010) report that the arousal enhances memory for the emotionally targeted stimuli and that further arousal manipulation after the process of memory encoding during cognitive performance helps improve subsequent recollection and consolidation of the past neutral items. There is a further proposition that the level of arousal (in this case the intensity of the music) is critical to the binding of the working memory regardless of the emotional mood of an individual. Prior studies have a limitation in that they do not look into independent manipulations of mood using the same experimental protocol, and this makes it unclear whether it is the arousal, mood, or the interaction of the two that have the most significant influence when it comes to cognitive performance. This study was conducted in a bid to clarify this matter, and the researchers made use of music to induce different emotional states in the participants. The induction of emotion through music was critically and independently manipulated in the arousal and mood dimensions. Music comes in handy as the best means of inducing emotion, and it perfectly came to play on this study. The hypothesis of this study is that the arousal or mood imposed by a piece of specific music would have a major effect on the memory and cognitive performance of the participant.
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This research , which was conducted as an advertising campaign, involved 24 healthy participants (13 male and 11 female) who had corrected-to-normal and normal vision. The participants were all paid £ 10 to participate. The two apparatus used for the study are E-Prime 2.0 software (Psychology Software Tools, 2002), which was used to present stimuli on a DELL laptop, and the laptop itself, which had a screen resolution of 12806800. The first step was music selection, where the participants listened to a couple of selected music collections from a wide variety of genres and rated the emotion that each piece induced by placing a mark on a chart. The process was repeated until the participants had assigned a piece of music in all four quadrants that represented the four conditions of arousal/mood conditions. The participants also used Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) to rate their mood before the experiment was conducted. The participants were then presented with a series of randomly selected abstract shapes that they were supposed to study, initially without any music. They were then given music to listen to, they were asked to rate their arousal and mood on VAS again, and a recognition test was done again. The results showed an enhanced memory sensitivity during the negative mood/low arousal and positive mood/high arousal conditions. The data demonstrates the fact that arousal and mood states are critical when it comes to cognitive performance and memory modulation. The variance of the confidence ratings with arousal and mood valence seems to suggest that emotion modifies recollection instead of just bringing out a sense of familiarity. The results of this study show that different genres of music have different impacts on an individual's emotional state, and this consequently affects their memory and cognitive performance. The genres that trigger a happy mood seemed to boost cognitive performance, and the opposite is true (Greene, Bahri & Soto, 2010) .
The second article considered in this study is “ Interplay between Music, Emotion and Cognitive Function in Health and Disease” by (Soto, 2009). Soto begins by explaining that music processing begins from the initial coding of the sound waves by the ears, and this is followed by the cochlear system sound processing, then the subcortical structure processing before the sound finally reaches the primary auditory cortex. The process of music perception is pretty comple x, and it involves the coordination processes of different regions of the brain. (Soto, 2009) discusses the different components of music that usually affect the emotional component of the music, and these include tonality, pitch, and tempo. All the same, the aspect of music preference is largely personal, and this means that the emotional power of a musical piece is dependent on the musical tastes and preferences of the individual. The emotional responses of individuals to music are categorized based on the arousal and valence dimensions. Listening to pleasant music tends to activate the brain areas that are involved with rewards, such as the orbital and dorsal parts of the prefrontal cortex, and this further triggers an enhanced neuronal responding and an increase in the connectivity within the mesolimbic areas of the brain that are concerned with rewards (Soto, 2009). Listening to music has extensive effects on arousal, and this is an aspect that has been demonstrated by recording the galvanic skin responses and heart rate when listening to music. Sad music tends to reduce the level of arousal while happy music has the opposite effect. The extent of brain arousal has an effect on the general cognitive performance and response of an individual. This study suggests that music has an effect on the alertness of an individual, and this effect is modulated by an individual ’ s preference for particular genres of music.
(Soto, 2009) mostly focuses on music influences cognition in health, a topic that is yet to be investigated regardless of the fact that there is so much evidence that seems to suggest that listening to music affects various aspects of cognitive processing like creativity and attention. The study looks into the ‘ Mozart effect, ’ which is one of the most common effects of music on cognitive performance. The Mozart effect suggests that an individual ’ s spatial reasoning skills tend to increase when they are exposed to Mozart with respect to other control conditions. The study further suggests that the ‘ Mozart effect ’ could be a response to the emotional reaction that is induced by the collaboration between ind ividual's musical preferences and music exposure. Thus, there is an evident and clear link between the general cognitive functioning and the emotional state. A positive ‘ Mozart Effect' could result in a more creative and flexible approach for problem-solving, and it is critical in improving the scope of memory recall, and thus it e nhances the cognitive performance of an individual. The author emphasizes the fact that listening to pleasant music is supposed to trigger similar facilitation of the process of cognitive performance. The research reveals an evident correlation between various human skills like verbal abilities and maths with musical training. Musical training is also seen as a perfect channel for faster development of linguistic capabilities in a healthy child, and the improvement of spelling and communication skills in a child that has dyslexia. This research paper is on a couple of research and studies that are focused on the effect of music on cognitive performance. The most exemplary study is one that reveals that the awareness of neglect patients for stimuli in their field of impairment tends to be considerably improved when the patient listens to cool and pleasant music unlike when they stay in silence or listen to the music that they do not prefer. In this case, the experiment is conducted on 20 patients, where the reactions of the patients are studied when they are subjected to different types of music and when they are in silence.
The third article of consideration for this study is (Stewart, 2002), who reports on a conference for music educators, music therapists, musicians, and the general public, who gathered to learn the manner in which the brain produces, perceives, and appreciates music, and why music is applicable in therapeutic conditions such as Parkinson ’ s disease and stroke, and the manner in which neurofeedback is essential for musicians when it comes to improving their musical performance. A report made by Professor John Gruzelier from the Imperial College in London suggested that manipulating the activity of the brain can have immense impacts on musical performance, and vice versa. Gruzelier presents the musicians and those present in the conference with a visual representation of the EEG activity of their brain and trains them how they can manipulate their brainwaves to be able to move their brainwaves in a manner that moves a boat within the computer across the screen. The professor associates this activity with an enhancement of self-confidence, deep relaxation, and a reduction in anxiety.
To further solidify the hypothesis that neurofeedback training positively affects the musical performance of an individual, the international specialists at the conference did a blind-rating of the musicians ’ performance both before and after the neurofeedback training was conducted. They came to the conclusion that the musicians demonstrated a significant increase in the quality of their overall performance, and musical and stylistic interpretations post the neurofeedback training. The research indicates obvious implications for the musicians, who are able to gain a high degree of mental control, which translates to a balance between their expressive communication and technical mastery. The experiment was conducted on a total of 97 students from Imperial College, who were all assessed using two music pieces, both before and after they underwent neurofeedback training. The panel of expert judges for this study used a 10-point scale that was taken up from a standard set evaluation criteria for a musical performance to make an evaluation. The judges were required to evaluate the performance, which was video-recorded, without the knowledge of which videos were before or after the neurofeedback intervention. The neurofeedback procedure uses sensors that are attached to the scalp to monitor the activity of the brain. These sensors filter out the brainwaves, which are then fed back to an individual through a video game that is played on the screen. The participant gets to control the game through the alteration of their brain activity, and this, in turn, influences the individual's cognitive performance. All the students who went through the process of neurofeedback training showed improvements in their performance by huge margins compared to the individuals who went through other forms of training. These results are an indication that neurofeedback can have a major effect on an individual's musical performance through various interventions like boosting the individual's self-esteem and stress reduction during a performance. This research is an indication of the direct correlation that exists between music and cognitive performance, where the right kind of music and physical surrounding of an individual play a major role in boosting their cognitive performance.
Conclusion
It is evident that extensive research has been conducted in a bid to understand how different types and intensities of music affect an individual ’ s cognitive abilities. Different studies present different claims. (Greene, et al., 2010) suggests that the cognitive effect that music has on an individual is dependent on the genre of music, the individual ’ s tastes and preferences, and the intensity of the music. The argument of (Soto, 2009), on the other hand, is based upon the Mozart Effect, and he presents the claim that classical music has the most positive effect on cognitive performance and learning in comparison to other genres of music. Finally, (Stewart, 2002) discusses and analyzes a report by Professor John Gruzelier, which suggests that manipulating the activity of the brain can have immense impacts on musical performance, and vice versa. This study by Gruzelier further enforces the notion that music has an immense effect on the cognitive performance on an individual, and this is what makes it possible to tap on the cognitive aspect when improving a musician ’ s performance. This paper has looked into the conceptual, theoretical, hypothesis, and methodological aspects presented in these three articles, and the common inference from the three is the fact that the choice of music and its intensity affect the mood and arousal, and this consequently affects their cognitive performance.
References
Greene, C., Bahri, P., & Soto, D. (2010). The interplay between Affect and Arousal in Recognition Memory. Plos ONE , 5 (7), e11739. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011739
Soto, D. (2009). The interplay between music, emotion and cognitive function in health and disease. Communicative & Integrative Biology , 2 (6), 549-551. doi: 10.4161/cib.2.6.9656
Stewart, L. (2002). Zoning in on music and the brain. Trends In Cognitive Sciences , 6 (11), 451. doi: 10.1016/s1364-6613(02)01985-x
