Mozart Effect Essay

Improved Essays
Creativity and abstract processing are beneficial traits to subjects in the arts and humanities based on the level of creative analysis that is needed in both. In one study, there appeared to be no significant change in these skills among low and moderate ambient noise levels. When noise levels were high, however, specific tasks in creative thinking were disregarded after a short while, indicative of reduced information processing, translating to a reduced cognitive carrying capacity (Mehta et. al., 787). In the aforementioned experiment, researchers defined low, moderate, and high levels of noise to be 50, 70, and 85 decibels respectively, and used ambient noise stimuli such as recordings of cafeterias, construction noise, and traffic. The …show more content…
All of these experiments should be redone where the subjects themselves are able to select the music being listened to, which could yield different results in the trends seen in each mode of cognitive function explored. While this judgment seems to be rooted in fact that unfamiliar sounds are distracting compared to familiar ones in Wolf and Weiner’s hypothesis, it is also crucial to understand the reason why this hypothesis is …show more content…
These perceived mental states have been known to play a key role in performance, but to elicit the same response in the context of listening to music during one’s studies, a general trend seems to promote listening to familiar music that works to elevate or calm an individual’s mood and arousal state for increased cognitive

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Mozart Observation Paper

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A lighthearted, enthusiastic, lively, and energetic mood filled the atmosphere at the Mozart Festival presentation in Houston, Texas. The moderate sized crowd consisted of mostly older persons with a few young adults and children sprinkled in here and there. From the very moment I walked in, warm and amiable people welcomed my father and I into the building and I saw the performers having upbeat conversations with members of the audience. I had the opportunity to interview one of these friendly musicianss clad in black, Don Burell. I learned Don began learning to play the viola at the tender age of nine years old, managed to get past the growing pains in high school, but did not become skilled at playing his designated instrument until his twenties.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was an Austrian composer and pianist that created a variety of concertos, operas, symphonies, and sonatas. Many of these changed the way classical music was written and even performed. Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was capable of playing many instruments and he began playing in public at the age of six. In the years following years Mozart composed hundreds works of art that were marked both by fascinating emotions, and sophisticated textures. Mozart was born into the world of music being as his father was a successful composer himself.…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Music Observation Paper

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Effect of song lyrics and tempo on cognition, affect, and self-reported arousal. Journal of Media Psychology, 1-10. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000144 Polzella, D. J. & Forbis, J. S. (2014). Relationships between traditional music audience participation and pro-social behaviors. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 32, 109-120.…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Lonsdale and North describe that music has the power to “alleviate negative feelings” (Lonsdale & North 111). Because music can change a person’s mood, people are drawn to listening to music. Similarly, Dave Miranda, professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, describes that people can find comfort in music, and can use music to help them vent their negative feelings (Miranda 13). Listening to music has the power to completely change a person’s emotions and improve their mental state. High levels of stress and negative feelings are an inevitable aspect of everyday life.…

    • 1136 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Music has affected people in an interesting way, ever since music was first created. Whether it’s because of the synesthesia people might experience as babies, the inner desire to express our emotions in the best way possible, or simply because it helps us focus, all humans, even infants, enjoy music. The only thing to figure out is how music is affecting mankind. To begin with, music can dramatically affect your emotions. Hard beats give us humans pleasure to listen to, and composers with serious skill manipulate their audience when they set out to create their music (Changizi).…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is not always easy for college students to find an avenue to help them get ready for a test or to stay calm while taking one. We decided to conduct a study to see if the effects of music will influence test performance and help decrease anxiety. We allowed each participant to choose their least favorite and most favorite music, so that we could see which one would affect the accuracy of the test taking and influence the electrodermal activity. By keeping the tempo (the speed at which a passage of music is or should be played) of each type of music steady, we were able specifically classify which type of music affected each one of the participants.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Out of the many confounding variables, the one that stood out to me the most was the volume of the music. The article did say that in experiment 5a and 5b that volume was regulated, thus everyone listened to it at the same amplitude (Hsu et al. 2014). However, this was not controlled in the first four experiments. A simple mistake like that could easily alter the data that was…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Non-verbal aspects of music such as rhythm and pitch can be altered to encapsulate an artist’s implication within the song, then translating intuitively into the listener’s subconscious. (Giannantonio et al., 2015) • Consumption of music can create an all-encompassing atmosphere for those listening, henceforth allowing an escape towards the ambiance of music whilst simultaneously creating a concordance with the music. (MacDonald et al., 2002) Particularly in those not overtly emotional or maintain a facade within others’ perception, music can thusly allow individuals to express and experience their own vulnerabilities and emotions to their inclinations. (Hall & Du Gay,…

    • 1264 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unbrock (1961) supports the idea that music can increase performance of cognitive processes before performing an action that involves cognitive processes. However, the effect of listening to music during the action is to be determined. Cognitive psychology is defined as how humans process stimuli that leads to a different response. Cognitive psychologist focus on internal processes such as perception, attention, memory, language, and thinking (Mcleod, 2015). Perham and Vizard (2010) tested memory by studying 25 native English speakers with normal hearing and vision.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In an acute examination of the influence of childhood musical schooling’s effects on the behavior of children’s brains, Trainor points to music’s rhythmic, tonal, and structural qualities which contributing a matrix of varied results in a complex pathway of influence5. Because of these three elements, she posits, music allows for an infinite variety in sound which can inspire an even more infinite variety of effects on brain…

    • 2191 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Music Affects the Brain I. Speech Overview: A. General Goal: To inform. B. Specific Goal: By the end of my speech, my audience will learn a few things about what is happening in the brain when you are listening to music. II. Introduction: (This is where you start talking) A. Attention Grabber: The average American person listens to about four hours of music every day.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Psychology of Music People have only recently started studying in-depth into music’s connection with brain activity. Scientists are just now starting to develop theories why music has such a big impact on us as humans and our intelligence (Lerch). Music psychology is not a modern idea though. Even the ancient philosophers – Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras – believed in the calming power of music (“Music and Emotions”).…

    • 1547 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the greatest philosophers in history, Plato, suggested that music has the power to treat anxiety, and that is according to the research of Dawn Kent, from Harvard University entitled, The Effects of Music on the Human Body and Mind. “Physiologically, music has a distinct effect on many biological processes, it inhibits the occurrence of fatigue, as well as changes the pulse and respiration rates, external blood pressure levels, and psychogalvanic effect”, Kent stated. A theoretical study called the ‘Mozart Effect’ found that that the music actually decreased epilepsy in…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Music And Memory Essay

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For example, Salamé and Baddeley (1989) found that instrumental music did not affect cognitive ability. Participants were presented of a sequence of nine digits under silent, vocal music and instrumental music. Then they were asked to perform an immediate serial recall of the nine digits. They presented a sequence of nine digits to participants with two seconds warning time and asked them to immediately recall the sequences of nine digits in thirteen seconds. They discovered that vocal music had significantly more detrimental effects on the performance compared to instrumental music.…

    • 1485 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction: Have you ever had a song stuck in your head that you just can 't get out? Have you ever hummed a catchy tune unintentionally? And as for your favorite songs, do you ever wonder what the entire process was from start to finish? Its questions like these that make you wonder just what makes music so compelling, and how does it affect us psychologically. Music is an ever expanding world with endless possibilities and what I strive to find is the neuroscience of how music affects the perception and emotion of the listeners, some of the many things it can do to the body, and with everything I hope to learn how to grow as an artist.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays