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Children
Solutions to social problems are affected by music
Bryan, T., Sullivan-Burstein, K. & Mathur, S. (1998).
The influence of affect on social-information processing. Journal
of Learning Disabilities, 31:418-426.
Music is well known to affect emotional state. This study asked how music
might affect social problem solving. Ninety-six seventh grade students were
studied to determine how positive or negative emotion, induced by music
(happy or sad) or by thinking happy thoughts. could affect solutions to
solving a social problem situation. The greatest number of solutions was
produced by the self-induced positive mood while positive music produced the
most embellishments about the test social situation. The authors suggest that
the music may have increased creativity
Music Perception Cognition and Behavior
Beliefs about music’s influence alter learning and
memory
Förster, J. & Strack, F. (1998). Subjective theories
about encoding may influence recognition; judgmental regulation in
human memory. Social Cognition, 16:78-92.
Music has many effects on cognitive processes. In this experiment, the
authors asked whether beliefs about music’s influences on learning could
actually affect learning and memory. College students were divided into
groups which were told that music facilitates learning or that it inhibits
learning. Then they memorized a word list in the presence of music. Their
later memory for these words was worse if they believed that music inhibits
learning. Thus, the effects of music on learning can be affected by negative
beliefs about its efficacy in learning. The findings also suggest that
positive beliefs do not themselves increase learning and memory.
Neuroscience
Nakada, T., Fujii, Y., Suzuki, K. & Kwee, IL. (1998).
“Musical brain” revealed by high-field (3 Tesla) functional MRI. Neuroreport.
9:3853-3856.
Particular regions of the cerebral cortex are involved in language. This
experiment asked whether there exist regions in the brain that are
specifically involved in reading a musical score. The subjects were eight
pianists (22-29 years old) proficient at sight-reading who were bilingual,
native Japanese speakers who also knew English. Their brains were scanned
under three conditions; silent reading a musical score, a text in Japanese
and a text in English. Controls were age-matched individuals who were
musically illiterate. While many areas of the brain were activated in all
three reading conditions, the musicians, but not the controls, showed
activation of a specific area in the right occipital (visually-related) lobe.
The authors believe they have located a brain region that is specialized for
reading musical scores, so that brain specializations for reading are not
limited to language but also include music.
Health and Therapies
Charnetski, C.F. & Brennan, F.X. Jr. (1998). Effect of
music and auditory stimuli on secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA). Perceptual
Motor Skills, 87:1163-1170.
Music can relieve stress. The authors asked how music might influence the
immune system. Male and female college students were exposed to one of four
conditions for 30 minutes: tone and clicks; Muzak (“Environmental Music”);
comparable radio broadcast; silence. Immunoglobulin A (IgA), whose levels
increase during increased activity of the immune system, was measured before
and after the treatments. IgA was significantly increased by the Muzak
condition, only. The authors believe that music can strengthen immune
activity and promote health.
Johnson, J. K., Cotman, C.W., Tasaki,
CS. & Shaw, G.L. (1998). Enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning after
a Mozart listening condition in Alzheimcr’s disease: a case study. Neurological
Research, 20:666-672.
Music can improve spatial-temporal reasoning in healthy children and adults.
This investigation concerned its possible effects in Alzheimer’s Disease
(AD). Aset of 78 year old identical twins was studied; one of whom has AD.
Spatial-temporal tests, such as matching a “mentally-unfolded” piece of
paper to one of several shapes, were administered before and immediately
after ten minutes of listening to Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D
(K.448), 1930s popular tunes or silence. The AD twin showed higher scores or
the Mozart condition but not for silence or popular music. The normal twin
was not affected. The authors suggest that music can be used to help
understand AD.
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