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The Mind Music And Behavior Essay Research

The Mind, Music, And Behavior Essay, Research Paper


The Mind, Music, and Behavior


abstract


The main purpose of the paper is to investigate and present the relationship


between the mind, music, and human behavior. For this purpose, research is


presented on previous works and studies that link music with the mind. Based on


this research, music increases neurotransmitter levels. Soft or mellow music has


a tendency to promote tranquillity, while music with tempo sometimes distracts.


Human memories can be cued by music, and music can promote improved learning.


The brain is a two and a quarter pound piece of living organic tissue that


controls the human nervous system. Music is a collection of sound waves that


propagate through the air, and has varying frequencies and tones following a


discernible order. Yet we all recognize the significance of the brain beyond its


physical function. Our minds are the essence of what we are. The brain


enigmatically stores memories, and lets people experience such things as emotion,


sensations, and thoughts. In the same sense, music is more than just a


collection of vibrations. This leads to the question of how does music affect


the mind, and in addition, how does music affect human behavior? The reader


might ask why such a question should be relevant. If more is known about the


psychological and neurophysiological effects of music on the human mind, then


the possibilities of this knowledge are unbounded. Music can be used to treat


social and behavioral problems in people with disabilities. The use of music in


the classroom might enhance or weaken a student’s work characteristics.


Therefore, whether the influence of music is positive or negative, much needs to


be explored about the link between the mind and music.


Physiologically, the brain receives information about sound waves from the ear


through the auditory nerve. This information is then processed by the brain and


analyzed for the juxtaposition of melody and rhythm. The mixture of melody and


rhythm is what we commonly refer to as music. However, our minds interpret this


auditory information as more than just sound signals; somehow, we are able to


differentiate between certain types of music, and develop preferences for these


different types. Yet, what are the ways in which the effects of music manifest


themselves?


First, there are particular biochemical responses in the human body to music.


Research shows that college students, when listening to music, have more


galvanic skin response peaks, as opposed to when they were not listening to


music. This research also indicates a significant decrease of norepinephrine


levels in students while they listen to “preferred” music. Norepinephrine is a


neurotransmitter that arbitrates chemical communication in the sympathetic


nervous system of the human body. The release of this neurotransmitter, as a


consequence of a function of the brain, results in an increased heart rate and


heightened blood pressure. Therefore, the decrease of norepinephrine in these


college students results in a more “relaxed” state. This could suggest that


favored or pleasant music somehow affects the mind, resulting in the relaxing of


the body. Another research project, undertaken at the Tokyo Institute of


Psychiatry, focuses on the effects of music on the mind using


electroencephalograms (EEG). An electroencephalograph is a medical instrument


that is capable of showing the electrical activity of the brain by measuring


electrical potentials on the scalp. In this experiment, volunteers were exposed


to silence, music, white noise (simulated hiss), and then silence. The result of


this experiment coincides with the previous findings. The volunteers all


reported feeling a calming sensation. However, the researches did not attribute


the lowered tension to reduced neurotransmitter levels. While listening to music,


“many of the subjects reported that they felt pleasantly relaxed or comfortable?


Music may evoke more organized mental activities which result in subjectively


comfortable feelings.” The white noise in the experiment produced an even


greater effect; the volunteers were so relaxed that many felt drowsy and


soporific. This sleepy effect can be explained by the monotonous characteristics


of white noise, in contrast to the variations in tone and melody of normal music.


Furthermore, the researchers found, based on the EEGs, that while listening to


music, the volunteers maintained a higher consciousness than when they were


exposed to silence or white noise. What this experiment shows is that there is a


change in the mental state of people while listening to music; that is, music


has certain psychophysiological effects on humans.


Along with these psychophysiological effects, music has an impact on memory as


well. In one experiment, words were presented to test subjects, while either


classical music, jazz music, or no music played in the background. When the test


subjects were asked to repeat the words a few days later, either the same music


or a different background was present. The researcher noticed a “facilitative


effect of providing the same [musical] context.” Similar research has been done


on CDM. CDM stands for context-dependent memory, which is the principle that


“changing the context or environment in which material was originally learned


causes some of that material to be forgotten.” A group of scientists tested


college undergraduates by asking the students to rate the pleasantness of a


sequence of words, while they listened to a certain type of music. Afterwards,


they were asked to recall these words. The results indicate that the students


were able to recall the sequence more successfully if the same musical piece was


playing. Furthermore, the researchers found that if the music played during the


recall had a different tempo than the original music, then there was a lowered


ability to recall the words. These results are also supported by a supplementary


investigation, where it was shown that a musical piece can facilitate learning


and recall. Perhaps a common manifestation of this phenomenon is when you


remember the jingles in commercials. A test conducted at the University of


Washington demonstrated that brand names were more easily recalled when they


were presented in the form of a musical tune, instead of just spoken. Hence,


this is a consistent example of one relationship between music and memory.


Now that there is a quasi-established link between the human mind and music,


what are some of the ways that music affects human behavior? F

ortunately, there


is a considerable amount of research available that indicates how humans


function while being subjected to music. A group of specialists at the


University of Connecticut studied how people communicate with each other while


background music was present. A hundred and four students were paired off and


put into rooms with either different types of background music playing, or no


music playing. In the rooms, these students were asked to perform some problem


solving tasks that required conversation between them. After five minutes, the


subjects were asked to rate their conversations. Of the students who heard


background music, almost all reported “significantly higher satisfaction [with


communication] than those in the no-music condition.” The different types of


music also affected the students. The researchers noted that the students who


listened to fast music had differently paced conversations than those who


listened to slow music. The volunteers who listened to major mode music


performed notably better than those who listened to music of minor mode. Thus,


not only does music affect the way humans converse, but different classes of


music influence people in different ways. A further way in which music has an


impact on our behavior can be witnessed in something as conventional as walking!


A recent investigation into the effects of music on walking distance was


performed at Ursinus College. Volunteers were asked to walk for ninety seconds.


The study showed that, “music significantly influenced distance walked.” The


conclusion reached by the scientists in this instance contradicts the previous


results. Instead of “raising the consciousness” of the mind, the researchers


hypothesized that the music interfered with or distracted the minds of the test


subjects. A related study concurs with this finding. In this case, college


students were asked to complete two hundred and twenty hand-eye coordination


problems while listening to different types of music. It was found that the


rhythm and loudness of the background music interfered with the attention span


of the students. These last two studies seem to refute the findings of the other


research; but in a sense, all the studies correlate a modification of behavior


caused by the presence of music.


The next reasonable step is to ask how this modification of behavior or affect


of music on the mind can be harnessed. One major field that may benefit from


music’s affect on the mind is education. As a matter of fact, it has been shown


that by exposing students in a classroom to music, the musical exposure enhances


class achievement. A research performed at Glassboro State College indicated


that when music was played in a certain psychology class for twenty minutes each


day, the music “stimulated the human alpha and beta brain waves,” resulting in


the attainment of “significantly higher mean scores on examinations than those


who were not exposed to the music.” In addition, music can also be used to aid


in the education of mentally handicapped students. In a school district in


Prescott, Arizona, music was added to the academic environment of special


education students. This resulted in an increase in performance, especially in


the area of mathematics.


Thus, it has been established that there is a link between music and the mind or


human behavior. There still, however, remains a great deal of research that


needs to be done in order for us to comprehend the why and how. This is a


substantial challenge, considering that not much is know about the mysteries of


the brain itself, let alone how it is affected by auditory impulse. It should


also be noted that although the studies presented show certain effects of music,


in each study there are exceptions. Some people show no signs of altered


behavior or any other effects of music. There are even some studies where a


majority of the subjects show no known measurable effects of music. Nonetheless


there is a great potential for this topic of the music and the mind. If we


understand how human beings are effected by music, we can alter how human beings


learn and behave, as simply as by turning on the radio.


References


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“Effects of Mellow and Frenetic Music and Stimulating and Relaxing Scents on


Walking by Seniors.” Perceptual Motor Skills, 80, pp. 411-415.


Blood, Deborah J., and Stephen J. Ferriss. (1993). “Effects of Background Music


on Anxiety, Satisfaction with Communication, and Productivity.” Psychological


Reports, 72, pp. 171-177.


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Academic Performance of Middle-School Students.” Psychological Reports, 72, p.


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Microsoft Bookshelf 1995. CD-ROM. United States: Columbia University Press, 1995


Microsoft Encarta 1995. CD-ROM. United States: Columbia University Press, 1995

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