Manual motor reaction while being absorbed into popular music

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103088Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Does being absorbed into music slow down or speed up motor reactions?

  • Results indicate that musical absorption induces flow-driven behavior.

  • Musical tempo neither affected motor reactions nor being absorbed.

  • Replications indicate that state absorption is highly dependent on task settings.

Abstract

In three experiments, we investigated the behavioral consequences of being absorbed into music on performance in a concurrent task. We tested two competing hypotheses: Based on a cognitive load account, captivation of attention by the music and state absorption might slow down reactions in the decisional task. Alternatively, music could induce spontaneous motor activity, and being absorbed in music might result in a more autonomous, flow-driven behavior with quicker motor reactions. Participants performed a simple, visual, two-alternative forced-choice task while listening to popular musical excerpts. Subsequently, they rated their subjective experience using a short questionnaire. We presented music in four tempo categories (between 80 and 140 BPM) to account for a potential effect of tempo and an interaction between tempo and absorption. In Experiment 1, absorption was related to decreased reaction times (RTs) in the visual task. This effect was small, as expected in this setting, but replicable in Experiment 2. There was no effect of the music’s tempo on RTs but a tendency of mind wandering to relate to task performance. After slightly changing the study setting in Experiment 3, flow predicted decreased RTs, but absorption alone — as part of the flow construct — did not predict RTs. To sum up, we demonstrated that being absorbed in music can have the behavioral consequence of speeded manual reactions in specific task contexts, and people seem to integrate the music into an active, flow-driven and therefore enhanced performance. However, shown relations depend on task settings, and a systematic study of context is necessary to understand how induced states and their measurement contribute to the findings.

Introduction

Of the variety of psychological states that music can evoke, perhaps one of the most highly prized is the notion of absorption: moments of being completely captivated by the musical sounds (Hegel, 1835-38/1975). This transcendental state of mind is a commonly reported phenomenon by music listeners across a variety of musical styles and cultures (Becker, 2004, Rouget, 1985); from classical music to dance and popular music (Herbert, 2011). It has occupied many philosophers and music theorists for centuries (e.g., Hoffmann, 1989, Wackenroder, 1991) and acquired more and more attention from disciplines such as psychology and aesthetics in the context of video-games, literature, music, and arts (e.g., Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000, Cupchik, 2001, Garrido & Schubert, 2011, Koopman, 2016, Kuijpers et al., 2014, Wild et al., 1995). In the music literature, though, empirical research has so far mostly been directed to its trait aspects (Garrido & Schubert, 2011, Hogue et al., 2016, Kreutz et al., 2008, Sandstrom and Russo, 2013) to the expense of its various state manifestations (Herbert, 2011, Hall et al., 2016, Schäfer et al., 2013, Vroegh, 2019).

In this study, we investigate the behavioral consequences of state absorption using a dual-task design. Participants performed a simple, visual two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) task while listening to music. Two outcomes are conceivable: absorbed listening might result in a slowing of motor reactions, a prediction derived from a cognitive load account (Lange et al., 2017, Snodgrass and Lynn, 1989). However, based on the relation between absorption and flow-driven behavior (e.g., Pates et al., 2003, Stupacher, 2019), an alternative assumption predicts speeding of reactions.

Tellegen and Atkinson (1974) conceptualized absorption as a distinct cognitive style representing total attention that fully engages one’s representational (i.e., perceptual, motoric, imaginative) resources to process the object of attention. It occurs when a single stimulus or a unified group of stimuli is focused on to the expense of others. Likewise, Butler (2004) defined absorption as an “intense focal concentration and cognitive involvement in one (or more) aspect(s) of conscious awareness, resulting in the exclusion (dissociation) of other content from the phenomenal field and, often, the context in which it is experienced, for example, the loss of self-awareness and self-reflection, the experience of volition, or the experience of relatedness to self or world” (p.5). Indeed, as the capacity for human cognitive processing is limited (Baddeley, 1986, Cowan, 2005, Miyake and Shah, 1999), one consequently needs to select or prioritize some of all available information for further processing (Broadbent, 1971). One assumed component for selection is the attentional focus (e.g., Cowan, 1995, Miyake and Shah, 1999), which can be directed to perceptual space (“outward”) or to mental representations (“inward”; Chun, Golomb, & Turk-Browne, 2011). Absorption, then, might first of all require an outward-directed focus and can be differentiated from memory retrieval or day-dreaming activities like mind-wandering.

Recently, Lange et al. (2017) used a resource-dependent definition of musical absorption in an eye-tracking study measuring microsaccade rates as an indicator for cognitive load. Microsaccade activity was reduced with increased absorption into music, similarly to what has been demonstrated by cognitive load in, for example, mental arithmetic (Gao et al., 2015, Siegenthaler et al., 2013). Using a similar line of reasoning, Snodgrass & Lynn (1989) measured manual RTs onto a highly salient auditory stimulus (pure tone of 440 Hz, 85 dB) that was presented while listening to music. Subjective absorption into music was measured by the sum score of four ratings including focused attention, absorption, interest, and concentration. Reaction times to detect the salient sound correlated positively with the sum score, indicating slowing by absorption. However, a simple detection task like this does not require central capacity (e.g., Pashler, 1984). The finding rather corresponds to the assumption that when being absorbed, it might take longer to disengage attention from the music and redirect it to the distractor tone or the response execution. However, correlation was very low (r = .32), and, to our knowledge, an effect of intense music listening on manual RTs has not been replicated so far. Using a 2AFC RT task, our study aimed to continue and extend this research.

Whereas music played in the background has been demonstrated to have a negative effect on performance in complex cognitive tasks (e.g., Avila et al., 2011, Salamé and Baddeley, 1989, Thompson et al., 2012), beneficial effects of music have been shown in applied work settings (Kirkpatrick, 1943). In particular, the effect of background music on industrial efficiency has been broadly investigated. For example, early reviews (Fox, 1971, Kirkpatrick, 1943) conclude that music increases productivity through increased vigilance, decreased boredom, and counteracting fatigue. Music also results in an overall higher work motivation shown by increased punctuality and decreased staff turnover. The beneficial effect of music has also been explained by an improved mood (e.g., Kerr, 1942). Importantly, this positive effect seems to be limited to more repetitive motor tasks (Kirkpatrick, 1943). Early reports are complemented by quasi-experimental studies, suggesting that music improves performance, benefits mood, and increases relaxation at work (e.g., Oldham, Cummings, Mischel, Schmidtke, & Zhou, 1995).

Improved motor activity during music listening has also been investigated in the context of sports (for reviews see Karageorghis and Priest, 2012a, Karageorghis and Priest, 2012b). Again, music listening is assumed to result in changes of physiology, arousal, motivation, and mood, but this research also stresses the importance of accounting for inter-individual differences, gender, and type of music. In particular, the simple, repetitive activities seem to benefit most from added music.

How does absorption come into play here? Given the effects of music onto motor activity and sports reported above, absorption—as a highly pleasurable experience—should enhance any general effect of music. Then, increased absorption will be related to beneficial and speeded performance. This is analogous to an absorption account that includes aspects of diminished self-monitoring and a sense of automaticity (Herbert, 2011, Vroegh, 2018), which would also predict decreased RTs in a dual task when being more absorbed in music. In the 2AFC task applied in our study, the reaction in the visual task was required very regularly (about every 4 sec), and, because of its repetitive character, this task might promote such positive effects.

Both mind wandering and absorption encompass a reduced awareness of one’s surroundings, but mind wandering is markedly different from absorption in that attentional focus is directed on stimulus-irrelevant thoughts (Mooneyham & Schooler, 2013). Mind-wandering has correspondingly been described as attentional disengagement, in which the mind is decoupled from perceptual processing of the environment and is characterized by an inward-directed attentional focus (Schooler, Smallwood, Christoff, Handy, Reichle, & Sayette, 2011). Converging evidence comes from findings showing shallower task processing during mind-wandering episodes, for instance, reduced semantic processing during reading (Schad, Nuthmann, & Engbert, 2012). Mind wandering has also been demonstrated to be related to longer response times, for example, in manual tasks (e.g., Smallwood, Brown, Baird, Mrazek, Franklin, & Schooler, 2012) or for fixation durations during reading (e.g., Reichle, Reineberg, & Schooler, 2010).

In our study, we implemented self-rated mind wandering to compare its effect with state absorption. We expected mind wandering to increase mean RTs because of perceptual decoupling. In the first two experiments, we included a one-item measure of mind wandering only, which is arguably a simplification (e.g., Seli et al., 2016, Seli et al., 2018). We attempted to differentiate between intentional and unintentional mind wandering in the third experiment.

An additional goal of our study was to explore the effect of musical tempo on manual reaction times. Physiological studies demonstrated that beat perception requires low attentional capacity (Bouwer et al., 2014, Damsma and van Rijn, 2017, Geiser et al., 2010). Even newborns show reactions onto beat omissions, indicating that it is a basic process that does not necessarily need musical expertise (Winkler, Háden, Ladinig, Sziller, & Honing, 2009). Moreover, attention fluctuates across time in a periodic manner and this periodicity is locked to neurological oscillations (e.g., Busch, Dubois, & van Rullen, 2009), indicating that bodily processes are inherently rhythmic. This raises the question whether beats of various tempi might affect motor reactions.

Indeed, research on sports and driving has shown that fast music is related to a speed up of motor reactions (e.g., rowing strokes per minute: Rendi, Szabo, & Szabo, 2008; treadmill speed: Edworthy & Waring, 2006; driving: Brodsky, 2002, Cassidy and MacDonald, 2009, Dalton and Behm, 2007; note that speeding up was sometimes on the expense of an increase in performance failures, a typical speed-accuracy trade-off). Musical tempo also had an effect on eye-movement control during reading (Lange, Pieczykolan, Trukenbrod, & Huestegge, 2018). There is one study on complex decision making that investigated the modulating effect of tempo in task performance: Fast tempo resulted in an accuracy benefit but no speed up (Day, Lin, Huang, & Chuang, 2009).

The exact underlying mechanisms for musical tempo effects are still a question of debate. Several factors might come into play. Besides some form of cross-modal crosstalk, inducing high arousal by fast music has been discussed (e.g., Cassidy and MacDonald, 2009, Day et al., 2009, Husain, Thompson, & Schellenberg, 2002). In addition, slow music during fast sports activities might decrease positive engagement (enthusiasm) and energetic feelings (Szabo & Hoban, 2004). That is, slow music might slow down (e.g., Becker, Chambliss, Marsh, & Montemayor, 1995) by down regulation of arousal levels (Szabo & Hoban, 2004). Alternatively, fast music might prime the concept of speed on a higher cognitive level. Higher tempo is associated with higher perceived activity (e.g., agitated-calm, tense-relaxed; Holbrook & Anand, 1990). Priming the associated activity thus might alter motor reactions (e.g., similarly to stereotype priming, Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996).

In our study, we included both musical tempo and its interaction with absorption as predictors of manual RTs. From a cognitive load point of view, higher absorption and mind-wandering should increase reaction times (main effect of absorption and mind wandering), whereas the flow-driven account predicts a speed-up by absorption (i.e., decrease in reaction times). In addition, cross-modal crosstalk, arousal induction, or speed priming might decrease RTs with higher tempo (main effect of tempo). Absorption might intensify an effect of tempo by directing more attention towards the music and processing of musical features (interaction of absorption and tempo). Finally, we were interested in comparing a single-item measure for absorption (cf. Lange et al., 2017) with a short absorption scale (cf. Snodgrass & Lynn, 1989). Both types of measures were related to a slowing of motor reactions in the past, and the comparison will reveal whether a single item is sufficient.

In our study, we applied a 2AFC RT task. Three processing stages can be differentiated in this task: (A) the perceptual stage of stimulus perception and identification, (B) the central stage of decision making, and (C) the motor stage of response execution. Classical theories on dual-task interference assume that the initial perceptual stage as well as the response execution does not require central resources, but the decisional stage does (Pashler, 1994). This has been demonstrated by presenting two stimulus–response tasks simultaneously or in close temporal proximity. Whereas the first or dominant task is not affected by the second, response to the second task is typically delayed. To investigate the central bottleneck, the two tasks require two separate responses with associated stimulus–response mappings. Our task procedure can be mapped on this dual-task design, but music listening itself does not require a specific response and no stimulus–response mapping has to be retrieved. However, listening to  music requires constant processing, that is stimulus encoding as well as matching with the past to understand the music’s structure. If we think of music listening as a first and the 2AFC task as a second task, the capacity problem (cognitive load account) does not arise from a conflict in two decision stages but from poor preparation of the stimulus–response mapping for the second task by the processing load of the first task (Logan, 1978, Pashler, 1994). In this case, stronger absorption (e.g., more capacity shifted to process the musical stimulus) should result in slowing of the 2AFC response.

The flow-driven speeding account is compatible with this dual-task setting as well. Putting load onto the cognitive system can be avoided by scheduling the tasks appropriately, for example, prioritizing the visual 2AFC when the visual stimulus occurs and delaying processing of music during this time. Alternatively, participants might automatize their behavior in the 2AFC task. Automatized behavior has been demonstrated with practice (Ruthruff et al., 2006, Maquestiaux et al., 2008), but not all participants can reach automatization. There are inter-individual differences in the ability to automatize behavior (Maquestiaux, Laguë-Bauvais, Ruthruff, Hartly, & Bherer, 2010). We chose a 2AFC task to ensure cognitive load while limiting task difficulty to avoid complete disengagement from the music. This task is rather simple and repetitive and does not put heavy cognitive load onto the system—despite the fact that it has to pass the central bottleneck. This might allow for positive flow-driven effects or promotion of automatized behavior. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that high arousal (which relates to flow states) decreased RTs in a 2AFC task (Zwosta, Hommel, Goschke, & Fischer, 2013).

Section snippets

Participants

Thirty participants (18 female, mean age M = 25 years, SD = 5, one was left-handed) were recruited from the participant database of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Most of them were students. Only participants reporting normal vision and hearing were recruited. All participants gave informed consent and were instructed both verbally and in writing. Participants received a compensation of 10 € per hour and data were collected in one session of about 60–80 min duration.

Apparatus

The

Method

Thirty-one participants (25 female, mean age M = 25 years, SD = 4, one was left-handed) were recruited. None of them participated in Experiment 1. Naturally, the quantiles of the absorption ratings were slightly different from Experiment 1. The first quantile of the absorption scale with 136 cases ranged from zero to 3.51, the second with 113 cases from > 3.51 to 4.34, the third with 132 cases from > 4.34 to 5.34, and the fourth > 5.34 with 115 cases. In every other detail Experiment 2 was the

Combined data from Experiment 1 and 2: A bootstrapping approach

We decided to reproduce/replicate the exact procedure of Experiment 1 in Experiment 2 for two reasons: (a) to be able to check for replication with the same number of participants, and (b) to collect more observations and have a solid base to do power calculations based on bootstrapping (Efron, 1979). Both experiments together provided 976 observations, which is 61 participants with 16 blocks each. We used data-driven simulations and sampled participants as well as blocks to allow for sampling

Experiment 3

After successful replication, we decided to explore the relation between musical absorption and motor responses in a new setting. Speeded responses by higher absorption in Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that music induces a flow-driven state. Although highly similar to absorption, flow puts much more emphasis on the particular activity or task at hand. Flow is a highly pleasurable state characterized by absorption, the feeling of fluency in an activity, and is associated with achievement and

General discussion

Self-reported state absorption into music predicted mean RTs in a 2AFC task in two experiments. Importantly, higher absorption levels resulted in speeded responses. This indicates that, when being focused and engaged with music and at the same time performing a simple concurrent task, people experience an integrated, flow-driven state which promotes task performance. Experiment 3 seems to support this interpretation, as flow predicted speeded RTs. However, this conclusion is not undisputed, and

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