Psychology of Music

Despite the lack of surprise each time they listen to their favorite song, people re-listen to these songs many times. We explored “extreme re-listening” by conducting a survey about the song to which participants were “listening most often these days.” We questioned participants about their listening experience, e.g., the deepness of their connection to the song, which aspects of the song draw them back, how much of the song they were able to hear in their heads, and how (in their own words) the song made them feel, which we classified as “happy,” “calm,” and “bittersweet.” More participants whose favorite song made them feel happy reported being drawn back because of its beat/rhythm. Participants whose favorite song made them feel bittersweet reported having a deeper connection to the song than those whose favorite song evoked other feelings. These patterns held irrespective of musical training. Finally, we found that the more times they listened to their favorite song, the more of the song listeners could hear internally. People’s affection for songs to which they voluntarily listen at high rates appears not to wane as it does for songs to which their exposure is ambient as is the case with the hit parade.

Research into vision has highlighted the importance of gist representations in change detection and memory. This article puts forth the hypothesis that schematic processing and gist provide an account for change detection in music as well, where a musical gist is an abstracted memory representation for schematically consistent tones. The present experiments illuminate the content of gist memory representations by testing when listeners can detect single-tone changes in pairs of melodies. In Experiment 1, musicians and non-musicians listened to melodies varying in tonal structure. Less structure resulted in compromised change detection in both groups. Most often, musicians displayed more accurate change detection than non-musicians, but, surprisingly, when schematic processing could not contribute to memory encoding, musicians performed worse than their untrained counterparts. Experiment 2 utilized a full-factorial design to examine tonality, interval of pitch change, metrical position, and rhythm. Tonality had a particularly large effect on performance, with non-scale tones generally aiding change detection. Listeners were unlikely, however, to detect schematically-inconsistent tones when only brief melodic context was available. The results uphold the hypothesis that memory for melodies relies on schematic processing, with change detection dependent upon whether the change alters the schematic gist of the melody.

This study explored 19 themes embedded in the lyrics of 1,040 U.S. top-40 songs from 1960 through 2010, using R strucchange software to identify trends and breaks in trends. Findings reveal both continuity and change. As in 1960, the predominant topic of pop music remains romantic and sexual relationships. However, whereas the proportion of lyrics referring to relationships in romantic terms remained stable, the proportion including reference to sex-related aspects of relationships increased sharply. References to lifestyle issues such as dancing, alcohol and drugs, and status/wealth increased substantially, particularly in the 2000s. Other themes were far less frequent: Social/political issues, religion/God, race/ethnicity, personal identity, family, friends showed a modest occurrence in top-40 music throughout the studied period and showed no dramatic changes. Violence and death occurred in a small number of songs, and both increased, particularly since the 1990s. References to hate/hostility, suicide, and occult matters were very rare. Results are examined in the context of cultural changes in the social position of adolescents, and more specifically in light of the increased popularity of rap/hip-hop music, which may explain the increases in references to sex, partying, dancing, drug use, and wealth.

There is a growing body of literature that recognises how music perception affects first-language learning, but much less is known about its influence on foreign-language reading skills. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of music perception abilities on the acquisition of some foreign early reading skills based on their transference from first language. Data for this study were collected from 63 Spanish-speaking English-language learners studying second grade of primary school. We used a music perception test and the Early Grade Reading Assessment battery, which measures early reading skills in both languages. A mediation analysis using structural equation modelling was performed, integrating music perception and letter-sound knowledge, initial sound identification, and familiar word and pseudoword reading in Spanish and English. This research provides new insights into how music perception affects early reading skills in both languages. These findings indicate a transfer of music perception abilities to first-language alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness and word recognition skills that affect foreign language early reading abilities.

In music listening, limitations on visual experience affect a listener’s abstract information processing and conceptualization of the music. The aim of this study is to examine the differences in emotional responses to music between adults with visual impairment (VI) and adults with normal vision (NV). By using specific, emotion-inducing music reflecting happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, this study considers factors such as music emotion identification, emotional valence, arousal, intensity, and musical preference. A total of 120 participants (60 VI and 60 NV) listened to sixteen 15-second music excerpts and reported which emotion and to what extent they perceived it, using a self-reported music emotion evaluation scale. The results indicated that both of the groups showed high congruence in music emotion identification. However, the VI group showed significantly higher arousal, intensity and preference for sadness, while showing the lowest score for the intensity of fear. The main factor affecting emotion identification was preference for the VI group, and valence for the NV group.

Psychosocial methods for reducing craving are essential for people with substance use disorders. Although songwriting is a commonly-used music therapy intervention for people with addictions, there is no randomized controlled music therapy study systematically investigating how songwriting impacts craving in patients on a detoxification unit. The purpose of this cluster-randomized effectiveness study was to measure the effects of a single group-based educational songwriting intervention on craving with patients on a detoxification unit. To provide treatment to all participants in an inclusive single-session design, participants (N = 129) were cluster-randomized to one of three conditions: educational songwriting targeting relapse prevention and recovery, recreational music therapy targeting social and affective gains, or wait-list control. There was a significant difference (p = .033) in the craving subscale of expectancy between the educational songwriting and control conditions. Although no other difference reached significance, participants in the songwriting condition tended to have lower subscale and total craving mean scores than participants in the control and recreational music therapy conditions. Group-based educational songwriting interventions may temporarily relieve craving by distracting patients in an engaging, motivating, and creative intervention. Implications for clinical practice, suggestions for future research, and limitations are provided.

Temporal and spatial analyses of brain function with magnetoencephalography (MEG) are seldom reported in studies of musical sight-reading. We used MEG to compare the timing and localization of brain regions active during print-to-sound translation of musical notation versus English letters. MEG recordings were made on 22 professional musicians during print-to-sound tasks involving low versus high cognitive load. The MEG data were analyzed using MR-FOCUSS, a current density imaging technique. A laterality index was calculated to determine which hemisphere had more neural activation during these music and language reading tasks, and showed brain activation more lateralized to the language dominant (left) hemisphere in these right-handed musicians. Both note and letter reading tasks required translation to phonological codes and activated left hemisphere language areas. Also, the superior parietal cortex was a region of interest bilaterally. The high temporal resolution of MEG, coupled with its spatial resolution, proved sensitive to differences in cognitive load in reading both letters and musical notes. MEG will be useful in future studies of how brain structure or function may change as a result of learning music.

This research aimed to identify, describe and categorize cognitive strategies related to sight-singing within aural skills education. Using a constant comparative method, we carried out a thematic content analysis using NVivo to categorize strategies in a broad range of sources, including six interviews, five scientific publications, two professional books, and two ear-training manuals. Findings revealed 72 cognitive strategies grouped into four main categories and 14 subcategories: reading mechanisms (pitch decoding, pattern building, validation), sight-singing (preparation, performance), reading skills acquisition (musical vocabulary enrichment, symbolic associations, internalization, rehearsal techniques) and learning support (self-regulation, attention, time management, motivation, stress). Our cognitive strategy inventory provides a new framework for the study of cognitive strategies in aural skills research, and offers new insights for teachers who implement explicit cognitive strategies within their sight-singing pedagogy.

This study investigated the effects of musical instrument learning on the concomitant development of cognitive, behavioural and socio-emotional skills in 38 seven- to nine-year-old children. Pre- and post-test measures of intelligence, memory, socio-emotional behaviour, motor ability and visual-motor integration were compared in children who received either extra-curricular musical training (EMT: n = 19) or statutory school music group lessons (SSM: n = 19). Results showed a significant association between musical aptitude and intelligence overall. The EMT group showed a significant increase in IQ (7 points), in comparison to 4.3 points for the SSM group, suggesting an effect of musical learning on intelligence. No effects were found for memory, or for visual motor integration or socio-emotional behaviour. However, significant improvements in gross motor ability where revealed for the EMT group only, for the aiming and catching composite. With regard to the measure of fluid intelligence, these findings support previous studies. The novel use of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children provides evidence that musical learning may support development in a child’s ability to judge distance, consider velocity, focus and use their proprioceptive, interoceptive and exteroceptive nervous systems.