The Effect of Music Amplitude on the Reaction to Unexpected Visual Events

Abstract

The effects of music amplitude on participants' response time to randomly presented, unexpected, visual events were investigated. Ninety participants completed a motor-reaction task without music and with music played at 60, 70, or 80 dBA. Males preferred more intense music than females did, with males selecting a comfort level of 72 dBA and females, 66 dBA. However, participants' reaction time and the total time to respond to a randomly activated red light were independent of gender. All participants responded more quickly when the music was played at 70 dBA (close to their comfort level) than when it played at lower (60 dBA) or higher (80 dBA) amplitudes. It is proposed that people may react more quickly to visual events (e.g., the sudden appearance of a plane on the screen of an air traffic controller, or the unpredictable activation of a car's rear brake lights when driving) with music playing at a volume preset to maintain individual comfort levels against other situational background noise.

Effects of Musically-Induced Emotions on Choice Reaction Time Performance

“…In addition, music intensity designated as comfortable may be more conducive to superior performance when played concurrently with the task. Turner, Fernandez, and Nelson (1996) asked participants to perform a motor-reaction task in the presence of popular music played at four different intensities (No music, 60 dBA, 70 dBA, and 80 dBA). Participants performed significantly faster in the 70 dBA condition, wherein the music intensity was closest to their comfort levels.…”

Effect of Listening to Music as a Function of Driving Complexity: A Simulator Study on the Differing Effects of Music on Different Driving Tasks

“…However, if the driving task is not demanding, a secondary task may not affect task performance, and in some conditions, may enhance arousal and enhance driving performance. This is in keeping with both the Yerkes-Dodson curve and with Easterbrook's hypothesis that too much or too little arousal will lead to poorer allocation of attentional resources (de Waard, 1996;Solovey, Zec, Perez, Reimer, & Mehler, 2014;Turner, Fernandez, & Nelson, 1996;Ünal, de Waard, Epstude, Steg, 2013).…”

“…An SPER digital sound level meter (model no. 840028), held 70-80 cm from the speakers, was used to measure sound volume and keep it near or below 70 dB, which is close to most listeners' comfortable level (Turner, Fernandez, & Nelson, 1996). Music was played by a pair of speakers positioned to the left and right of the computer monitor, positioned approximately 70-80 cm from the participant.…”

“…When the cue for a simple braking or vigilance task is presented in the center of the participant's vision, music at a normal volume seems to lead to at least comparable performance than when performing the task in silence (Consiglio, Driscoll, Witte, & Berg, 2003;Turner, Fernandez, & Nelson, 1996). When the cue for a vigilance task is presented in the periphery of the vision and combined with a driving simulation, music increases response time (Hughes, Rudin-Brown, & Young, 2012).…”

Música y conducción de automóviles: una revisión sistemática de investigaciones psicológicas

“…Los artículos recabados ascendieron a un total de 46 (Anexos 1 y 2). Con respecto al tipo de estudios, la distribución fue la siguiente: 42 estudios experimentales [1,2,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,49,51,50,52], un estudio de revisión [48], uno descriptivo [38], un estudio exploratorio [7] y un meta-análisis [26]. La productividad anual de las publicaciones registradas permitió hallar nueve publicaciones en el año 2012; seis publicaciones en 2013; cuatro publicaciones en el año 2019; tres publicaciones en los años 2007 y 2018; dos publicaciones en los años 1999, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2014, y 2016; y finalmente se halló una publicación en cada uno de los años…”