The effects of music choice on task performance: A study of the impact of self-selected and experimenter-selected music on driving game performance and experience

Abstract

Music listening in everyday life tends to accompany the completion of other everyday activities in a highly personalised manner. However, music and task performance studies have tended to be experimenter-centred and contextually isolated, largely independent of the listener's music practices and preference. The present study adopted a listener-centred approach to compare the effects of self-selected and experimenter-selected music (high and low arousal), on concurrent activity performance and experience. 125 participants completed three laps of a driving game in either (i) silence (ii) car sounds alone; car sounds with the addition of (iii) self-selected music, (iv) High-Arousal music or (v) Low-Arousal music. Three performance measures (accuracy-collisions, time-ms, and speed-mph) and 5 experience measures (distraction, liking, appropriateness, enjoyment, and tension-anxiety) were taken. Participants exposed to their self-selected music were most efficient, perceived lowest distraction, highest enjoyment, liking and appropriateness, and experienced a reduction in tension-anxiety. In contrast, performance and experience were poorest when exposed to High-Arousal experimenter-selected music. Participants were most inaccurate, perceived highest distraction, lowest liking, enjoyment and appropriateness, and experienced an increase in tension-anxiety. Collectively, the findings highlight the efficacy of self-selected music as a tool to optimise response in the everyday activity context for which it is selected. Accordingly, the results are discussed in relation to potential implications for the performance and experience of concurrent tasks such as video games. Additionally, the discussion highlights theories of attention-distraction, arousal and affect modification, and subjective experiences of music listening.

Directing Physiology and Mood through Music: Validation of an Affective Music Player

“…First of all, it is increasingly recognized that responses to music are personal and depend on preference [3], [9]. This personal response to music may depend on several aspects such as age, gender, and culture [1], [3].…”

Brain Computer Interface-based Multimedia Controller

“…In the contrary, people can be distracted and get worse performance by background sound while working, especially by high arousal music [3], and other proposal denoted music brings both positive and negative affect to users [4]. However, Cassidy and MacDonald [5] proposed that performance is largely optimised if people could select music depending on preference. Some studies applied rhythm of music as rule to recommend suitable music for appropriate activities [6] or used social tags to assist selection [7].…”

“…Second, in the case of relaxing and going to sleep, world music and new age are recommended to set in type 3 while relaxing and folk and classical are set at type 1 when the system detects drowsiness level and enhance listeners the quality of sleep [15]. On the other hand, Levtin and McGill [5] suggested that, in the situation of household chores or walking that only needs light alertness, music with near 100 Beats Per Minute (BPM) or higher could be set into type 2. Furthermore, activities in alertness level are categorized to dynamic and static, dynamic activities such as exercise are recommended to apply the BPM of music is double to the frequency of action of exercise to type 4 and set low tempo music in type 2 to moderate arousal state after exercise [16].…”

“…First, retaining constant level of alertness is difficult because most people are easy to be drowsy after long monotonous work such as driving. Then, listeners could set loud, strong bass, quick tempo such as metal to type 3 in order to remind listeners as quickly as possible and prevent from accidents [5], [15]. Second, in the case of relaxing and going to sleep, world music and new age are recommended to set in type 3 while relaxing and folk and classical are set at type 1 when the system detects drowsiness level and enhance listeners the quality of sleep [15].…”

Enhancement of Task Performance Aided by Music

“…Music can induce and sustain a positive effect (mood) state while performing a task 9 . Listening to music can modify one's mood 10 influencing their cognitive performance and creativity [11][12][13][14] . Isen 15 demonstrated a positive effect (mood) while listening to music, which enhanced decision-making and problem-solving capabilities 16 .…”