The effects of music on time perception and performance of a driving game

Abstract

There is an established and growing body of evidence highlighting that music can influence behavior across a range of diverse domains (Miell, MacDonald, & Hargreaves 2005). One area of interest is the monitoring of "internal timing mechanisms", with features such as tempo, liking, perceived affective nature and everyday listening contexts implicated as important (North & Hargreaves, 2008). The current study addresses these issues by comparing the effects of self-selected and experimenter-selected music (fast and slow) on actual and perceived performance of a driving game activity. Seventy participants completed three laps of a driving game in seven sound conditions: (1) silence; (2) car sounds; (3) car sounds with self-selected music, and car sounds with experimenter-selected music; (4) high-arousal (70 bpm); (5) high-arousal (130 bpm); (6) low-arousal (70 bpm); and (7) low-arousal (130 bpm) music. Six performance measures (time, accuracy, speed, and retrospective perception of these), and four experience measures (perceived distraction, liking, appropriateness and enjoyment) were taken. Exposure to self-selected music resulted in overestimation of elapsed time and inaccuracy, while benefiting accuracy and experience. In contrast, exposure to experimenter-selected music resulted in poorest performance and experience. Increasing the tempo of experimenter-selected music resulted in faster performance and increased inaccuracy for high-arousal music, but did not impact experience. It is suggested that personal meaning and subjective associations connected to self-selected music promoted increased engagement with the activity, overriding detrimental effects attributed to unfamiliar, less liked and less appropriate experimenter-selected music.

Placing a value on aesthetics in online casual games

“…We unfortunately cannot know remotely if players are listening to the audio. Although music tempo has been shown to affect player enjoyment in racing games [3], our games do not rely heavily on audio feedback, potentially reducing any effect on player behavior.…”

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Passing the time when in pain: Investigating the role of musical valence.

“…Through music, preference and emotional resonance both impact on time perception: the passage of time is perceived to be faster when an individual is listening to music that they have chosen (Cassidy & MacDonald, 2010). …”

Dynamic music and immersion in the action-adventure an empirical investigation

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