Listening to music: Cognitive strategies

(Shanza Sami)

Emotional Regulation

Using music as an external stimulus could improve task performance — for example, listening to motivational and uplifting music before a sports game improves physical endurance by 15%, according to a study by Brunel University.

Similarly, music can also be used to make users feel negative emotions. Dvorak believes that listeners should regulate their emotions through balancing music genres.

"As music therapists, we evaluate the use of healthy and unhealthy [music-listening]. It's okay to listen to a sad song, and it's okay to use the Iso-principle," Dvorak said. "Slowly try to listen to pieces of music that get you out of that stuck state until you're feeling the way that you want to feel."

Utilizing the Iso-principle and remaining metacognitive about how songs make listeners feel is essential to regulating emotions.
(Shanza Sami)

Selective Listening

Choosing music selectively based off individual personality traits is essential for multitasking listeners.

"Knowing what your ability is with a task matters; it also matters what kind of personality you have in that regard. A person who is more extroverted winds up immediately seeking that additional stimulation, so they therefore may be better off at doing the task at hand [with music]," Aiello said.

Being selective and intentional with music choice while multitasking may heavily impact task performance.
(Shanza Sami)

Focus and Productivity

Music may be used to motivate listeners, thus enhancing productivity and focus. Music's additional stimulation during simple tasks may enhance task performance for some, according to Aiello.

"If you're doing a very simple task, you can get bored quickly. If you're getting bored quickly, you wind up actually doing less well on a task because you're not as involved in it," Aiello said. "Your mind may wander, with this extra attentional capacity that you have while still doing [a task]. When you're listening to the music, it may fill in some of that additional stimulation that you prefer."

Identifying the appropriate time to briefly listen to motivational music may enhance user productivity and performance; for example, students may listen to uplifting music prior to studying for an important test.
Mindfulness with Music

Music can be essential for novice mindfulness practicers. According to Dvorak, music can facilitate mental and physical relaxation among meditators, which can enhance mindfulness practices.

"Music can be used to support mindfulness practices, emotion regulation and perseverative cognition. Mindfulness doesn't always seem accessible to everybody and it can seem kind of strange at first. If you add music underneath the scripted [mindfulness] experience, somehow it's more relaxing and more accessible to people, because you're not sitting in silence," Dvorak said. "Music helps us habituate and helps us relax the musculoskeletal tension that we might be having, which helps us get into the mindfulness space that we might need to."

Ultimately, using music to relax and engage in mindfulness can be a powerful tool for listeners to control emotions.

Stories Using This Infobox

Music on the mind

West Side Story

West Side Story

West Side Story

West Side Story