Does recall of a past music event invoke a reminiscence bump in young adults?

Many studies of the reminiscence bump (RB) in music invoke memories from different autobiographical times by using stimulus specific prompts (SSPs). This study investigated the utility of a non-SSP paradigm to determine whether the RB would emerge when participants were asked to recall a single memorable musical event from "a time long ago". The presence of a RB in response to music has not been obtained in such a manner for younger participants. Eighty-eight 20-22 year olds reported music episodes that peaked when their autobiographical age was 13-14 years. Self-selected stimuli included a range of musical styles, including classical and non-Western pop forms, such as J-pop and K-pop, as well as generational pop music, such as the Beatles. However, most participants reported pop/rock music that was contemporaneous with encoding age, providing support for the utility of published SSP paradigms using pop music. Implications for and limitations of SSP paradigms are discussed. Participants were also asked to relate the selected musical piece to current musical tastes. Most participants liked the music that they selected, with many continuing to like the music, but most also reported a general broadening of their taste, consistent with developmental literature on open-earedness.

Liking music with and without sadness: Testing the direct effect hypothesis of pleasurable negative emotion.

Negative emotion evoked in listeners of music can produce intense pleasure, but we do not fully understand why. The present study addressed the question by asking participants (n = 50) to self-select a piece of sadness-evoking music that was loved. The key part of the study asked participants to imagine that the felt sadness could be removed. Overall participants reported performing the task successfully. They also indicated that the removal of the sadness reduced their liking of the music, and 82% of participants reported that the evoked sadness also adds to the enjoyment of the music. The study provided evidence for a "Direct effect hypothesis", which draws on the multicomponent model of emotion, where a component of the negative emotion is experienced as positive during music (and other aesthetic) experiences. Earlier evidence of a mediator, such as 'being moved', as the source of enjoyment was reinterpreted in light of the new findings. Instead, the present study applied a semantic overlap explanation, arguing that sadness primes emotions that share meaning with sadness, such as being-moved. The priming occurs if the overlap in meaning is sufficient. The degree of semantic overlap was defined empirically. The present study therefore suggests that mediator-based explanations need to be treated with caution both as a finding of the study, and because of analytic limitations in earlier research that are discussed in the paper.

Teachers' approaches to music performance anxiety management: a systematic review.

Performance anxiety is a widespread issue that can affect musicians across their education and career. It can develop in musicians from a young age leading to short-term and long-term impacts on not only their performance, but also their wellbeing. There is potentially a significant role that music educators hold in the development of their students and how they handle performance anxiety, though it is not clear how, or how often, teachers support their students in this way. Through a PRISMA-based systematic review, this paper explores what is known about the strategies used by music educators to help manage their students' performance anxiety. The paper also discusses the role that instrumental/vocal tutors and school classroom teachers might hold in this area. The findings show that music educators are implementing multiple strategies to assist their students with MPA, with the most common being simulated performance, positive outlook, preparation and breathing. It was found that there is a role for teachers to address MPA management with their students. While some students prefer to receive MPA support from experts in the field of psychology, students still expressed a need to have this support come from their teacher. Though many teachers felt a need for additional training for them to help their students cope with MPA, many of the strategies were found to be multifunctional and embedded into the regular teaching practices or teaching styles of the educator. Although these strategies might be implicit rather than explicit, the findings suggest that music educators could represent a valuable source of support for MPA management.

A Special Class of Experience: Positive Affect Evoked by Music and the Arts.

A positive experience in response to a piece of music or a work of art (hence 'music/art') has been linked to health and wellbeing outcomes but can often be reported as indescribable (ineffable), creating challenges for research. What do these positive experiences feel like, beyond 'positive'? How are loved works that evoke profoundly negative emotions explained? To address these questions, two simultaneously occurring classes of experience are proposed: the 'emotion class' of experience (ECE) and the positive 'affect class' of experience (PACE). ECE consists of conventional, discrete, and communicable emotions with a reasonably well-established lexicon. PACE relates to a more private world of prototypical aesthetic emotions and experiences investigated in positive psychology. After a review of the literature, this paper proposes that PACE consists of physical correlates (tears, racing heart…) and varied amounts of 'hedonic tone' (HT), which range from shallow, personal leanings (preference, liking, attraction, etc.) to deep ones that include awe, being-moved, thrills, and wonder. PACE is a separate, simultaneously activated class of experience to ECE. The approach resolves long-standing debates about powerful, positive experiences taking place during negative emotion evocation by music/art. A list of possible terms for describing PACE is proposed.

The Magnetic Urtext: Restoration as Music Interpretation.

This paper discusses historical-critical thought to address the problems of restoration and preservation of tape music, proposing viable solutions to the matter of digitizing the historically valuable data that exists on and is represented by magnetic tapes. A detailed program of research and restoration and some software for helping in creation of critical editions of the musical works are proposed. We also present some of the issues and controversies that must be considered and approaches we have applied in the preservation of tape music, highlighting how these interpretations can impact later performances (playback) of these tape documents. Fundamentally, we argue that the act of tape music restoration has a parallel with the interpretation of the "Urtext score" in the performance of music from the Common Practice Era.

Illuminating Music: Impact of Color Hue for Background Lighting on Emotional Arousal in Piano Performance Videos.

This study sought to determine if hues overlayed on a video recording of a piano performance would systematically influence perception of its emotional arousal level. The hues were artificially added to a series of four short video excerpts of different performances using video editing software. Over two experiments 106 participants were sorted into 4 conditions, with each viewing different combinations of musical excerpts (two excerpts with nominally high arousal and two excerpts with nominally low arousal) and hue (red or blue) combinations. Participants rated the emotional arousal depicted by each excerpt. Results indicated that the overall arousal ratings were consistent with the nominal arousal of the selected excerpts. However, hues added to video produced no significant effect on arousal ratings, contrary to predictions. This could be due to the domination of the combined effects of other channels of information (e.g., the music and player movement) over the emotional effects of the hypothesized influence of hue on perceived performance (red expected to enhance and blue to reduce arousal of the performance). To our knowledge this is the first study to investigate the impact of these hues upon perceived arousal of music performance, and has implications for musical performers and stage lighting. Further research that investigates reactions during live performance and manipulation of a wider range of lighting hues, saturation and brightness levels, and editing techniques, is recommended to further scrutinize the veracity of the findings.

Analysing playing using the note-time playing path.

This article introduces a new method of data analysis that represents the playing of written music as a graph. The method, inspired by Miklaszewski, charts low-level note timings from a sound recording of a single-line instrument using high-precision audio-to-MIDI conversion software. Note onset times of pitch sequences are then plotted against the score-predicted timings to produce a Note-Time Playing Path (NTPP). The score-predicted onset time of each sequentially performed note (horizontal axis) unfolds in performed time down the page (vertical axis). NTPPs provide a visualisation that shows (1) tempo variations, (2) repetitive practice behaviours, (3) segmenting of material, (4) precise note time positions, and (5) time spent on playing or not playing. The NTPP can provide significant new insights into behaviour and cognition of music performance and may also be used to complement established traditional approaches such as think-alouds, interviews, and video coding.

Creativity Is Optimal Novelty and Maximal Positive Affect: A New Definition Based on the Spreading Activation Model.

Creativity is commonly defined as a process that leads to a novel and useful outcome (an idea, product, or expression). However, two dilemmas about this definition remain unresolved: (1) A strict application of usefulness is difficult to apply to artistic works: who decides what artwork is useful, and how it is useful? (2) The implied boundary conditions of novelty are problematic: The default perspective is that novelty has a monotonic increasing relationship with creativity, or it is categorical-i.e., novel or not. To address these dilemmas, this paper proposes a spreading activation model of creativity (SAMOC), a model built on a brain-architecture-inspired vast interconnected network of nodes, each node representing information, and assigned meanings through interaction with the environment. Nodes are linked to each other according to principles of temporal contiguity (linking objects/events in time) and similarity (linking objects/events by shared features). A node activated by attention spreads through the network through previously linked nodes. Nodes that are well connected activate each other easily, while those that are weakly connected do not. Net total activation corresponds to positive affect (e.g., pleasure), and this is proposed as an essential criteria for a creative work of art, instead of usefulness. SAMOC also predicts that creativity will be optimized at an intermediate, not extreme, level of novelty. Too much activation will occur with the activation of preexisting ideas (hence reproduction rather than creativity), and too much novelty will not produce spread of activation. The two functions (spreading activation and the novelty curve) are superposed to demonstrate this optimal novelty hypothesis. Early evidence of the hypothesis comes from the data that some great works of art were critically rejected at premiers (suggesting excessive novelty), but after sufficient repetition (and therefore linking) became suitably associated and commenced generating activation. The hypothesis has important implications for future empirical research programs on creativity, and for the definition of creativity itself.

A Short Performance Anxiety Scale for Musicians.

Given the prevalence of debilitating anxiety associated with music performance, there is a need for rapid, pinpointed assessment of the extent to which an individual experiences music performance anxiety (MPA). A short, five item scale, the Mazzarolo Music Performance Anxiety Scale (M-MPAS), was developed to capture retrospective self-reported estimates of the frequency, intensity and aversion tendency associated with performing music. 102 musicians completed the scale, as well as an established MPA inventory. The M-MPAS was found to be internally reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.894) with all items being statistically relevant to the overall scale. Furthermore, the M-MPAS was correlated with the relevant factors of an established MPA measure (r = 0.791), suggesting that the new scale exhibited good construct validity. M-MPAS is easy to score, with a scale range of 0-30. A score of 11 or above is suggested as the range in which a diagnosis of potential high MPA can be made, but more research into this and the psychometric robustness of the scale is called for. Nevertheless, the reliability and validity demonstrated in the present study, along with the brevity of the M-MPAS suggest that the newly proposed scale may offer considerable triaging benefits for pinpointed assessment of the extent to which an individual experiences MPA.

Imaginative Enrichment Produces Higher Preference for Unusual Music Than Historical Framing: A Literature Review and Two Empirical Studies.

Does accompanying information ("framing") such as in a program note influence our preference for music? To date the findings have been mixed, although a small body of research has suggested that when framing accompanies music considered unusual (characterized by extreme complexity and extreme unfamiliarity), the music may be preferred compared to when no such framing occurs. A literature review (study 1) revealed that for 50% of experiments where valenced framing (positive versus negative suggestions of prestige) was manipulated, positive framing was accompanied by significantly higher ratings of preference and/or quality judgements. However, only one example contained music that could be considered unusual (atonal music). We therefore conducted two follow-up experiments, with each examining the influence of valenced framing as well as historical framing (accompanying historical details) for music intended to be unusual. Study 2 manipulated framing for an excerpt using atonal music, although we were unable to find evidence that positively valenced historical framing increased preference for this piece. A surprising finding in study 2 was that our active control-requiring the participant to engage imaginatively with the music-produced a significant increase in preference. Subsequently, in study 3 we examined the same three framing conditions and included both an unusual excerpt (free jazz) as well as an over-familiar, typical excerpt for comparison (being a repeatedly pre-exposed classical piano piece). Study 3 produced no significant differences in preference ratings between the two historical conditions, although a positive impact of imagination was again evident. We concluded that the impact of historical framing may be highly subjective and not of favorable consequence to the typical listener. Furthermore, while imaginative engagement appears a fruitful avenue for further preference research, it has been largely ignored.

Music on Prescription to Aid Sleep Quality: A Literature Review.

Research on the efficacy of music for improving sleep quality has produced mixed results. We investigated whether the number of music dosages could be a reason for the lack of clarity. Six longitudinal music sleep studies using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) over 3 weeks were identified. Music when compared to active (audiobooks or medication) or passive controls significantly improved (improvement is reflected by a lower score) PSQI within the first or second week of prescription. The improvement was an average mean difference of -1.15 (SD = 0.53) for each week. Music dosages continued to be associated with improved PSQI over a study that had a 3-month music intervention. One study with a low initial PSQI score resulted in poor sleepers (PSQI > 5) achieving healthy sleep (PSQI < 5) within 3 weeks of regular music intervention. For future studies, "prescribing" music beyond 3 weeks may lead to more instances of healthy sleep, particularly for those who have mild sleep problems. To explain the findings, we proposed that the relationship between weeks of music listening and improved PSQI are attributed to the truncation of poor bedtime habits linked to ruminative tendencies and consequent hyperarousal prior to the music intervention. Music listening at bedtime replaces those bad habits, we argue, by forming a new psychological link between bedtime and sleep through evaluative conditioning. The findings of the present study provide disarming evidence of the potential for prescription of music for treating mild sleep disorder.

Musical emotions in the absence of music: A cross-cultural investigation of emotion communication in music by extra-musical cues.

Research in music and emotion has long acknowledged the importance of extra-musical cues, yet has been unable to measure their effect on emotion communication in music. The aim of this research was to understand how extra-musical cues affect emotion responses to music in two distinguishable cultures. Australian and Cuban participants (N = 276) were instructed to name an emotion in response to written lyric excerpts from eight distinct music genres, using genre labels as cues. Lyrics were presented primed with genre labels (original priming and a false, lured genre label) or unprimed. For some genres, emotion responses to the same lyrics changed based on the primed genre label. We explain these results as emotion expectations induced by extra-musical cues. This suggests that prior knowledge elicited by lyrics and music genre labels are able to affect the musical emotion responses that music can communicate, independent of the emotion contribution made by psychoacoustic features. For example, the results show a lyric excerpt that is believed to belong to the Heavy Metal genre triggers high valence/high arousal emotions compared to the same excerpt primed as Japanese Gagaku, without the need of playing any music. The present study provides novel empirical evidence of extra-musical effects on emotion and music, and supports this interpretation from a multi-genre, cross-cultural perspective. Further findings were noted in relation to fandom that also supported the emotion expectation account. Participants with high levels of fandom for a genre reported a wider range of emotions in response to the lyrics labelled as being a song from that same specific genre, compared to lower levels of fandom. Both within and across culture differences were observed, and the importance of a culture effect discussed.

How does music aid sleep? literature review.

With the growth of interest in using music to treat insomnia, there is a need to collect and evaluate the literature. This paper reviews disparate literature and assesses the various kinds of assertions and hypotheses made by researchers about music's efficacy in assisting sleep. Six main researcher proposed reasons (RPR) for how music aids sleep were identified in the literature: (1) relaxation, where music encourages physiological or psychological relaxation; (2) distraction, where music acts as a focal point to distract from inner stressful thoughts; (3) entrainment, synchronization of biological rhythms to beat structures in music; (4) masking, obscuring noxious background noise with music; (5) enjoyment, listening to preferred, emotionally relatable or pleasant music; and (6) expectation, individuals cultural beliefs around music. We evaluated each RPR in terms of the evidence available in the extant literature. Masking RPR was identified as having support for improving sleep. Relaxation, distraction and enjoyment RPR had mixed levels of support. Expectation RPR had possible support. Entrainment had mixed possible support. The paper discusses interactions between RPRs, and a call is made to turn research attention to sequencing the RPRs and possible RPR mediators, with relaxation being a likely mediator of several RPRs.

Psycho-Historical Contextualization for Music and Visual Works: A Literature Review and Comparison Between Artistic Mediums.

A significant contribution to the literature on aesthetics in the last decade has been Bullot and Reber's ecologically-driven psycho-historical framework for the science of art appreciation (PHF). The framework proposes that the presence of contextualizing information accompanying an artwork will impart a substantial impact on appreciation for it, which is accessible through understanding of the causal information surrounding the work. Artistic understanding is outlined in terms of three hierarchical "modes" of appreciation. This paper tested a simplified hypothesis drawn from the PHF, using results reported in the existing literature. As Bullot and Reber note that such a framework is relevant for any artistic medium containing causal information, results were drawn from literature concerned with either music or visual works. Our review identified 34 studies that reported results of appreciation (or equivalent) as a dependent variable, while manipulating contextual/historical information for the stimuli as an independent variable. Overall the results were consistent across the two artistic mediums: 9 experiments (26%) produced strong support for the PHF, 6 experiments (18%) produced inconclusive results, and 19 experiments (56%) produced no support for the PHF. We concluded that the majority of the reviewed literature does not support the simplified PHF hypothesis for either medium. However, we also discuss a number of limitations surrounding these studies which may have produced a substantial impact on the categorization results: small sample sizes in some studies, difficulty in translating philosophically-based theory into empirical practice, and interactions with variables such as exposure and "unusualness."

Young People's Response to Six Smartphone Apps for Anxiety and Depression: Focus Group Study.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is one of the most frequent causes of death in young people worldwide. Depression lies at the root of this issue, a condition that has a significant negative impact on the lives of those who experience it and on society more generally. However, 80% of affected young people do not obtain professional help for depression and other mental health issues. Therefore, a key challenge is to find innovative and appealing ways to engage young people in learning to manage their mental health. Research suggests that young people prefer to access anonymous Web-based programs rather than get face-to-face help, which has led to the development of numerous smartphone apps. However, the evidence indicates that not all of these apps are effective in engaging the interest of young people who are most in need of help. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate young people's response to six currently available smartphone apps for mental health and to identify features that young people like and dislike in such apps. METHODS: Focus groups were conducted with 23 young people aged 13 to 25 years in which they viewed and used six smartphone apps for mental health. A general inductive approach following a realist paradigm guided data analysis. RESULTS: The results revealed that young people value autonomy and the opportunity to personalize experiences with these apps above other things. Finding a balance between simplicity and informativeness is also an important factor. CONCLUSIONS: App developers need to consider using participant-design frameworks to ensure that smartphone apps are providing what young people want in a mental health app. Solutions to the need for personalization and increasing user engagement are also crucially needed.

What Works and What Doesn't Work? A Systematic Review of Digital Mental Health Interventions for Depression and Anxiety in Young People.

Background: A major challenge in providing mental health interventions for young people is making such interventions accessible and appealing to those most in need. Online and app-based forms of therapy for mental health are burgeoning. It is therefore crucial to identify features that are most effective and engaging for young users. Objectives: This study reports a systematic review and meta-analysis of digital mental health interventions and their effectiveness in addressing anxiety and depression in young people to determine factors that relate to outcomes, adherence, and engagement with such interventions. Methods: A mixed methods approach was taken, including a meta-analysis of 9 randomized controlled trials that compared use of a digital intervention for depression in young people to a no-intervention control group, and 6 comparing the intervention to an active control condition. A thematic analysis and narrative synthesis of 41 studies was also performed. Results: The pooled effect size of digital mental health interventions on depression in comparison to a no-intervention control was small (Cohen's d = 0.33, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.55), while the pooled effect size of studies comparing an intervention group to an active control showed no significant differences (Cohen's d = 0.14, 95% CI -.04 to 0.31). Pooled effect sizes were higher when supervision was involved (studies with no-intervention controls: Cohen's d = 0.52, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.80; studies with active control: Cohen's d = 0.49, 95% CI -0.11, 1.01). Engagement and adherence rates were low. Qualitative analysis revealed that users liked interventions with a game-like feel and relatable, interactive content. Educational materials were perceived as boring, and users were put off by non-appealing interfaces and technical glitches. Conclusions: Digital interventions work better than no intervention to improve depression in young people when results of different studies are pooled together. However, these interventions may only be of clinical significance when use is highly supervised. Digital interventions do not work better than active alternatives regardless of the level of support. Future interventions need to move beyond the use of digital educational materials, considering other ways to attract and engage young people and to ensure relevance and appeal.

Locus of emotion: the effect of task order and age on emotion perceived and emotion felt in response to music.

The relationship between emotions perceived to be expressed (external locus EL) versus emotions felt (internal locus--IL) in response to music was examined using 5 contrasting pieces of Romantic, Western art music. The main hypothesis tested was that emotion expressed along the dimensions of emotional-strength, valence, and arousal were lower in magnitude for IL than EL. IL and EL judgments made together after one listening (Experiment 2, n = 18) produced less differentiated responses than when each task was performed after separate listenings (Experiment 1, n = 28). This merging of responses in the locus-task-together condition started to disappear as statistical power was increased. Statistical power was increased by recruiting an additional subject pool of elderly individuals (Experiment 3, n = 19, mean age 75 years). Their valence responses were more positive, and their emotional-strength ratings were generally lower, compared to their younger counterparts. Overall data analysis revealed that IL responses fluctuated slightly more than EL emotions, meaning that the latter are more stable. An additional dimension of dominance-submissiveness was also examined, and was useful in differentiating between pieces, but did not return a difference between IL and EL. Some therapy applications of these findings are discussed.

Brightness scaling of periodic tones.

Brightness is an attribute often used by musicians when describing timbral characteristics. It is related to the spectral distribution of energy, as is sharpness, studied by Zwicker (Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models, 1990). In the current work, subjects adjusted the spectral slope and thus the spectral centroid (SC) of one of a pair of sounds to make it twice as bright as the other, so as to build a perceptual scale. The ratio of SC required to double brightness is a little less than 2 and decreases as the SC of the tones increases. For these tones, the ratio of brightness is statistically different from the ratio of sharpness calculated from published models.

The joy of heartfelt music: An examination of emotional and physiological responses.

Music-listening can be a powerful therapeutic tool for mood rehabilitation, yet quality evidence for its validity as a singular treatment is scarce. Specifically, the relationship between music-induced mood improvement and meaningful physiological change, as well as the influence of music- and person-related covariates on these outcomes are yet to be comprehensively explored. Ninety-four healthy participants completed questionnaires probing demographics, personal information, and musical background. Participants listened to two prescribed musical pieces (one classical, one jazz), an "uplifting" piece of their own choice, and an acoustic control stimulus (white noise) in randomised order. Physiological responses (heart rate, respiration, galvanic skin response) were recorded throughout. After each piece, participants rated their subjective responses on a series of Likert scales. Subjectively, the self-selected pieces induced the most joy, and the classical piece was perceived as most relaxing, consistent with the arousal ratings proposed by a music selection panel. These two stimuli led to the greatest overall improvement in composite emotional state from baseline. Psycho-physiologically, self-selected pieces often elicited a "eustress" response ("positive arousal"), whereas classical music was associated with the highest heart rate variability. Very few person-related covariates appeared to affect responses, and music-related covariates (besides self-selection) appeared arbitrary. These data provide strong evidence that optimal music for therapy varies between individuals. Our findings additionally suggest that the self-selected music was most effective for inducing a joyous state; while low arousal classical music was most likely to shift the participant into a state of relaxation. Therapy should attempt to find the most effective and "heartfelt" music for each listener, according to therapeutic goals.

Emotion appraisal dimensions inferred from vocal expressions are consistent across cultures: a comparison between Australia and India.

This study explored the perception of emotion appraisal dimensions on the basis of speech prosody in a cross-cultural setting. Professional actors from Australia and India vocally portrayed different emotions (anger, fear, happiness, pride, relief, sadness, serenity and shame) by enacting emotion-eliciting situations. In a balanced design, participants from Australia and India then inferred aspects of the emotion-eliciting situation from the vocal expressions, described in terms of appraisal dimensions (novelty, intrinsic pleasantness, goal conduciveness, urgency, power and norm compatibility). Bayesian analyses showed that the perceived appraisal profiles for the vocally expressed emotions were generally consistent with predictions based on appraisal theories. Few group differences emerged, which suggests that the perceived appraisal profiles are largely universal. However, some differences between Australian and Indian participants were also evident, mainly for ratings of norm compatibility. The appraisal ratings were further correlated with a variety of acoustic measures in exploratory analyses, and inspection of the acoustic profiles suggested similarity across groups. In summary, results showed that listeners may infer several aspects of emotion-eliciting situations from the non-verbal aspects of a speaker's voice. These appraisal inferences also seem to be relatively independent of the cultural background of the listener and the speaker.