The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of music listening on impulsivity as judged by the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT) II v. 5. College undergraduate students were recruited into one of two groups and were administered a computer task (CPT) to complete in an initial condition, a music condition, and a silence condition. One group of participants had no diagnosed history of ADHD while the other participant group had a history of ADHD. The initial condition served as an opportunity for each participant to take the CPT with the researcher present to allow each participant to ask questions before taking the test alone; each participant was then taken to a separate testing room. As all participants were tested in all three conditions, the remaining two (music and silence) were randomly assigned to control for order effect. The music condition involved taking the CPT alone in the testing room with "In a Mello Tone" by Count Basie playing in the background during the test administration. The piece was manipulated to have a tempo of mm = 124 and looped to last the entirety of the CPT (14 minutes). Each participant was administered the CPT in a silence condition, in which the participant was alone in the testing room without other provided stimuli. The final sample was N = 51 with n = 26 enrolled in the typical group and n = 25 enrolled in the group with attention deficits. A significant main effect difference was found by group: the typical group exhibited lower impulsivity levels as compared to the ADHD group based on Commission mean scores. Additionally, significant main effect differences were found by condition (initial, music, and silence). Both the factors of group and condition appear to be independent as no interaction was found. Implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.

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Restaurant attributes influence the perceptions and behaviors of restaurant customers. Among these attributes are music and its sound level. Sound level has been known to affect people's behaviors and judgments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music sound level on customers in a restaurant, specifically, where they sit and how long they stay. The study took place in a restaurant where customers seat themselves and music sound levels vary across tables. A convenience sample of dinner customers were observed for three weeks. Each week, speakers were placed in different locations causing tables that were originally quiet to become loud. A total of 107 table selections were analyzed using Chi Square tests. The effects of sound levels on length of stay were analyzed using an ANOVA with 36 dining parties. The results showed no significant effect regarding table selection except when speakers were in their usual locations. An explanation of this significant effect may be that regular customers were familiar with the speaker locations and the sound levels of restaurant tables, and therefore, chose tables with lower sound levels over tables with high sound levels. Results from the ANOVA show that the length of stay of customers at high volume tables was significantly less than at other tables. Also, there was a negative correlation between length of stay and sound levels, indicating that the louder the music the earlier customers would leave. These findings may indicate that as customers become familiar with a restaurant's sound levels, tables with high sound levels may be avoided. Also, in high music levels customer leave sooner. The implications may be increasing or decreasing table turns or affecting the satisfaction of regular customers. / Master of Science

Background music is often used in preschool classrooms with the belief that music makes children smarter and increases attention. The purpose of this study was to determine if background music increased children's focused attention during play activities. Focused attention occurs when children maintain attention to a task regardless of distractions. This quasiexperimental study investigated background music and play in a laboratory setting. I videotaped individual children during play with math manipulatives in a pretest-posttest research design with background music used as the treatment. Forty-three 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds played for 15 minutes. The first 5 minutes of play had no music (pretest), the second 5-minute play episode had background music (treatment), and the final 5-minute play episode had no background music (posttest). Data were analyzed using one-way repeated measures analysis of variance. Findings revealed that the subjects paid less attention to the play task with background music than they did during the pretest, with no music. Another key finding was that children with more musical experiences at home, as reported by the Child's Home Musical Experience Survey (CHIMES), exhibited longer periods of focused attention with background music. This study confirmed previous research that 3-year-old children have shorter focused attention than 4- and 5-year-old children with and without background music. These findings have implications for teachers and parents that background music, instead of increasing attention in children, might indeed decrease children's focused attention during play activities.

In this study we investigated whether a musical prime would produce a contextspecificity effect in predictive learning. Participants were divided into six conditions of a spy-radio predictive learning task. The six conditions were comprised of a combination of three primes (i.e. visual, music, or both) and two learning phase groups (i.e. retrieve, default). The primes indicated the type of stimulus used to prime the temporal context for the test cue-outcome association. The learning phase groups indicated which temporal context would be primed. In the retrieve group, learning Phase 1 was primed; in the default group learning Phase 2 was primed. The presence of a temporal contextspecificity effect was indicated by lower test predictive judgments for the test cue X in the retrieve group and higher test predictive judgments for this cue in the default group. We hypothesized that all three types of primes would lead to a significant contextspecificity effect. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the context-specificity effect would be strongest in the both prime condition because, with the presentation of both the visual and musical primes, participants would have more information about the learning phase temporal context to inform their test predictive judgment. The results partially supported the first hypothesis as there was a significant context-specificity effect with the visual prime. However, contrary to our hypotheses, we did not obtain a context-specificity effect with the music prime or both prime. Despite the lack of a context-specificity effect in the music prime condition, a relationship between participant musical expertise and predictive judgment suggested that the music did have an effect on context-specificity in predictive learning.

This multi-method ethnographic study explores the everyday lives of people with dementia living in the community, cared for by a spouse or family member. It examines three case studies of individuals with early to moderate stage dementia. The latter were attending a weekly day-centre group and this thesis explores their interactions with each other, individual histories, tastes, habits and daily habits. The primary aim of the research was to explore the natural role of music in the lives of these subjects as individuals and as a group. In doing so, this undertaking shows how, in supportive environments, agency and capacity can flourish, leading to constituents of ‘re-covery’, to use mental health terminology. This highlights some of the important matters that are overlooked where perspectives emphasise dementia as a disease of the brain. By contrast, it illuminates the role of social and environmental factors and their contribution to well-being. After initial interviews with each individual and in some cases, members of their families, five months of participant observation followed, primarily located in a home-based day care service. The data set was formed from 178 hours of field observations, a number of audio-recordings made during the sessions, and detailed field notes. This study shows that a close-up focus on the minute details of how a person lives their life and ‘dwelling’ with them for an extended period will illuminate many of the processes that work toward maintaining the well-being of people with dementia and facilitate their revitalisation. Significantly, it was the integration of music within and alongside the everyday tapestries of activities and events which helped create a space for connection and pleasure. The thesis findings reveal how the participants in this research repeatedly demonstrated expertise and insight, albeit not always verbally expressed, but shown in and through forms of practice as regards what was required for their well-being and how to achieve it. This achievement, however, also relied upon thoughtful and creative collaboration with others (carers, family members, etc.), working alongside the participants for mutually beneficial ends. The thesis concludes that what is required for people with dementia and their well-being does not differ substantially from what is generally required by humankind, but there are certain skills and modes of co-operative assistance that are necessary to ensure and maintain the well-being of people with dementia.

Die afskaffing van lyfstraf in Suid-Afrikaanse skole het tot groter dissipline probleme onder leerders gelei. Onderwysers raak toenemend gefrustreerd aangesien min praktiese oplossings vir hierdie probleem bestaan. Hierdie studie bestudeer die rol wat agtergrondmusiek in die klaskamer kan speel om die leerling se konsentrasievermoë te verhoog, sy gedrag positief te verander en so die algehele dissipline in die klassituasie te verbeter. Agtergrondmusiek vorm deel van elke kind se leefwêreld aangesien moderne tegnologie dit maklik maak om musiek oral en altyd te luister. Leerders luister ’n groot gedeelte van elke dag na musiek, ook terwyl hulle huiswerk doen. Daarom was dit nodig om die tipe agtergrondmusiek te vind wat voordelig kan wees vir die leerder in ’n klassituasie. In hierdie studie is van praktiese aksienavorsing binne ‘n kwalitatiewe navorsingsontwerp gebruik om die ervarings van leerders tydens die aanwending van verskillende tipes agtergrondmusiek in die klaskamer te bepaal. Uit die verband tussen die leerders se gedragspatrone en waarnemings nadat klassieke instrumentale musiek in die klaskamer gespeel is, kan bevind word dat hierdie tipe agtergrondmusiek as potensiële tegniek gebruik kan word om dissipline in die klassituasie te verbeter. The abolition of corporal punishment in South African schools led to greater discipline problems among students. Teachers are becoming increasingly frustrated as few practical solutions to this problem exist. This study examines the role that background music in the classroom can play in the child's ability to concentrate, increasing his positive behavior and so the improvement of discipline in the classroom. Background music is part of every child's world as modern technology makes listening to music part of everyday living. Learners listen to a large portion of music every day, even while they are doing homework. Therefore it was necessary to study the influence of background music as to what extend it can benefit the student in the classroom. This study used practical action research within a qualitative research design. From the relationship between the learner's behaviour and observations after classical instrumental music was played in the classroom, this type of background music can be used as a potential technique to improve discipline in the classroom. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / am2014 / Music / unrestricted

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the value of the use of musical accompaniment while bowling. This study analyzed the effects of two different types of background music, played at the same decibel level, on the bowling scores and attitudes of college students enrolled in bowling classes at a state university.

This study examines how tempo of background music affects reading comprehension when consuming written news on a smartphone. It has taken inspiration from a study conducted in 2002 which investigated how tempo in music affects reading comprehension when reading news on a pocket computer in a distracting environment. There is a rapidly growing use of smartphones and with this an increasing use of both news applications and music streaming services. Therefore, especially in a time where the reliability of certain news is being discussed, it is interesting to examine if there is any correlation between the music we listen to and how we comprehend news. Two instrumental music samples, which could be described as of the electronic pop genre, were created with the tempo being the only difference between them. Participants got to read two articles from the business section on a smartphone with either no background music or one of the two samples playing in headphones. After each article, a questionnaire with five true or false questions regarding the contents of the articles was answered. A final questionnaire regarding the participants experience of reading news on smartphones and listening to music and prior knowledge of the contents of the articles was then presented to the subject. The results indicate that a slower tempo improves reading comprehension and efficiency. However, no significant differences between the experimental conditions were found. / Den här studien undersöker hur tempot i bakgrundsmusik påverkar läsförståelse vid konsumtion av skrivna nyheter på en smarttelefon. En studie av hur tempo i musik påverkar läsförståelse vid läsning av nyheter på en handdator i en distraherande miljö och som genomfördes år 2002 är den huvudsakliga inspirationen. Användandet av smarttelefoner blir bara större och detta innebär en ökning av både applikationer för nyhetskonsumtion och streamingtjänster. Därför är det intressant att undersöka om det finns en korrelation mellan musiken vi lyssnar på och hur vi förstår och uppfattar nyheter, speciellt i denna tid då trovärdighet av nyheter ofta diskuteras. Två instrumentala musikstycken, vilka tillhör genren elektronisk pop, skapades med tempot som den enda åtskilda variabeln. Deltagare i studien fick läsa två artiklar från ekonomidelen på en smarttelefon med antingen ingen musik eller ett av de två musikstyckena spelandes i hörlurar. Efter varje artikel fick deltagaren svara på ett frågeformulär med fem frågor av typen "sant eller falskt" som handlade om innehållet i artikeln. Ett formulär angående deltagarens erfarenhet av att läsa nyheter på en smarttelefon samtidigt som musik spelas i bakgrunden samt tidigare kunskap om innehållet i artiklarna besvarades slutligen. Resultaten indikerar att ett långsammare tempo förbättrar både förståelse och effektivitet vid läsning. Inga signifikanta skillnader mellan grupperna kunde dock fastställas.

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