The impact of self-selected background music on sustained attention: Examining the roles of arousal and task engagement

IF 1.5 3区心理学 0 MUSIC

Psychology of Music Pub Date : 2026-05-06 DOI:10.1177/03057356261436409

Ryutaro Oe, Tsukasa Kimura, Kazumitsu Shinohara

{"title":"The impact of self-selected background music on sustained attention: Examining the roles of arousal and task engagement","authors":"Ryutaro Oe, Tsukasa Kimura, Kazumitsu Shinohara","doi":"10.1177/03057356261436409","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The impact of background music (BGM) on vigilance task performance remains controversial. While previous research has focused on arousal as a mediating variable, recent studies suggest that task engagement also influences the effects of BGM on vigilance performance. This study investigated the impact of self-selected BGM on arousal, task engagement, and task performance during a vigilance task. A total of 36 participants completed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and questionnaires assessing energetic and tense arousal as well as four dimensions of task engagement (emotional, behavioral, state, and cognitive). Results indicated that, compared to silence, self-selected BGM significantly increased participants’ energetic arousal and task engagement, while decreasing response time variability. Furthermore, exploratory hierarchical Bayesian modeling analyses revealed that the effect of BGM on the false alarm rate was well explained by a model in which task engagement mediates the relationship between the presence of BGM and the false alarm rate. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the multifaceted nature of task engagement in future research examining the effects of BGM on cognitive performance, particularly in sustained attention tasks.","PeriodicalId":47977,"journal":{"name":"Psychology of Music","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2026-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychology of Music","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356261436409","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"MUSIC","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The impact of background music (BGM) on vigilance task performance remains controversial. While previous research has focused on arousal as a mediating variable, recent studies suggest that task engagement also influences the effects of BGM on vigilance performance. This study investigated the impact of self-selected BGM on arousal, task engagement, and task performance during a vigilance task. A total of 36 participants completed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and questionnaires assessing energetic and tense arousal as well as four dimensions of task engagement (emotional, behavioral, state, and cognitive). Results indicated that, compared to silence, self-selected BGM significantly increased participants’ energetic arousal and task engagement, while decreasing response time variability. Furthermore, exploratory hierarchical Bayesian modeling analyses revealed that the effect of BGM on the false alarm rate was well explained by a model in which task engagement mediates the relationship between the presence of BGM and the false alarm rate. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the multifaceted nature of task engagement in future research examining the effects of BGM on cognitive performance, particularly in sustained attention tasks.

查看原文本刊更多论文

自选背景音乐对持续注意力的影响：唤醒和任务参与的检验

背景音乐对警觉性任务表现的影响一直存在争议。虽然之前的研究主要集中在唤醒作为一个中介变量，但最近的研究表明，任务参与也会影响BGM对警觉性表现的影响。本研究调查了在警觉性任务中，自我选择的BGM对唤醒、任务参与和任务表现的影响。共有36名参与者完成了持续注意反应任务（SART）和评估精力和紧张唤醒以及任务参与的四个维度（情绪、行为、状态和认知）的问卷调查。结果表明，与沉默相比，自我选择的BGM显著增加了被试的能量唤醒和任务投入，同时降低了反应时间的变异性。此外，探索性的层次贝叶斯模型分析表明，任务投入在BGM的存在和虚警率之间起中介作用，可以很好地解释BGM对虚警率的影响。这些发现强调了在未来研究BGM对认知表现的影响时，特别是在持续注意力任务中，考虑任务参与的多面性的重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Psychology of Music Multiple-

CiteScore

4.00

自引率

17.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： Psychology of Music and SEMPRE provide an international forum for researchers working in the fields of psychology of music and music education, to encourage the exchange of ideas and to disseminate research findings. Psychology of Music publishes peer-reviewed papers directed at increasing the scientific understanding of any psychological aspect of music. These include studies on listening, performing, creating, memorising, analysing, describing, learning, and teaching, as well as applied social, developmental, attitudinal and therapeutic studies. Special emphasis is placed on studies carried out in naturalistic settings, especially those which address the interface between music psychology and music education.