Abstract des Autors

Research examining the effects of music on behavior is scarce, despite the ubiquite of music in the everyday lives of people of all cultures. Listening to music has been shown to influence emotional state, and its use as a preparation strategy is well known in sporting folklore, but has been evaluated formally. This paper reports on two studies of the relationships between music, heart rate, and performance in physical tasks. In the first study, 30 subjects performed a dart-throwing task on three occasions: without music, after listening to slow classical music, and after listening to fast modern music. Performance did not differ across conditions, but heart rate was significantly lowered after listening to either type of music. In the second study, the possible relationship between music and imagery was examined by comparing preparation with imagery alone, or imagery plus music, for performance in a muscular endurance task. Task performance improved equally over baseline for both groups. The imagery-plus-music group showed a significant increase in heart rate during preparation, but heart rate was not related to task performance. It appears that music may affect arousal, but that for these tasks at least, there is no corresponding effect on behavior. Further systematic reserach examining a broader range of tasks and types of music may indicate more about the psychological effects of music and their relevance to physical activity. Verf.-Referat