Background Music Stints Creativity : Evidence from Compound Remote Associate Tasks

Threadgold, Emma and Marsh, John and McLatchie, Neil Marvin and Ball, Linden John (2019) Background Music Stints Creativity : Evidence from Compound Remote Associate Tasks. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33 (5). pp. 873-888. ISSN 0888-4080

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Abstract

Background music has been claimed to enhance people's creativity. In three experiments, we investigated the impact of background music on performance of Compound Remote Associate Tasks (CRATs), which are widely thought to tap creativity. Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics (Experiment 1), instrumental music without lyrics (Experiment 2), and music with familiar lyrics (Experiment 3) all significantly impaired CRAT performance in comparison with quiet background conditions. Furthermore, Experiment 3 demonstrated that background music impaired CRAT performance regardless of whether the music induced a positive mood or whether participants typically studied in the presence of music. The findings challenge the view that background music enhances creativity and are discussed in terms of an auditory distraction account (interference‐by‐process) and the processing disfluency account.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Applied Cognitive Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3205
Subjects:
?? musiccreativityinsightcompound remote associates taskdistractionexperimental and cognitive psychology ??
ID Code:
130924
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
29 Jan 2019 13:35
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
11 Jan 2024 00:20