An investigatory study of how mood and musicianship interact to affect visual processing
Authors
Foster, Meadhbh
Issue Date
2009
Degree
BA in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
This study investigated effects of musical training and musically induced mood on global versus local processing in a visual task. Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory (1998,2001) suggests positive moods result in more global processing. The 59 participants, 28 musicians and 31 non-musicians, listened to a Mozart or an Albinoni piece, completed a computerised visual processing task and filled out a PANAS questionnaire, listened to the remaining piece and repeated the same procedure. The results of these tasks implied that the Mozart piece placed all participants into a positive mood but only the non-musician group then processed more globally. The present study is one of the first to investigate Fredrickson's theory in musicians and may have implications for theories of musical affect.