Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
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Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
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Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#2Interesting. Does programming use this creative language part of the brain or more mathematical?
I have found that some songs with English lyrics as being distracting but not as much as people talking on the telephone in an office space
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#3Link to paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.3532
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#4fta: For example, a participant was shown three words (e.g., dress, dial, flower), with the requirement being to find a single associated word (in this case "sun") that can be combined to make a common word or phrase (i.e., sundress, sundial and sunflower).
The researchers used three experiments involving verbal tasks in either a quiet environment or while exposed to:
Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics Instrumental music without lyrics Music with familiar lyrics
What a pitri dish experiment. I don't give this any value whatever to actual creative tasks like painting or designing a video game. Music can help induce a state of flow to be creative in a multitude of work environs -- OK, but this research proved you can't solve a simple word riddle quite as well.
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#5Misleading title.
"For example, a participant was shown three words (e.g., dress, dial, flower), with the requirement being to find a single associated word (in this case "sun") that can be combined to make a common word or phrase (i.e., sundress, sundial and sunflower)."
This seems more like a pattern recognition puzzle. Not the flow state of "creativity".
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#6fta: For example, a participant was shown three words (e.g., dress, dial, flower), with the requirement being to find a single associated word (in this case "sun") that can be combined to make a common word or phrase (i.e., sundress, sundial and sunflower). The researchers used three experiments involving verbal tasks in either a quiet environment or while exposed to: Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics…
Came here to basically say this.
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#7Interesting. Does programming use this creative language part of the brain or more mathematical? I have found that some songs with English lyrics as being distracting but not as much as people talking on the telephone in an office space
Neither, there has been research done of people programming, and they measured the most activity to be in areas related to short term (working) memory.
Also as a 10+ year musician, I prefer programming (or any task that needs focus) without any sound. Listening to music, makes me noticeably more relaxed in a "bad way", and I definitely can't get into the nitty gritty of an actual problem, with anywhere close of a hyperfocus "shit is real" kind of attitude.
Music can get me in the mood, but when I get there and the music is off, it's 5 hours later and I wrote a figurative 1000 lines of working code.
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#8Interesting. Does programming use this creative language part of the brain or more mathematical? I have found that some songs with English lyrics as being distracting but not as much as people talking on the telephone in an office space
Why are we assuming that language = creative, and mathematics = not creative?
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#9fta: For example, a participant was shown three words (e.g., dress, dial, flower), with the requirement being to find a single associated word (in this case "sun") that can be combined to make a common word or phrase (i.e., sundress, sundial and sunflower). The researchers used three experiments involving verbal tasks in either a quiet environment or while exposed to: Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics…
Agreed.
This was like studying the effect of food quality on mental function by having participants solve addition problems while eating one of: a Skittle, a carrot, or a Tylenol.
Re: Listening to music 'significantly impairs' creativity
#10I have found this anecdotally to be true when doing the actual design work of a project. However, once I know what I want to do, music does typically put me into a groove. If you normally listen to music while coding, you may not realize how distracting it can be during periods of deep thought.