Calming work music

3. Nature Sounds

According to psychophysical data and sound-field analysis published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, listening to "natural" sounds could enhance cognitive functioning, optimize your ability to concentrate, and increase your level of satisfaction.

Think: Waves crashing, birds chirping, streams trickling, and the like.

That could explain why more consumer-facing brands -- from Google Home to the newer Noisli -- are introducing such ambient sound features to help listeners relax or focus. It might also be behind Spotify's multiple nature-themed playlists, like this soothing one:

4. Pump Up Songs

After observing that many athletes arrive at the stadium wearing headphones, Kellogg School of Management professor Derek Rucker and three of his colleagues -- Loran Nordgren, Li Huang, and Adam Galinsky -- set out to answer the question: Does listening to the right kind of music make us feel more powerful or in control?

So, back in 2014, the group of researchers set up a study to gauge how music might influence motivation and subsequent behavior. First, they played several songs for participants in a lab, and asked them -- on a scale of one to seven -- how powerful, dominant, and determined they felt after listening to each song. There were three "high power" winners: Queen’s "We Will Rock You," 2 Unlimited’s "Get Ready for This," and 50 Cent’s "In Da Club."

Then, to gauge how the music would influence their behavior, they asked participants to listen to the music and then determine whether or not they'd like to go first or second in a debate. As it turned out, those who listened to the high-power playlist volunteered to go first almost twice as often as those who listened to a less powerful playlist.

The lesson? "Just as professional athletes might put on empowering music before they take the field to get them in a powerful state of mind," Rucker explained, "you might try [this] in certain situations where you want to be empowered."

Next time you're looking to feel empowered before a big presentation, interview, or salary review, check out this roundup:

Want more? Check out my colleague Amanda Zantal-Wiener's picks here.

5. Instrumental Songs

In 2015, Middle Tennessee State University researchers Carol A. Smith and Larry W. Morris discovered that students who listened to "sedative" music during a test scored higher than those who listened to lyrical music. (That somewhat contrasts their initial findings 39 years earlier, which showed that while music didn't reveal an impact on test scores, those who listened to "stimulative music" showed a significant increase in worry and highly emotional reactions.)

That isn't to say that it's entirely impossible to cross things off your list while listening to songs with words — I actually prefer lyrical music, but my colleague, Amanda Zantal-Wiener, has joked about hip hop verses accidentally slipping into her first drafts when she listens to songs with words. If you're like she is and find that lyrics are too distracting, you may want to experiment with some instrumental options.

For those times, check out these lyric-less tunes — we promise they won't put you to sleep:

6.

Buried in deadlines? Trying to unearth yourself from an email mountain after some time off? Whatever's bugging you, sometimes, the best remedy for productivity loss is a solid dose of "feel good" tunes — you know, the kind that make you spontaneously use a pen as a pantomimed microphone.

But scientifically speaking, music can stimulate the same part of the brain as delicious food and other physical pleasures. Researchers at McGill University, for example, discovered that when participants received the opiod-production-blocking drug naltrexone, they didn't respond as positively to their favorite tunes as they might normally.

The verdict? Our brains are trained to naturally produce these chemicals when we hear our preferred playlist.

And while "feel good" songs vary from person to person, a search for Spotify playlists with those very keywords yields dozens of results. That said, here's one of our favorites:

Can't get enough? Here are a few more suggestions from my colleague Amanda.

7. White Noise

According to a study led by Yamaguchi University, "When carrying out intellectual activities involving memory or arithmetic tasks, it is a common experience for noise to cause an increased psychological impression of 'annoyance,' leading to a decline in performance."

Whether you're remote working with roommates or working in an office space with noisy colleagues, it can be tricky to focus with conversations happening around you. Neutral, non-verbal background sounds like white noise, which is not the same as nature sounds, can help block out these distractions — things like the din of a restaurant or shopping mall, an electric fan, or even laundry machines.

And in case you're wondering — yes. Like all of the above, there is a playlist for that:

So go forth — focus, get pumped, feel good, and rock out.

What are your favorite songs for getting work done? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Topics: Productivity Free Marketing Software

Don't forget to share this post!

Radio online listen for free - 101.ru. Listen Office Lounge

Attention! You have the AdBlock ad blocker enabled

When the AdBlock plugin is enabled, we cannot guarantee the correct operation of all site services

Do you often dream of unloading your head, leaving unnecessary thoughts and working light while working? Then turn on "Office Lounge.101". Papers will be dealt with much faster, all letters will be sent on time, and colleagues will also thank you for the excellent background for a good mood! Work should bring only joy. And you yourself can contribute to this. Enjoy your time in the office. After all, you choose the music here!

• Top Tracks
• Ether history

Media news2

Recommended

• 101.ru liquid funk
• 101.ru new age
• 101.ru Jazz
• 101.ru deep house
• 101.ru Spiritual music

Channels

More channels

• 101.ru Football music
• 101.ru comedy radio
• 101.ru Euro Hits
• 101.ru Relax FM
• 101.ru Humor FM
• 101.ru Disco 90's

New tracks

All tracks

• Lose You

  Cheat Codes feat. Jimmy Allen

  Pop music

• Forever

  griffins feat. Elley Duhe

  Pop music
• Day 2 Day

  Sean Paul

  Pop music
• lift me up

  Rihanna

  Pop music

• By the stars

  Anton Tokarev

  Rock
• Simply The Best

  Black Eyed Peas feat. Anitta & El Alfa

  Pop music

Subscribe for 1* and listen to music without ads *To learn more

Office Lounge

"Heavy" music is good for health, concerts prolong life, and tracks influence the choice of food - according to research in the field of music in 2018

Music is an area that also has a lot of research going on. ITMO.N EWS talks about the most interesting ones, which explain how concerts affect a person, how music is processed by the human brain with a high level of empathy, how music helps children develop language skills, why “heavy” music is good for health and how track choice influences our choice between healthy and unhealthy foods. Details in the material.

Researchers have found benefit from listening to heavy music, University of South Australia

Paula Roe and Bernard Guerin from the University of South Australia in the study “Contextualizing the mental health of young metalheads: a community for social protection, identification and musical empowerment” found that “metal” has a positive effect on young people aged 18-24.

Researchers have found that social community and musical interaction has a positive effect on the psychological mood of young metal fans, despite the widespread perception of the negative impact of heavy music on health. The study involved 23 Australian boys and five girls. All respondents stated that they strongly associate themselves with "metal" and feel that this community protects them from mental illness.

According to the survey, all these young people have four main things in common: they were bullied or ignored at school; being outcasts or feeling angry, they enjoyed the influence of heavy music and lyrics; they felt protected within the metal community, although in many cases at their age this feeling was more imaginary; commitment to "metal" helped them to resist offenders, as well as find friends.

Researchers have concluded that the metal community and heavy music help young people cope with personal problems and help them mature in the face of family or social setbacks. 921 %. Further research revealed a direct relationship between "a high level of well-being and an increase in life expectancy by nine years."

Study participants underwent special psychometric tests and heart rate tests that showed an increase in self-esteem (25%), an increase in feelings of closeness (25%) and mental arousal (75%) after attending a concert. The study also found that those who attend bi-weekly concerts were the most likely to experience feelings of "happiness, satisfaction and self-esteem at the highest level."

Music lessons improve language skills, MIT

Researchers have found that piano lessons have a specific effect on children's ability to distinguish different tones, resulting in improved word recognition. Many studies have shown that musical training can improve language skills. However, it was not known whether music lessons improve general cognitive ability, resulting in better language proficiency, or whether the effect of music is more specific to language processing.

A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown that piano lessons have a very specific effect on children's ability to distinguish between different tones, resulting in improved discrimination between spoken words. However, piano lessons do not seem to provide any benefit to general cognitive ability, as measured by IQ, attention span, and working memory.

The researchers said that the children did not have higher cognitive scores, but they did show some improvement in word discrimination, especially for consonants. At the same time, it was the piano group that showed the best improvement.

Music Advantage

Previous research has shown that, on average, musicians perform better on tasks such as reading comprehension, distinguishing speech from background noise, and fast auditory processing. However, most of these studies were done based on people's feedback on their past musical education. The MIT researchers wanted to do a more controlled study in which they could randomly assign children music lessons and then measure the effects.

The 74 children who participated in the study were divided into three groups: one group received 45 minutes of piano lessons three times a week; the other group received additional reading instruction during the same period of time; and the third group received no intervention. All children aged 4-5 years spoke their native language Chinese (the study was conducted in one of the Beijing schools).

After six months, the researchers tested the children on their ability to distinguish words based on differences in vowels, consonants, or tone (many Chinese words differ only in tone). Better word discrimination usually corresponds to better phonological awareness—awareness of the sound structure of words, which is a key component of learning to read.

Children who had piano lessons showed a significant advantage over children in the supplementary reading group in distinguishing words that differ in one consonant. Children in both the piano group and the supplementary reading group performed better than children who received no intervention when it came to distinguishing words based on vowel differences.

The researchers also used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity and found that children in the piano group had stronger responses than other children when they listened to a series of tones of different pitches. This suggests that greater sensitivity to differences in pitch is what helped children who took piano lessons to better distinguish between different words. This skill, in turn, is very important for children in language learning.

How Music Influences Our Decision to Order Healthy or Unhealthy Food at a Restaurant, University of South Florida

Restaurant music plays an important role in whether you order healthy or unhealthy food. The study shows that the volume of ambient music (a style of electronic music) has a systemic effect on consumer preferences for healthy and unhealthy foods. This is because music has a direct effect on heart rate and arousal. Soft music has a calming effect, making us more aware of what we order. This usually leads to healthier choices, such as a salad. The louder atmosphere increases stimulation and stress, making patrons crave a greasy cheeseburger and fries.

The study was carried out in a cafe in Stockholm (Sweden), where different genres of music were alternately played at 55 dB and 70 dB. Menu items were coded as healthy, unhealthy, and neutral (a category used for items such as coffee or tea). In an experiment that ran several hours over several days, the researchers found that 20% more restaurant patrons ordered something unhealthy when the music was louder than those who dined at quieter times.

While previous studies have looked at various aspects of environmental influences on food sales, such as lighting, smell and decor, this is the first study to specifically look at how music volume dictates healthy and unhealthy food choices. These results allow restaurant managers to manipulate music to influence sales.

People who deeply understand the pain or happiness of others process music differently in the brain, Dallas Southern Methodist University and University of California

Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience compared MRI scans of people with low and high empathy and found that people with supreme empathy differ from others in how their brains process music.

Researchers have found that compared to people with lower levels of empathy, people with higher levels of empathy process familiar music with greater involvement of the brain's reward system, as well as in areas responsible for processing social information.

High and low empathic people have much in common when listening to music, including roughly equivalent involvement in areas of the brain associated with auditory, emotional, and sensorimotor processing, but there is at least one significant difference. Highly empathic people process familiar music with more involvement from the brain's social networks, areas that are activated when you feel empathy for others. They also experience a greater degree of listening pleasure, as evidenced by increased activation of the reward system.

A study by scientists from the Southern Methodist University of Dallas and the University of California for the first time confirmed the connection between music and empathy. In addition, this study is one of the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study how empathy is related to the perception of music.

The participants of the study were 20 students from the University of California. Each of them had an MRI scan while they listened to snippets of familiar or unfamiliar music that the listener might or might not like. Each respondent then completed a test to assess individual differences in empathy. After that, the researchers ran controlled comparisons to see which parts of the brain while listening to music correlated with empathy.

Brain scan analysis showed that high empathizers experienced more activity in the dorsal striatum, which is part of the brain's reward system, when listening to familiar music, whether they liked the music or not. The reward system, in turn, is associated with pleasure and other positive emotions.

Participate in music research

The Music Lab. Source: beta.themusiclab.org

Today, The Music Lab at Harvard University (the newest laboratory in the Department of Psychology) is dedicated to the basic sciences, experimenting with people of all ages, populations and genetic backgrounds.

• 
  How to protect yourself from negative entities
• 
  How well do i know my boyfriend
• 
  Low self esteem images
• 
  Avoiding a narcissist
• 
  Hearing sirens in your head
• 
  What is severe anxiety
• 
  Finding self esteem
• 
  How to stop twisting your hair
• 
  List of abnormal psychology disorders
• 
  Are vivid dreams a sign of mental illness
• 
  Bipolar job hopping