Background music of varying tempi produces differing facial emotional expressions and performance in music-majors and non-majors as they complete a reading comprehension test

Abstract

This study examined how music major and non-music major participants’ performances and emotional expressions differed when exposed to background music of varying tempi while completing a reading comprehension task. Two questions were addressed: (1) What effect does background music of varying tempi have on the performance of music and non-music majors while completing a reading comprehension task? and (2) What real-time expressed emotions and self-report measures may predict the reading comprehension scores between music and non-music majors? A total of 34 participants completed a reading comprehension task under each of three musical test conditions while facial-muscular emotion software analyzed their facial expressions, to understand the effect on performance. Results indicated that music majors displayed significantly different ( p < .05) emotional expressions of joy and contempt, which corresponded to no significant differences in performance scores, in comparison to non-majors, whose performance varied greatly across the background music test conditions that were given. These findings support the growing literature surrounding the possible effects of music training and how differences between trained and non-musicians may be understood through emotion detection software.