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Listening to music reduces eye movements

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posted on 2023-08-30, 15:50 authored by Thomas Schäfer, Jörg C. Fachner
Listening to music can change the way that people visually experience the environment, probably as a result of an inwardly directed shift of attention. We investigated whether this attentional shift can be demonstrated by reduced eye movement activity, and if so, whether that reduction depends on absorption. Participants listened to their preferred music, to unknown neutral music, or to no music while viewing a visual stimulus (a picture or a film clip). Preference and absorption were significantly higher for the preferred music than for the unknown music. Participants exhibited longer fixations, fewer saccades, and more blinks when they listened to music than when they sat in silence. However, no differences emerged between the preferred music condition and the neutral music condition. Thus, music significantly reduces eye movement activity, but an attentional shift from the outer to the inner world (i.e., to the emotions and memories evoked by the music) emerged as only one potential explanation. Other explanations, such as a shift of attention from visual to auditory input, are discussed.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

77

Issue number

2

Page range

551-559

Publication title

Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

ISSN

1943-393X

Publisher

Springer

File version

  • Accepted version

Language

  • eng

Legacy posted date

2018-11-16

Legacy creation date

2018-11-15

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

ARCHIVED Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences (until September 2018)

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