Efeitos do processamento musical na compreensão leitora

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the possible benefits of a single and brief exposure to instrumental music before carrying out a reading activity that requires specific cognitive resources (such as, attention, memory and making inferences). The literature reports that music has several positive effects on human beings (e.g. changes in mood, disease treatment, relaxation, etc.). However, previous studies are longitudinal and assess the effects of musical exposure over longer periods, ranging from several years of training in the case of professional musicians, to regular exposure for several consecutive weeks for people without specialized training (Schlaug et al, 2005; Besson; Barbaroux; Dittinger, 2017). We investigated the possible effects of a brief, single and targeted exposure to instrumental music sequences before a reading comprehension task. We also explored whether listening to music would be more positive than performing another activity that promotes a focused attentional state, such as a puzzle solving. We investigated the possible effects of music on adults with completed high school and no musical processing disorders (e.g. melophobia, amusia, etc.). We used a combination of sequential tasks to contrast different conditions: active instrumental music listening (identifying instruments or changes in rhythm), passive listening and a non-musical activity (solving an abstract puzzle), followed by a reading comprehension task identical for all the groups, containing open and closed questions (multiple choice). A control group was also included which only performed the reading comprehension task, without any previous activity. The performance of the participants in each group was compared in order to establish possible differences depending on the first task performed. The results suggest a possible positive effect of active musical exposure on reading comprehension performance. This effect, however, is not related to a better overall understanding of the text, but to the accuracy in retrieving relevant information and/or making correct inferences when required. The positive effects were only observed in contexts of higher cognitive demand, related to the open questions. For multiple-choice questions, there were no significant differences between the groups. The control group without previous activity, performed the worst in the reading task. The result seems compatible with the idea that all the tasks investigated were beneficials in the subsequent reading activity, with the active musical exposure tasks recording the greatest positive effects.