Impact of Music on Working Memory in Rwanda

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Sara-Valérie Giroux¹  Serge Caparos²  Nathalie Gosselin¹  Eugène Rutembesa⁶  Isabelle Blanchette¹ 

[1] Groupe de Recherche CogNAC, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières;DysCo Laboratory, Département de Psychologie, Université Paris 8;Institut Universitaire de France;International Laboratory for Brain, and Sound Research, Université de Montréal;Center for Research on Brain, Université McGill;College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda;Université Laval

关键词: music;    working memory;    Rwanda;    trauma;    cognition;    arousal;    valence;    familiarity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00774

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Previous research shows that listening to pleasant, stimulating and familiar music is likely to improve working memory performance. The benefits of music on cognition have been widely studied in Western populations, but not in other cultures. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of music on working memory in a non-Western sociocultural context: Rwanda. One hundred and nineteen participants were randomly assigned to a control group (short story) or one of four different musical conditions varying on two dimensions: arousal (relaxing, stimulating) and cultural origin (Western, Rwandan). Working memory was measured using a behavioral task, the n-back paradigm, before and after listening to music (or the short story in the control condition). Unlike in previous studies with Western samples, our results with this Rwandan sample did not show any positive effect of familiar, pleasant and stimulating music on working memory. Performance on the n-back task generally improved from pre to post, in all conditions, but this improvement was less important in participants who listened to familiar Rwandan music compared to those who listened to unfamiliar Western music or to a short story. The study highlights the importance of considering the sociocultural context in research examining the impact of music on cognition. Although different aspects of music are considered universal, there may be cultural differences that limit the generalization of certain effects of music on cognition or that modulate the characteristics that favor its beneficial impact.

【 授权许可】

CC BY