Effects of background music on cognitive abilities

在做其他事情的同时听音乐是很常见的，但背景音乐对认知能力的影响却知之甚少。从现有的文献中得出的结论可能源于背景音乐的成本和收益，这些成本和收益因环境、任务和个人而异。一方面，众所周知，听音乐可以改善听众的感受，并增强情绪状态（即，情绪和唤醒水平）改善认知表现。另一方面，认知能力，特别是工作记忆的能力，是有限的，背景音乐的定义意味着听者同时在做两件（或更多）事情：主要任务（阅读，驾驶等）。听音乐因此，背景音乐可能会减少可用于主要任务的认知资源，并阻碍性能。毫无疑问，这两种对立的力量在某些情况下会产生积极的影响，但在另一些情况下会产生消极的影响。此外，背景音乐的成本和收益必然因人而异。

Listening to music while doing something else is common yet the effects of background music on cognitive abilities are poorly understood. Conflicting findings from the available literature are likely to stem from the costs and benefits of background music that vary across contexts, tasks, and individuals. On the one hand, it is well established that music listening can improve how the listener feels, and enhanced emotional states (i.e., mood and arousal levels) improve cognitive performance. On the other hand, cognitive capacities, particularly those of working memory, are finite, and background music by definition implies that the listener is doing two (or more) things at once: the primary task (reading, driving, etc.) and listening to music. Hence, background music may reduce cognitive resources available for the primary task and hinder performance. These two opposing forces undoubtedly lead to positive effects in some instances but to negative effects in other instances. Moreover, the costs and benefits of background music are bound to vary across individuals.