title: Cognitive interference can be mitigated by consonant music and facilitated by dissonant music.
abstract: Debates on the origins of consonance and dissonance in music have a long history. While some scientists argue that consonance judgments are an acquired competence based on exposure to the musical-system-specific knowledge of a particular culture, others favor a biological explanation for the observed preference for consonance. Here we provide experimental confirmation that this preference plays an adaptive role in human cognition: it reduces cognitive interference. The results of our experiment reveal that exposure to a Mozart minuet mitigates interference, whereas, conversely, when the music is modified to consist of mostly dissonant intervals the interference effect is intensified.
authors.affiliation: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan. masataka.nobuo.7r@kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Masataka
authors.forename: Leonid
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perlovsky
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis