Effect of sedative and stimulative music on visual reaction time and arousal in university athletes

• Main Author: Lim, Tin Ying
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Science::General
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144477
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The main objective of this study was to determine the difference between the visual reaction time (VRT) for sedative and stimulative music and their influence on the arousal level. The rationale was to identify the potential implication of incorporating music as part of the pre-competition routine for athletes. A total of 24 local university athletes who have participated in university level competition in recent 2 years and free from illnesses were recruited. Likert Scale was used to understand participant’s arousal level in the pre and post-test questionnaire. After the pre-test VRT, a sedative or stimulative playlist was randomly selected and post VRT was immediately measured after the music. Participants were exposed to 2 different playlists across 2 testing sessions. Descriptive data for sedative music were: pre-test (M =262.205 ± 21.824 ms) and post-test (M =259.533 ± 19.939 ms) and for stimulative music were: pre-test (M =265.313 ± 22.219 ms) and post-test (M =264.085 ± 21.816 ms). There was a slight decrease in post VRT for both playlists. However, there was no significant difference between the two pre-tests (p = 0.351), pre and post-test result for sedative (p = 0.402) and stimulative music (p = 0.660) and no correlation between post VRT and arousal level in both playlists (p-value = 0.843, 0.813). Statistical significance was found between pre and post arousal level for stimulative music. It was concluded that there is no significant influence of music tempo on VRT but significant influence on the arousal level for stimulative music