5 ms·

The Influence of Streamlined Music on Cognition and Mood (2016)

28 points by awaxman11 7y ago

politician 7y ago
https://www.focusatwill.com/ https://www.focusatwill.com/ is the website where you can hear some of the samples. I personally find that continuous live sets help me focus, and now I've got a whitepaper to prove it! Kidding aside, if this effect is real, then that's fantastic. If it only works for EDM fans, then I'm ok with that too.
focus_at_will 7y ago
God that music is fucking terrible. And lol @ the ADHD 1 sample. Definitely some bias among the currators leaking through their library selections. As if to say: “oh yes, we also cater to cripples, here is some shitty music that we think the mentally handicapped might enjoy! there, mungo, now take your adderall! yes, that’s right, it’s a nootropic, to help you compete with the Chinese at math!”
b_tterc_p 7y ago
> The tested form of streamlined music, which was tested primarily by listeners who felt they benefited from this type of music You can’t get a more biased sampling methodology than this.
- ineedasername 7y ago
  Well, maybe you could get more biased, if you really really tried for it. It would be an interesting contest to have.
  - ma2rten 7y ago
    You realize that this a common figure of speech and usually not meant literally, don't you?
    - ineedasername 7y ago
      Absolutely. But the level of selection bias on display here is extreme enough that it's almost easier to believe it was done deliberately, if naively. Which suggests the potential for a contest of sorts where participants would compete against each other for the most biased method of selecting research participants. It could be fun, in a cards-against-humanity sort of way.
      - b_tterc_p 7y ago
        Sounds like you should look into Bahfest https://bahfest.com/ https://bahfest.com/
corey_moncure 7y ago
Their quiz recommended me to "Electro Bach" and one of the samples is The Art of Fugue's first fugue played up-tempo in synth strings over a dance beat. It's just very weird. This would consume 100% of my attention leaving me completely unable to focus on work. "Alpha Chill" was really more my speed, but the best live sets I use to enter flow have a carefully curated progression through the high-energy and low-energy tracks.
- alicoche 7y ago
  I tried and did not have funds to spend after not trying it first yet took test which was nice and said the Alpha Chill was good for me too I found an alternative by an article in ScienceAlert 2015 , . https://www.sciencealert.com/the-best-music-to-listen-to-for-optimal-productivity-according-to-science https://www.sciencealert.com/the-best-music-to-listen-to-for... I found comparable to sample if not better. For sure better .
doobiedooo 7y ago
I have to wonder about the way that Focus@Will website caters to the ADHD segment. It smells like some seriously exploitative snake oil. In marketing, and especially to children, the whine factor is a recurring theme, in that, if you can get kids to whine for something, eventually the parents will fold and give in to the child’s demand. This seems to target exactly that kind of gimmick, where the parents are the cash machine, and the goal is to get them to dump money on “treatment” that’s been proven by “research” of some kind. Somehow, kids will feed into the stockholm syndrome of behavior disorders and the medication used to treat them. In some cases, kids eat up the ADHD label because it means a net bonus of attention, with medically sanctioned care derailing the default neglect and apathy that they remember prior to being diagnosed. Now, with the sympathy card in play, I can imagine an almost pavlovian response to mood music, because it represents the cue to anticipate a dose of meds. So if a kid gets conditioned to expect their music stream paired with their ADHD cocktail, when the subscription runs out, the whine factor kicks in, and they demand it because they associate it with the prescription stims their doctors and parents colluded to get them hooked on.
stream_lined 7y ago
They funded their own study of their own product: https://www.focusatwill.com/app/pages/science-of-focus-concentration https://www.focusatwill.com/app/pages/science-of-focus-conce... This “paper” is marketing material, and an advertisement for their service.
pier25 7y ago
What is streamlined music?

28 points by awaxman11 7y ago

https://www.focusatwill.com/ https://www.focusatwill.com/ is the website where you can hear some of the samples. I personally find that continuous live sets help me focus, and now I've got a whitepaper to prove it! Kidding aside, if this effect is real, then that's fantastic. If it only works for EDM fans, then I'm ok with that too.

focus_at_will 7y ago

God that music is fucking terrible. And lol @ the ADHD 1 sample. Definitely some bias among the currators leaking through their library selections. As if to say: “oh yes, we also cater to cripples, here is some shitty music that we think the mentally handicapped might enjoy! there, mungo, now take your adderall! yes, that’s right, it’s a nootropic, to help you compete with the Chinese at math!”

b_tterc_p 7y ago

> The tested form of streamlined music, which was tested primarily by listeners who felt they benefited from this type of music You can’t get a more biased sampling methodology than this.

ineedasername 7y ago
Well, maybe you could get more biased, if you really really tried for it. It would be an interesting contest to have.
- ma2rten 7y ago
  You realize that this a common figure of speech and usually not meant literally, don't you?
  - ineedasername 7y ago
    Absolutely. But the level of selection bias on display here is extreme enough that it's almost easier to believe it was done deliberately, if naively. Which suggests the potential for a contest of sorts where participants would compete against each other for the most biased method of selecting research participants. It could be fun, in a cards-against-humanity sort of way.
    - b_tterc_p 7y ago
      Sounds like you should look into Bahfest https://bahfest.com/ https://bahfest.com/

corey_moncure 7y ago

Their quiz recommended me to "Electro Bach" and one of the samples is The Art of Fugue's first fugue played up-tempo in synth strings over a dance beat. It's just very weird. This would consume 100% of my attention leaving me completely unable to focus on work. "Alpha Chill" was really more my speed, but the best live sets I use to enter flow have a carefully curated progression through the high-energy and low-energy tracks.

alicoche 7y ago
I tried and did not have funds to spend after not trying it first yet took test which was nice and said the Alpha Chill was good for me too I found an alternative by an article in ScienceAlert 2015 , . https://www.sciencealert.com/the-best-music-to-listen-to-for-optimal-productivity-according-to-science https://www.sciencealert.com/the-best-music-to-listen-to-for... I found comparable to sample if not better. For sure better .

doobiedooo 7y ago

I have to wonder about the way that Focus@Will website caters to the ADHD segment. It smells like some seriously exploitative snake oil. In marketing, and especially to children, the whine factor is a recurring theme, in that, if you can get kids to whine for something, eventually the parents will fold and give in to the child’s demand. This seems to target exactly that kind of gimmick, where the parents are the cash machine, and the goal is to get them to dump money on “treatment” that’s been proven by “research” of some kind. Somehow, kids will feed into the stockholm syndrome of behavior disorders and the medication used to treat them. In some cases, kids eat up the ADHD label because it means a net bonus of attention, with medically sanctioned care derailing the default neglect and apathy that they remember prior to being diagnosed. Now, with the sympathy card in play, I can imagine an almost pavlovian response to mood music, because it represents the cue to anticipate a dose of meds. So if a kid gets conditioned to expect their music stream paired with their ADHD cocktail, when the subscription runs out, the whine factor kicks in, and they demand it because they associate it with the prescription stims their doctors and parents colluded to get them hooked on.

stream_lined 7y ago

They funded their own study of their own product: https://www.focusatwill.com/app/pages/science-of-focus-concentration https://www.focusatwill.com/app/pages/science-of-focus-conce... This “paper” is marketing material, and an advertisement for their service.

pier25 7y ago

What is streamlined music?