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Death Angel - Music Used In Psychological Study


Death Angel were recently used in a psychological study that shows liked and disliked music are equally disruptive to serial recall. The disliked music in the study was the song "Thrashers" by Death Angel.

Dr. Nick Perham explained his reasoning by using Death Angel as the "disliked" music in the study: "We needed a track that most participants would say they did not like. Having been a fan of metal music since my teens, I was pretty confident that a thrash metal song would do the trick as most people never seemed to like the music I liked. In choosing a thrash metal song, I needed a song that was heavy but also allowed the listener to hear many of the different components of the song - the acoustical variation between the successive sound items. We chose "Thrashers". Participants were only allowed to participate in the study if they disliked thrash metal as a musical genre...

Personally, I have been a fan of Death Angel since The Ultra-Violence and saw them at the Bristol Bierkeller around 1990 supporting the Act III album."

For decades research has shown that listening to music can alleviate anxiety and depression, enhance mood, as well as increase cognitive functioning such as spatial awareness. However, until now, research has not addressed how we listen to music. For instance, is the cognitive benefit still the same if we listen to music whilst performing a task, rather than before it? Further, how does our preference for a particular type of music affect performance? A new study from Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that listening to music that one likes whilst performing a serial recall task does not help performance any more than listening to music one does not enjoy.

The researchers explored the "irrelevant sound effect" by requiring participants to perform serial recall (recall a list of 8 consonants in presentation order) in the presence of five sound environments - quiet, liked music (e.g., Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Stranglers and Arcade Fire), disliked music (the track "Thrashers" by Death Angel), changing-state (a sequence of random digits such as '4, 7, 1, 6') and steady-state ('3, 3, 3'). Recall ability was approximately the same, and poorest, for the music and changing-state conditions and the most accurate recall occurred when participants performed the task in the quieter steady-state environments.

Lead researcher Nick Perham explains: "The poorer performance of the music and changing-state sounds are due to them containing lots of acoustical variation the order of which impairs the ability to recall the order of items, via rehearsal, within the presented list. Other tasks and processes that also require the ability to retain order information in the short-term via rehearsal, such as mental arithmetic, may be similarly affected by their performance in the presence of changing-state, background environments."

Although music can have a very positive effect on our general mental health, music can, in the circumstances described, also have negative effects on cognitive performance. Perham remarks: "Most people listen to music at the same time as, rather than prior to, performing a task but to reduce the negative effects of background music when recalling information in order, one should either perform the task in quiet or only listen to music prior to performing the task."




Source: blogs.myspace.com
Band profile: Death Angel
Posted: 17.08.2010 by BudDa


Comments

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Comments: 11   Visited by: 172 users
17.08.2010 - 17:00
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Interesting article. But also, very predictable findings.
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17.08.2010 - 17:02
vezzy
Stallmanite
No, no, no.
It's the other way around: Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Stranglers and Arcade Fire are disliked music, whereas Death Angel are liked.
Get your facts straight, dumb psychologists!
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17.08.2010 - 17:12
Introspekrieg
Totemic Lust
Elite
Seems like a very erroneous study based on the researchers assumptions.
Should have used this instead...

...but then again if you just put auto-tune on this guy most randomly sampled participants (aka the average public) would probably like it.
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17.08.2010 - 17:47
Acolyt#1
Written by Introspekrieg on 17.08.2010 at 17:12

Seems like a very erroneous study based on the researchers assumptions.
Should have used this instead...

...but then again if you just put auto-tune on this guy most randomly sampled participants (aka the average public) would probably like it.

omfg this song is... it's... What are we talking about?
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17.08.2010 - 17:56
Introspekrieg
Totemic Lust
Elite
Written by Acolyt#1 on 17.08.2010 at 17:47

Written by Introspekrieg on 17.08.2010 at 17:12

Seems like a very erroneous study based on the researchers assumptions.
Should have used this instead...

...but then again if you just put auto-tune on this guy most randomly sampled participants (aka the average public) would probably like it.

omfg this song is... it's... What are we talking about?

Based on the given sample, there is a strong correlation of blackouts (memory loss) with the music video. Other minor correlations included anxiety, bald spots (hair), coma, compulsive behavior, confusion, craving to eat ice/dirt/paper, drainage or pus, emotional detachment, exploding brains, impaired color vision, repetitive behavior, spinning sensations, tenderness to touch, visible deformity, and death.
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17.08.2010 - 21:22
warrior_of_ice
Psychology is friken stupid. coming from someone who studied it, i can say that psychology is a long ways away from becoming truly scientific.
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17.08.2010 - 22:26
Introspekrieg
Totemic Lust
Elite
Written by warrior_of_ice on 17.08.2010 at 21:22

Psychology is friken stupid. coming from someone who studied it, i can say that psychology is a long ways away from becoming truly scientific.

Same here buddy, I almost got my degree in it until I realized what a sham it is. Well a lot of it is, especially the questionnaire/survey type research they make you do for projects. "Oooo I'm a doctor, here are your pills for an invisible disease I think you have."
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17.08.2010 - 22:33
warrior_of_ice
Exactly man. Psychologists 'think' that they can get away with silly studies on the assertion that their discipline has a scientific background. Nevertheless, i cant say i regret taking it.
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18.08.2010 - 09:09
Acolyt#1
Written by Introspekrieg on 17.08.2010 at 17:56

Written by Acolyt#1 on 17.08.2010 at 17:47

Written by Introspekrieg on 17.08.2010 at 17:12

Seems like a very erroneous study based on the researchers assumptions.
Should have used this instead...

...but then again if you just put auto-tune on this guy most randomly sampled participants (aka the average public) would probably like it.

omfg this song is... it's... What are we talking about?

Based on the given sample, there is a strong correlation of blackouts (memory loss) with the music video. Other minor correlations included anxiety, bald spots (hair), coma, compulsive behavior, confusion, craving to eat ice/dirt/paper, drainage or pus, emotional detachment, exploding brains, impaired color vision, repetitive behavior, spinning sensations, tenderness to touch, visible deformity, and death.

Dear Doc, I have lost most of my forearms' skin, I have blacked out a couple of times and regained consciousness naked dry humping a Mc Donald's mascot. Is there a treatment I could get for this?

By the way, it's a medical forum... right?

John Major.
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19.08.2010 - 21:01
sbgmetal
Dude thats a cool song!
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02.02.2011 - 00:08
ScreamingSteelUS
Editor-in-Chief
Admin
This is an interesting study, but I listen to music while I do everything. So the results have no bearing on me whatsoever.
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"Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader

I'm the Agent of Steel.
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