Abstract
The present study examined the effects of different types of background auditory stimuli on the cognitive and creative task performance of introverts and extraverts. A sample of 77 high-school students completed two cognitive tasks (Baddeley Reasoning Test and sentence-completion) and a creative task (Alternate-Uses Test of divergent thinking) under one of four different background auditory conditions (speech, noise, music, or silence), as well as being assessed on Extraversion. Results showed no significant main or interactive effects of background auditory stimuli and personality on either cognitive task performance. However, there was a significant interactive effect on creative performance, with extraverts performing better in the presence of music than introverts. Consistencies and discrepancies with past literature are discussed.
Highlights
Background StimuliIn relation to music stimuli, it may be expected that greater listening frequency might lead to greater liking and predictability of tracks and, in turn, lead to decreased perceptions of stimuli complexity and arousal
We sought to investigate the effects of different types of auditory interference on the cognitive and creative task performance of introverts and extraverts
Our results showed that there were no significant effects of auditory interference or personality on either of the cognitive tasks (BRT and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)), which stands in marked contrast with the extant literature
Summary
Previous work has generally suggested that background auditory stimuli is more detrimental for task performance by introverts compared with extraverts, the extant literature is complicated by the use of a range of different types of auditory stimuli and measures of task performance. The present study extended previous work by investigating the effects of background auditory interference on creative task performance. No study has examined the effects of personality and background auditory interference, or a combination of both, on creative task-performance (in this study, operationalised as divergent thinking or ideational fluency). As such, this part of the study was exploratory in nature, we did expect auditory interference to have a detrimental effect on creative task-performance for introverts more than extraverts (given the similar task demands that creativity has compared with cognitive tasks)
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