Marissa Arreola

School: Loyola University Chicago

Majors: Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-t8z3-tx73

Biography:

Marissa is a third year at Loyola University Chicago double majoring in Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychology. Under the guidance of her mentor, Dr. Raymond Jr. Dye, Marissa has previous research experience in studying the precedence effect and how it differs between interaural level differences and interaural time differences (binaural cues). Currently, she co-leads a study on musical engagement and its immediate performance effects on spatial and memory tasks, varying in delays. She was awarded the Mulcahy Fellowship last fall to further fund this project. Looking ahead, she plans to pursue post-baccalaureate research in clinical psychology and/or affective neuroscience labs, eventually applying to doctoral programs for clinical psychology. Her research interests lie in the neuroscience of psychopathologies, specifically regarding trauma in refugee and immigrant communities. Minoring in sociology of health and its disparities, Marissa aims to bring a more holistic perspective to her work. And on a more personal level, she aspires to give back to her Latinx community by furthering accessibility and treatment of mental and behavioral health.

The Immediate Effects of Musical Engagement on Spatial-Reasoning Skills

The “Mozart Effect” was first reported in 1993 when Rauscher et al. demonstrated that 10 minutes of exposure to a Mozart piano sonata temporarily enhanced performance on a spatial-reasoning task. Schellenberg et al. suggested that the Mozart Effect may be attributed to heightened states of arousal and mood which could explain the enhanced task performance. The present study investigates the relationship between arousal, mood, and spatial reasoning as measured by the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition (POMS 2) and a Paper Folding and Cutting Test (PF&C). Seventy-five musicians were randomly assigned to one of four activity conditions varying across two dimensions: activity type (music vs non-music), engagement level (active or passive), and a control. The five conditions include sitting in silence (control), listening to a narrated story (passive, non-music), listening to music (passive, music), reading a story aloud (active, non-music), and sight-reading music (active, music). Participants attend two 50-minute Zoom sessions. In the first session, participants’ arousal and mood are assessed before and after completing their activity. In the second session, participants’ spatial-reasoning skills are assessed before and after their activity. Currently, 66% of the data has been collected, and we anticipate that data collection will be completed by January 2021. A mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used to compare participants’ pretest to post-test PF&C scores between the five experimental conditions. A second mixed-design ANOVA will be used to evaluate within-subject changes in POMS 2 scores alongside changes between-groups. We hypothesize that changes in PF&C scores will be correlated with changes in arousal and mood. Specifically, the active and musical conditions should show relatively larger improvements in arousal and mood coinciding with increased PF&C scores. Our results may provide further evidence that the Mozart effect is a product of heightened arousal and mood.

Author Q&A

What is your research topic, in a nutshell?

Our research topic encompasses the cognitive effects of music listening and musical engagement, specifically pertaining to verbal memory. 

How did you come to your research topic? 

Several of our team members are musicians and have heard of the Mozart Effect through previous neuroscience courses. We wanted to explore that further, pertaining specifically to memory. We also had direct connections with Loyola Orchestra members and other music majors at our university. Our mentor also inspired our work with his extensive knowledge on auditory and acoustic function within the realm of psychology and neuroscience.

Where do you see the future direction of this work leading (how might future researchers build on your work or what is left to discover in this field)?

We believe further research in neuroscience and music could eventually illuminate specialized neural regions for music perception, encoding, and learning development. This research could support arguments for early exposure to the arts and music in academia. 

Where are you heading to after graduation?  

I am looking forward to post-baccalaureate research opportunities in clinical psychology or affective neuroscience labs. Subsequentially, I intend to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a neuroscience emphasis.