Unlike vision where we can select stimuli to either attend to or to avoid altogether, audition provides no such opportunity. Auditory stimuli, which permeate all aspects of life, can spur movement and set a pace for individuals performing tasks. If qualities of auditory stimulation were specifically controlled, task performance may be directly affected. The present study examined different controlled sound conditions during performance on a manual dexterity task (the game of Operation). It was found that, indeed, certain sound qualities do affect performance

David Lopus

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Poster Presented at the April (2012) 40th Annual Western 
Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference. Edinboro, PA. 
 
Sounds or Silence? Auditory Stimulus Effects on Fine Motor Skills
1
 
 
David Lopus 
Robert Morris University 
Unlike vision where we can select stimuli to either attend to or to avoid altogether, audition provides 
no such opportunity. Auditory stimuli, which permeate all aspects of life, can spur movement and set 
a pace for individuals performing tasks. If qualities of auditory stimulation were specifically 
controlled, task performance may be directly affected. The present study examined different 
controlled sound conditions during performance on a manual dexterity task (the game of Operation). 
It was found that, indeed, certain sound qualities do affect performance. 
 
                                                 
1
Address correspondence to: Stephen T. Paul, Ph.D., 6001 University Blvd., Moon Township, PA 15108-1189, or 
via email at: paul@rmu.edu. 
Introduction 
There are many things that could potentially be 
a distraction to individuals. The area that is 
possibly the most detrimental to staying on task is 
the auditory system. Unlike your eyes which can 
exclude information by shutting or turning your 
head, the ear contains no physical ability to be so 
selective. Information is constantly stimulating 
your auditory system and entering your brain. If 
the amount of auditory stimulation needed to 
occupy active attention could be determined this 
information could be applied to environments in 
order to more precisely control the level of 
stimulation present. Ideally, doing such an 
adjustment would allow for the maximum 
performance on tasks. 
Macken, Phelps and Jones (2009) explored 
factors causing auditory distraction. Task irrelevant 
sounds are stimuli such as clicking or tones that 
hold no significance to a task being performed. 
They concluded that task irrelevant sounds, 
specifically those of variable tones, caused the 
highest level of distraction among participants. 
They went on to infer that the volume of the 
irrelevant sound was not a contributing factor as 
much as the variability in the stimuli. They 
attributed this phenomenon to the brain's apparent 
obligatory response to direct attention to variable 
noise rather than consistent and repetitive sounds. 
The brain’s obligatory orienting response becomes 
significant when considering the level of 
concentration that is subconsciously applied to 
unintentional noise perception and comprehension. 
The study by Macken et al. (2009) shows that 
an auditory stimulus can distract a subject from 
performing a memory task by occupying parts of 
working attention. Auditory stimuli, particularly 
music or rhythmic beat can also affect physical 
responses (Demos, Chaffin, Begosh, Daniels & 
Marsh, 2011; Madison, Gouyon, Ullén & 
Hörnström, 2011). Demos et al. (2011) explained 
the phenomenon of unidirectional movement, the 
subject independently making movements without 
being given specific direction, in sync with a 
presented audio and visual stimulus. The study 
demonstrated that auditory stimuli, not visual, were 
the primary determinates of movements of the 
individual when asked to dance. The ability of the 
subjects to conform to a beat was more quickly 
attained by hearing it than seeing someone else 
dance in sync with the beat.  
While Demos et al. (2011) examined dancers' 
ability to dance to a presented stimulus, Madison et 
al. (2011) asked students with no musical 
background to listen to varying types of music 
from all over the world, and gauge how, and to 
what degree, it made them want to move to the 
beat as defined by the term groove. According to 
Madison et al. (2011) groove is defined as being 
composed of two primary components: a) The 
degree of repetitive rhythmical patterning around a 
comfortable movement rate (125-100 beats per 
minute or BPM) as was defined by van Noorden & 
Moelants (1999) and b) The density of sounds 
between beats generally. The subjects identified 
the amount of groove, which each sample of music 
evoked, consistently. This suggests a strong 
likelihood that the motivation for the movement 
can be found in one of the two primary 
components of groove. It also implies that these 
components, if isolated, could be manipulated to 
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 2 
provide a strong effect on a subject's motor 
functioning. 
Suied et al. (2008) examined the effects that a 
particular sound pattern had on reaction time. The 
important components of groove that Madison et 
al. (2011) discussed were evaluated in order to find 
the optimal tone length and rate for emergency 
alarms to evoke as quick a response as possible. 
Suied et al. used a test that required a subject to 
direct their attention to a task and then respond as 
quickly as possible when a particular series of 
tones was presented. The experimenters were 
evaluating the effectiveness of primary alert alarms 
found in everyday society such as fire detectors 
and alarms and collision sensors in cars. The 
length of the tone as well as the BPM were 
manipulated resulting in what they believed to be 
the best alert sound to elicit the fastest reaction 
time. These data were consistent with Macken et 
al's. (2011) findings that irregular tone use was 
most effective at capturing attention.  
Optimal BPM for comfortable movement 
needed to elicit a unidirectional reaction (Demos et 
al., 2011; Madison et al., 2011), and the 
methodical task relevant stimuli for not providing 
an overt distraction (Macken et al., 2009) are both 
established in these studies as necessary 
parameters for an optimal testing scenario. Using 
these data, a testing procedure to evaluate the role 
that auditory stimuli plays on motor skills can be 
created.  
An additional issue beyond the Suied et al. 
(2008) study is the possible contributing factor of 
emotional arousal to performance of motor tasks in 
the presence of auditory stimuli. Suied et al. (2008) 
only briefly discussed the influence of emotional 
arousal and attributes a small amount of their data 
to the aroused state of the subjects yet say that it 
did play a significant enough role that it influenced 
the data that were collected. The studies performed 
by Jones et al. (2006) and Riganello, Quintieri, 
Candelieri, Conforti and Dolce (2008) emphasize 
the influence of music on arousal and its effects on 
emotional arousal in greater detail. The Jones et al. 
(2006) study examined the effect of musical 
characteristics on emotional arousal and the 
correlation between self-reported arousal states and 
spatial performance. They did this by presenting 
the subjects with a piece of music by Mozart that 
the subjects described using positive adjectives 
such as happy and joyful while the other song, one 
by Philip Glass, was only described with negative 
adjectives such as sad or slow. The subjects who 
listened to the joyful music performed notably 
better than the group which listened to the sad and 
slow music. This demonstrates the influence of an 
emotional response on performing a motor task 
resulting from an auditory stimulus. 
Further research into the effects of music on an 
individual are discussed in Riganello et al. (2008). 
Participants were asked to provide a self-report on 
their emotional states after listening to several 
different types of music. These musical selections 
were divided into groups containing two primary 
characteristics which separated them. These 
characteristics were a song’s formal complexity 
(its lack of predictability), and general dynamism 
(a selected piece’s volume, harmony, and 
rhythms). The participants’ self-report revealed 
that the higher the formal complexity the happier 
the song was perceived to be, while the higher the 
general dynamism the more aggressive the song 
was perceived to be. Applying the findings from 
Riganello et al. (2008) to those of Jones et al. 
(2006), a certain type of music which is up tempo 
and perceived as happy could be deconstructed to 
particular patterns and beats to promote spatial and 
motor task performance. 
Music, as shown in Jones et al. (2006), can 
have a positive effect on motor performance when 
performing spatial tasks. Music can also exhibit 
positive effects on retention of information and 
sustained attention when presented as a primary 
component of a learning exercise (Wolfe & 
Noguchi, 2009). Wolfe and Noguchi presented 
music as a component of a lesson to kindergarten 
students, while other auditory stimuli were 
presented over the music as a distraction. The 
kindergarten students were asked to listen to a 
story and recall key components at the end of the 
story. Use of a song as a component of the story 
dramatically increased the sustained attention and 
retention of key story characteristics when 
compared to the other groups where music was not 
used. These data indicated that with the use of a 
sustained auditory stimulus such as a song from the 
beginning of a task, focus and ultimately 
performance of a task could be enhanced if the 
Auditory stimulus effects on fine motor skills 
 3 
conditions of the optimal auditory stimulus 
previously discussed were met. 
It should be noted that Jensen (1931) 
demonstrated that music can produce negative 
effects as well. Students performed a typing task 
under one of three possible conditions: silence, 
jazz music, or a funeral dirge. Performance was 
that jazz music, while demonstrating a slight, 
positive influence in speed, dramatically increased 
the amount of errors. The dirge resulted in 
markedly slower times with more errors than 
silence. This experiment contains pertinent data for 
the era and type of music used. However, due to 
the lack of experimental control, the results cannot 
provide conclusive evidence against the notion that 
an auditory stimulus that is manipulated in order to 
provide minimal distraction, with a high enough 
BPM and length of tones to promote unidirectional 
movement, could potentially enhance performance 
of a task.  
The present hypothesis is that if a series of 
tones which meet the criteria of: (1) uniformity of 
tone in order to provide minimal distraction, (2) 
high enough BPM and length of tones to promote 
unidirectional movement and, (3) while also 
provoking a controlled and positive emotional 
response from that subject; then tasks which 
require motor skills could be performed more 
effectively. 
Methods 
Participants 
In this study 30 college-aged students per 
condition were used, for a total of 90 subjects. 
Participants were recruited by the researcher by 
walking around the library and asking students if 
they would be willing to volunteer. Subjects in the 
present study were full time or part time enrolled at 
a small private university in western Pennsylvania. 
Design 
This experiment used a between subjects 
design where the independent variable, Auditory 
Simulation, contained three levels. These levels 
included a control group (silence), a group 
presented with an optimal regular-tempo stimulus 
(144 BPM), and a group presented with a random-
tempo stimulus (144 BPM). The two dependent 
variables were the number of response errors made 
during the task and the time, in seconds, that it 
took subjects to fully complete the task. 
Apparatus 
The apparatus needed was a Hasbro™ 
Operation board game and an audio playing device 
capable of supporting the TempoPerfect 
Metronome software provided through nch.com. A 
set of headphones was used to block out 
extraneous auditory stimuli during the task. A 
standard digital stopwatch was used to time the 
subjects from start to finish. 
Procedures 
Each participant was randomly assigned to one 
of the three conditions. The experimenter 
explained to them that they would be performing a 
motor skills task while listening to a presented 
audio stimulus. The experimenter informed them 
that they were to only use the provided forceps 
(included in the board game) to remove all of the 
game pieces as quickly and accurately as possible. 
Subjects were then instructed to place the 
provided headphones over their ears and place 
their hands palms down on the table in front of 
them and wait for the experimenter to reveal the 
game board before beginning the task. They were 
informed to return to this position upon completing 
the task.  
The experimenter began the audio stimulus 
and allowed it to continue for three seconds prior 
to revealing the game board in order to allow the 
participants to acclimate to the tone. Timing began 
with the presentation of the game board and ended 
when the last game piece was removed and 
participants replaced their hands to the starting 
position. The experimenter recorded the amount of 
errors made (signaled by the buzzing sound 
generated by the game which occurred whenever 
the forceps came into direct contact with the game 
board).  
Subjects were then thanked for their 
participation and asked if they had any questions. 
Following this, they were excused. 
Results 
A one-factor between subjects analysis of 
variance (ANOVA) was performed on completion 
times for each of the three sound conditions. An 
LOPUS 
 4 
ANOVA was also performed on number of errors 
by sound condition. The completion time ANOVA 
resulted in a significant main effect, F(2,87) = 
16.17, p < .01. Also significant was the main effect 
for errors, F(2,87) = 70.05, p < .01. The means 
for completion times and errors across 
conditions are presented in Table 1. 
Table 1. Means (and standard deviations) of completion 
times and errors for all sound conditions. 
  
Sound Condition Completion Times Errors 
Regular 144 BPM 135.4 (26.7) 11.7 (5.1) 
Random 144 BPM 181.4 (26.0) 30.8 (5.1) 
Silence 194.0 (62.5) 18.8 (8.2) 
  
A comparison of means (Tukey HSD) revealed 
that the mean completion time for the regular 144 
BPM condition differed significantly from both the 
random and silence conditions (p < .01) which did 
not differ from one another (p > .05). In terms of 
error scores, all conditions were found to differ 
significantly from one another (p < .01). 
Discussion 
The present hypothesis was based on the 
foundation criteria regarding a series of tones: (1) 
uniformity, to provide minimal distraction, (2) high 
enough BPM and length of tones to promote 
unidirectional movement and, (3) provoking a 
controlled and positive emotional response from a 
subject. Based on these criteria, it was predicted 
that tasks requiring motor skills would be 
performed most effectively. As conditions deviated 
from these criteria, performance was expected to 
suffer. The present research examined three 
conditions: Silence; Regular beats (144 BPM ), and 
Irregular (random) beats of 144 BPM. The findings 
support the predictions. 
As reported above, the regular tone not only 
positively affected performance in terms of errors 
but also in terms of completion times. Whereas a 
change of the same stimulus from regular to 
random resulted in relatively slower completion 
times as well as the greatest likelihood of error 
(nearly twice as many as the silent condition).  
It is also important to establish that the results 
cannot be clearly attributed to a speed-accuracy 
tradeoff. Evidence for a speed accuracy tradeoff 
would require that the more quickly a person 
performed the more errors they would be prone to 
make. Or, literally, in order to achieve speed, 
subjects would have had to trade their accuracy. A 
tradeoff seems unlikely given that the fastest 
condition (regular 144 BPM) also resulted in the 
fewest errors. The condition with the greatest 
errors was the random condition which was not the 
fastest condition whatsoever. The proportion of 
errors observed for the silent and random 
conditions were significantly different, but 
completion times were not. Taken together, there 
does not seem to be any strong support for a speed 
accuracy tradeoff. 
That the completion times were significantly 
faster in the regular than both the irregular and 
silent conditions illustrates the clear benefits of 
sound (at least those having specific qualities) to 
fine motor performance. The difference in time 
between the silence and irregular conditions was 
not significant which supports the present 
conclusion that it was indeed not the just sound, 
but a specific beat to that sound which benefits 
performance. 
The present results indicate that a tone 
presented at 144 BPM can boost performance and 
shorten time needed to complete a given fine motor 
skills task. This supports the theory that there is 
some kind of optimal auditory stimulus that may 
be able to aid in performance. The next step will be 
to further explore the auditory stimulus options in 
an attempt to narrow down the parameters of what 
constitutes an optimal BPM and whether, or to 
what degree, other sound qualities (e.g., pitch, 
volume, complexity) may affect performance. 
References 
Demos, A. P., Chaffin, R., Begosh, K. T., Daniels, 
J. R., & Marsh, K. L. (2011). Rocking to the 
beat: Effects of music and partner's movements 
on spontaneous interpersonal coordination. 
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 
141(1), 49-53. 
Jensen, M. B. (1931). The influence of jazz and 
dirge music upon speed and accuracy of 
Auditory stimulus effects on fine motor skills 
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typing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 
22(6), 458-462. 
Jones, M. H., West, S. D., & Estell, D. B. (2006). 
The Mozart effect: Arousal, preference, and 
spatial performance. Psychology of Aesthetics, 
Creativity, and the Arts, 1, 26-32. 
Macken, W., Phelps, F., & Jones, D. (2009). What 
causes auditory distraction? Psychonomic 
Bulletin & Review, 16(1), 139-144. 
Madison, G., Gouyon, F., Ullén, F., & Hörnström, 
K. (2011). Modeling the tendency for music to 
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genres. Journal of Experimental Psychology: 
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1578-1594. 
Riganello, F. F., Quintieri, M. M., Candelieri, A. 
A., Conforti, D. D., & Dolce, G. G. (2008). 
Heart rate response to music: An artificial 
intelligence study on healthy and traumatic 
brain-injured subjects. Journal of 
Psychophysiology, 22(4), 166-174.  
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Van Noorden, L., & Moelants, D. (1999). 
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Wolfe, D., & Noguchi, L. (2009). The use of music 
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Sounds or Silence? Auditory Stimulus Effects on Fine Motor Skills

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Sounds or Silence? Auditory Stimulus Effects on Fine Motor Skills

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