Effects of Music Style on Mental Fatigue Induced by Continuous Cognitive Tasks

Abstract

This paper mainly studies the effect of different styles of music on subjective and objective mental fatigue through continuous cognitive tasks. The experiment used music styles (soothing music, exciting music) as different intervention conditions, subjective mental fatigue and behavioral performance indicators as experimental observation values, and an experimental control group was set up. Participants performed a 75-min N-Back cognitive task (the first 60-min fatigue-inducing period; the second 15-min music conditioning period). The results showed that: (a) a 60-min continuous cognitive task successfully induced mental fatigue, and the fatigue indicators in period 4 (45–60 min) changed significantly compared with period 1. (b) Compared with the no-music control group, the soothing and exciting music groups both decreased subjective and objective fatigue to varying degrees during the regulation period. (c) Due to its high rhythm and high energy characteristics, exciting music has a higher arousal level and a more obvious compensation effect on mental fatigue.