Running head: MUSICAL MOOD AND MUSICAL AROUSAL ON ATTENTION 1 The Effects of Musical Mood and Musical Arousal on Visual Attention

The presence of music is a visceral part of the human experience and its influence on cognitive function is a growing area of research in psychology. In particular, perceptual properties of music (mood and arousal) have been shown to significantly affect performance. There has been minimal research in the field on the interaction of mood and arousal and their influence on attention, thus the purpose of this study. Fifty undergraduate students currently enrolled at the University of Western Ontario were recruited for this study. Given that music is a highly subjective experience, participants rated an assortment of music clips on their mood and arousal levels. The clips that participants rated highest and lowest on mood (positive and negative) and arousal (low and high) were chosen for use on the Posner cueing task. This visual attention task was either performed in silence or while listening to music clips as per their ratings. Result