Cognitive agency in music interventions: Increased perceived control of music predicts increased pain tolerance
Howlin C, Rooney B
European journal of pain (London, England) · 31 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- In vitro/mechanistic study (classified by our AI screen)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- Irish Research Council
- Grants
- Irish Research Council (GOIPG/2017/1006)
Based on 1 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2021-04-17 · Eur J Pain · vol. 25 · issue 8 · pp. 1712–1722
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Cited
- 46 citations · more than 95% of similar papers · 4.5× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 40 works
- Access
- Open access (hybrid journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Music Therapy and Health · Pain Management and Placebo Effect · Empathy and Medical Education
- Keywords
- Pain tolerance, Psychology, Cognition, Active listening, Cold pressor test, Psychological intervention, Agency (philosophy), Operationalization, Cognitive psychology, Social psychology, Developmental psychology, Threshold of pain, Medicine, Psychotherapist
- MeSH
- humans, pain, cognition, pain threshold, music, pain management
2 authors
From IE
- Claire Howlin · correspondingTrinity College Dublin
- Brendan D. RooneyUniversity College Dublin; Kite Entertainment (Ireland)
Abstract
Background
Self-selected music is consistently found to be the strongest predictor for successful music listening interventions in pain management contexts, but the specific cognitive mechanisms that mediate these effects are currently unknown.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to isolate the role of cognitive agency on pain tolerance in music listening interventions, independently from parallel effects related to enjoyment. Additionally, the study examines the role of intramusical features and individual attributes related to musical engagement.
Methods
Fifty-two participants completed a repeated measures experiment, which involved listening to six different pieces of music while completing the cold pressor task. Cognitive agency was operationalized by giving participants different degrees of perceived control over the music selection, when in fact it was pre-determined by the experimenter.
Results
A generalized linear mixed model was used to analyse the impact of perceived choice and intramusical features on pain tolerance measured in terms of duration on the cold pressor task, pain intensity and pain unpleasantness. Increased levels of perceived choice predicted increases in pain tolerance when enjoyment was accounted for. Individual levels of trait empathy and sophisticated emotional engagement with music also contributed to the effects. Intramusical features did not predict increases in pain tolerance.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that the reason self-selected music is particularly effective in reducing pain is related to the act of making a choice over the music itself. This study provides support for the cognitive vitality model and emphasizes the importance of giving people as much control as possible in music interventions.
Significance
This study identifies that the act of selecting music contributes to increases in pain tolerance in parallel with the independent factor of enjoyment. This provides support for the role of cognitive agency in mediating the analgesic effects of music interventions, which suggests that people should be given as much control as possible in music interventions. Additionally, this study identifies specific individual attributes related to emotional engagement and empathy that amplify the effect of cognitive agency.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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