The effect of music and no music on pre-performance arousal, perceptions of performance exertion and pain, and evaluations of performance in high school track runners

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether high school track runners who regularly listen to music in competition (regular listeners), and those who do not (non-regular listeners), differentially perceive their pre-performance arousal (i.e., tension, enthusiasm, anxiety, energy) and subjective aspects of their performance (i.e., perceived exertion and pain, and their evaluation of the performance) under different conditions of listening or not listening to self-selected music prior to a maximal running effort. In addition, the coach's evaluation of each athlete's performance was examined. A significant multivariate interaction emerged from the analysis of pre-performance arousal. Disordinal interactions indicated that regular listeners in the No Music condition, and non-regular listeners in the Music condition reported greater anxiety and tension than their counterparts who were in the condition that reflected their usual music listening preference (e.g., regular listeners in the Music condition). An ordinal interaction indicated that all participants in the Music condition reported greater enthusiasm, however the effect was more pronounced for nonregular listeners. A multivariate analysis of the subjective aspects of performance yielded a main effect for listener group; regular listeners reported less perceived pain during performance than non-regular listeners. A series of correlations was used to examine the relationship between the pre-performance arousal variables and the subjective performance variables for participants in each music intervention condition. For both conditions, higher tension was associated with greater exertion, and also with greater pain. For participants in the No Music condition, higher pre-performance energy was related with less reported pain during performance. For participants in the Music condition, greater tension was associated with higher coach ratings of performance, and higher enthusiasm was related with greater perceived pain. Participant responses to two open-ended questions regarding the effect of music emphasized the benefits of improved mental state through mood, emotion, and focus, and improved physical state by calming nerves or getting pumped up. Overall, the aforementioned findings suggest that listening to music may influence aspects of pre-performance arousal state and it may also affect the arousal-performance relationship. In addition, it is clear that athlete-participants believed in the positive effects of listening to music.