Article Analysis: 'Psychophysiology of Flow During Piano Playing'

One aspect of cognition that differs in elite and less skilled athletes is an attentional focus. Numerous studies have demonstrated that during a performance, skilled players direct their attention on their movements’ outcomes ( an external focus of attention) whereas less skilled players orient their attention on their body movements ( an internal focus of attention). This differing role of attention in athletes is explained within the automatization thesis (Bernstein, 1996), according to which experts have highly automatic motor skills due to continuous practice, thus focusing on the movements’ outcomes promotes a more automatic control which leads to efficient movements and high performance. Conversely, the motor

The challenges and skill level are also balanced in flow activities. If the challenge is above the knowledge level it can create anxiety. On the opposite end, if the challenge is too low for one’s skill set boredom often takes over. This is where the balance comes in. Flow is an opportunity for learning. Csikszentmihalyi reports that flow is often achieved when a person is participating in their favorite activities. He goes on to describe that flow can also be achieved during almost any activity as long as the elements are present.

Not only does music affect thought, but it also benefits health. Students usually study in quiet, relaxed surroundings while listening to serene music. Classical music can steady a fast heartbeat and a slower heartbeat induces relaxation. Exercise plays a critical role in maintaining good health, and relaxing music can be favorable to this. Music reduces muscle tension, resulting in a better work out. Scientists performed controlled studies using adult males who were around twenty-five years old. Blood samples were taken before and after treadmill running. The experiment found that with the presence of music, “heart rate, blood pressure, and lactate secretion in the brain were significantly lower” . The results proved that music

This experiment was carried out as noted about in Procedure 1. The resting heart rate was established and used as a baseline value from which to compare all future deviations. While data could

I saw a ridiculous amount of talent exhibited by young musicians that afternoon, but I noticed one thing all the pianists had in common: their faces remained blank throughout their performances. “How are they sitting so still while they play? My piano teacher has to stop me from swaying like a boat when I play the Arabesque,” I thought to myself. By the end of the recital, I realized that my earlier failure was not fruitless. That day of defeat was the day that my passion for music became clearer than ever. Though I was not the best pianist in state by any means, I loved my music. I played because I chose to, not because my parents forced me to practice for hours and hours to perfection. I understood for the first time that if I have passion for what I do, I cannot

The article by Manzano et al, "The psychophysiology of flow during piano playing" attempts to conduct empirical research to validate physiological responses to the concept of flow. Flow is the notion that there are certain exercises that people engage in which are so demanding and enjoyable that their attention level is lowered, and a cognitive form of expertise takes over so that they lose awareness of time and self-consciousness while achieving a high degree of proficiency at that activity. The flow state is defined within the article as one which combines a high state of arousal with a positive valence (Manzano et al, 2010, p. 302).

The Polyvagal theory developed by Stephen Porges and introduced in 1994 provides new insight into the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. The theory provides a clear understanding of the nervous system which plays a huge role for dancers as it can influence mental and physical performance, as well as keeping pain-free.

I am planning to write a paper for my Key Assessment Task # 3: Representing My Inquiry, because coming from a Psychology major, I am someone who highly enjoys writing research papers. I often experience flow during these moments. Flow or the “zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity—complete absoprtion” (Wikipedia, 2017, para. 1). Writing research papers is also one of my known strengths throughout high school and university. Therefore, currently, at this stage I am extracting relevant information from the sources. I have a few more articles extract information from and then I will move to the four

The third physiological adaptation that a touch football player would experience as a result of training is a change in their cardiac output. An athlete’s cardiac output is the volume of blood that their heart ejects per minute, and is therefore a direct result of the stoke volume and heart rate.

Being knowledgeable about the heart is very important, especially if one is an athlete. This experiment is significant, because it can tell us how important it is for one to keep their heart healthy. It will also tell us how playing a sport can benefit one’s health and the well being of their heart. Our hypothesis says, if the athleticism of a person increases, then the heart rate recovery time will decrease when heart rate recovery in a function of athleticism. The purpose of this project is to see which type of athlete, or non-athlete has the best heart function.

‘The Pianist’ is a cinematic masterpiece by the Polish director Roman Polanski. One of the key ideas that appear throughout much of the film is that of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’. This idea is portrayed through Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish pianist, as he struggles for survival in Warsaw as everybody that he once knew and everything that he once had is lost. The idea of ‘hope being instrumental in our survival’ is worth learning about as it allows the audience to realise the importance of hope in todays society – and to understand how Polanski uses music to symbolise ‘hope’ for Szpilman in the film. Polanski effectively utilises an array of visual and oral text features such as music, dialogue, and lighting to build further

A previous published experiment Tracking the Tempo of Involuntary Musical Imagery in Everyday Life has introduced new ways to research the INMI phenomenon, and this paper is trying to achieve something similar. The aim there was to find how accurate a person can recall the tempo of an INMI and whether an INMI was affected by an effective state. A conventional approach over four days was used for the method of self-reporting data where a participant uses a watch to record the tempo via tapping it, and a paper diary with a multitude of data to fill out in regards of an

When performing many feats of physical skill, calculating how fast a person can perform the action has become a custom that has gained prominence in recent years. Observing how long it takes a person to perform an action, now known as observing the reaction time, has even gained enough importance to the point that it has even used in some scientific investigations. The purpose of this scientific investigation, for instance, is to test whether or not an outside force, such as music, will affect the reaction time of any given test subject. Whether the change will be a positive one, such as helping

The effects of exercise on blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate and electrical activity of the heart were assessed. The measurements of respiration rate, pulse rate and blood pressures were noted as described in Harris-Haller (2016). Data was first taken from subjects in a relaxed position and then followed by sets of reading after exercising based on one minute intervals. The data also noted sitting ECG traces from Harris-Haller (2016). The respiratory rate, pulse, blood pressure, P wave, QRS complex and T wave were defined for each subject. The class average was calculated for males and females and graphed to illustrate the results by gender for each cardiopulmonary factor.

As the intensity of exercise increased, so did the rates of the heart and breathing. After a small period of rest, the heart rate and breathing rate both decreased to a point close to their resting rate. This proved the stated hypothesis. First, the hearts average resting rate was recorded to be 76 bpm. The heart is therefore transporting oxygen and removing carbon dioxide at a reasonably steady rate via the blood. During the low intensity exercise (Slow 20) the heart rate increases to 107 bpm, which further increases to 130bpm at a higher intensity level (Fast 20). The heart therefore needs to beat faster to increase the speed at which oxygen is carried to the cells and the rate at which carbon dioxide is taken away by the blood.