Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition

Mehta, Ravi; Zhu, Rui; Cheema, Amar

doi:10.1086/665048

Cited by 246 publications

(189 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…3 Samuelsson's approach is not to be confused with that of Linsey Pollak, an artist/performer who makes musical instruments out of vegetables (e.g., see http://www.linseypollak.com/). 4 According to research by Mehta et al [25], a moderate level of background noise (c. 70 dB) can be conducive to problem solving (at least when compared to a 50 dB quiet condition). 5 Though, here it has to be admitted that defining "complexity" when it comes to flavour is no simple matter.…”

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confidence: 99%

Music from the kitchen

Spence

2015

Flavour

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A growing body of scientific research has recently started to demonstrate how both music and soundscapes can influence people's perception of the taste, flavour, and mouthfeel of food and drink. However, to date, far less research has investigated the question of whether the music that happens to be playing in the background might also influence the way in which chefs, home cooks, and others making food (or, for that matter, mixing drinks) develop or season their creations. One of the aims of this review is to highlight the markedly different views currently held by chefs concerning the appropriateness of music in their kitchens (and the different roles that it might play). Next, the evidence that has been published to date suggesting that the music people listen to can change the particular taste/flavour profiles that they create is reviewed. A number of putative explanations for the crossmodal effects of music on taste are evaluated, including the suppressive effect of loud noise on certain aspects of taste perception, priming through crossmodal correspondences, and/or the influence of any music-induced changes in mood on taste/flavour perception. Given that what we hear influences what we taste, and hence, how the person in the kitchen likely creates/seasons the dish, some commentators have been tempted to wonder whether the same music should perhaps also be played in the spaces (e.g., the restaurant or home dining room) where that food will be consumed in order to equate the conditions in which the dish or drink is seasoned/created with the environment in which it is tasted. This opinion piece ends by stressing the limitations with such an approach. One of the main problems being the kinds of music that the majority of chefs apparently prefer to listen to while working in the kitchen, music which is often chosen to motivate the staff who will likely be working a long shift.

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confidence: 99%

Music from the kitchen

Spence

2015

Flavour

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“…In this study, the white noise is selected as auditory background stimuli for memorizing the task. White noise can be defined as a sound that is artificially created by combining all audible frequencies in equal amounts [40]. According to new research, listening to the 'sh' sound or white noise consistently could boost the memory [41].…”

Section: Mozart Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Effect of Mozart Music and White Noise on Electroencephalography Pattern toward Visual Memory

Daud¹,

Sudirman²

2017

Adv. sci. technol. eng. syst. j.

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“…This noise makes biological information less specific and thus ensures the necessary variation. Noise sources comprise thermal molecular jiggling, radiation noise for chemical experimentation, or visual and audible noise (Mehta et al 2012) input that sentient beings receive, or any other form of natural noise capable of influencing an evolutionary search.…”

Section: Pillar 2: Exploration Mechanisms a Noisy Search Through Cybementioning

confidence: 99%

Inventive processes in nature: from information origin in chemical evolution to technological exhaustion

Kralj

2017

Earth Perspectives

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It has been ten years since the 2006 work of Abel and Trevors wherein the cybernetic path of life's origin was proposed as an alternative to the widely held views of such origin being self-ordering and self-organisation. Cybernetic adaptation is now recognised as a cornerstone of biological and technological evolution and as well as of artificial intelligence (AI) and cognition. It is expected that chemical evolution, preceding biological evolution, will have a cybernetic explanation as well. Among all evolutions, only AI evolutionary computation and cognition are accessible via the scientific method. For biological and technological evolutions, we only have the example of one, while for chemical evolution we have no template at all. The aim of this essay is to look for commonalities in all evolutions and attempt to fill in the missing pieces of the chemical and technological evolutions with knowledge that can be obtained by observing evolutions with a complete record. Types of information -quantum, chemical and functional -are defined, and their roles explained. It is proposed that the temporal survivability of information should be considered as a factor of general evolutionary fitness for all evolutionary adaptations. This study further suggests that because all experimentation spaces are finite they may become exhausted due to convergence towards optimal configurations. Such exhaustion of important experimental areas might reflect the observed decay of technological innovation and economic growth.

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Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition

Cited by 246 publications

References 45 publications

Music from the kitchen

Music from the kitchen

Evaluating the Effect of Mozart Music and White Noise on Electroencephalography Pattern toward Visual Memory

Inventive processes in nature: from information origin in chemical evolution to technological exhaustion

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