Targeted memory reactivation of face-name learning depends on ample and undisturbed slow-wave sleep

Face memory, including the ability to recall a person’s name, is of major importance in social contexts. Like many other memory functions, it may rely on sleep. We investigated whether targeted memory reactivation during sleep could improve associative and perceptual aspects of face memory. Participants studied 80 face-name pairs, and then a subset of spoken names with associated background music was presented unobtrusively during a daytime nap. This manipulation preferentially improved name recall and face recognition for those reactivated face-name pairs, as modulated by two factors related to sleep quality; memory benefits were positively correlated with the duration of stage N3 sleep (slow-wave sleep) and negatively correlated with measures of sleep disruption. We conclude that (a) reactivation of specific face-name memories during sleep can strengthen these associations and the constituent memories, and that (b) the effectiveness of this reactivation depends on uninterrupted N3 sleep.

Hyvinvointi taustamusiikin kokemuksissa

Well-being in background music experiences: views of service sector employees on working with music Salespeople, waiters, security guards, and hotel workers hear an average of eight hours of music during their workday. In most cases, they do not get to choose the music themselves. According to companies providing and purchasing background music services for service sector workplaces and commercial spaces, the rationale behind its use is to increase sales. However, music is also a spatial element to ”work with”. In this article, we ask what it is like to work with music in service jobs and how employees see the contribution of music to well-being at work. Our material is a ”Background music in the workplace” questionnaire (747 answers) and a form interview material of employees of the Koskikeskus shopping center in Tampere, Finland (66 answers). Respondents report, among other things, whether they feel the music in the workspace is for a particular group of people; who chooses the music; and whether discussions and negotiations concerning music use take place, with other employees or with customers. We analyze the material, emphasizing the respondents’ statements about well-being as expressions of coping, well-being, strain, and satisfaction. We discuss the results with a qualitative study of the topic that emphasizes music as a social and spatial element in the sales situation (Payne et al 2017, Kontukoski & Uimonen 2019). Our data shows that well-being at work and perceived musical agency interact. Occupational well-being plays an important role in looking specifically at work-related well-being and background music. The workspace changes the meanings of music to those of professionality, rendering the employees’ personal relationships to music secondary.

Music in Waiting Rooms: A Literature Review

Objective: We aim to review existing literature on the effects of background music in waiting rooms on patients. Furthermore, we examine existing neurobiological research for potential mechanisms by which music may affect patients. Background: Music has been studied in healthcare in various forms, from formal interventions such as music therapy to passive listening as therapy. However, music is also present in the healthcare environment in the form of background music in waiting rooms. There has been interest in whether background music in such a setting may have beneficial effects on patient anxiety in order to potentially inform healthcare workers whether and what type of music may be suitable for waiting rooms. Methods: We reviewed existing literature on music in healthcare waiting rooms and the neurobiological mechanisms by which music affects anxiety. Results: We located several small studies performed in a range of settings, including physician office waiting rooms and preoperative waiting areas. The studies generally reported that most patients viewed music in these areas positively; some, but not all, studies showed positive effects on patient anxiety. A variety of theories by which music may impact patient anxiety was noted. Conclusions: We conclude that there exists some evidence to support an anxiety-reducing effect of background music on patients, though studies vary widely in methodology and music selection. A small amount of neurobiological research into the pertinent mechanisms has been conducted, but further research will be required to elucidate the exact mechanisms by which this intervention may reduce anxiety.

Speech Recorder and Translator using Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and Translation

The most popular video website YouTube has about 2 billion users worldwide who speak and understand different languages. Subtitles are essential for the users to get the message from the video. However, not all video owners provide subtitles for their videos. It causes the potential audiences to have difficulties in understanding the video content. Thus, this study proposed a speech recorder and translator to solve this problem. The general concept of this study was to combine Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and translation technologies to recognize the video content and translate it into other languages. This paper compared and discussed three different ASR technologies. They are Google Cloud Speech-to-Text, Limecraft Transcriber, and VoxSigma. Finally, the proposed system used Google Cloud Speech-to-Text because it supports more languages than Limecraft Transcriber and VoxSigma. Besides, it was more flexible to use with Google Cloud Translation. This paper also consisted of a questionnaire about the crucial features of the speech recorder and translator. There was a total of 19 university students participated in the questionnaire. Most of the respondents stated that high translation accuracy is vital for the proposed system. This paper also discussed a related work of speech recorder and translator. It was a study that compared speech recognition between ordinary voice and speech impaired voice. It used a mobile application to record acoustic voice input. Compared to the existing mobile App, this project proposed a web application. It was a different and new study, especially in terms of development and user experience. Finally, this project developed the proposed system successfully. The results showed that Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and Translation were reliable to use in video translation. However, it could not recognize the speech when the background music was too loud. Besides, it had a problem of direct translation, which was challenging. Thus, future research may need a custom trained model. In conclusion, the proposed system in this project was to contribute a new idea of a web application to solve the language barrier on the video watching platform.

Reducing the Negative Impact of Pop-up Advertisements on Users and Improving Potential Purchase Intention

With the development of the internet, online pop-up advertisements (hereinafter, referred to as pop-up ads) have emerged. However, online users may disdain and reject online advertisements, which affects online purchase intention. This study is on reducing the negative impact of pop-up ads on users and improving the commercial effect. Self-administered questionnaires were used to survey online users and website designers. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS and the open answers were sorted out by thematic analysis. The results revealed that attractive storylines, background music, and exquisite visual presentations are effective in reducing users’ rejection to pop-up ads as well as advertisement customization. It is better for pop-up ads to appear in the middle or end of videos. The VIP system is also a choice for users to eliminate them. Designers are supposed to keep a balance between users and advertisers. In addition, internet regulation needs to be strengthened to reduce eroticism and violence in pop-up ads as well as avoid the negative impact of these kind of pop-up ads on minors.

Stimulating Music Supports Attention in Listeners with Attentional Difficulties

Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varying levels of attentional difficulty. We first show that heavily-modulated music improves sustained attention for participants with more ADHD symptoms. FMRI showed this music elicited greater activity in attentional networks in this group only, and EEG showed greater stimulus-brain coupling for this group in response to the heavily-modulated music. Finally, we parametrically manipulated the depth and rate of amplitude modulations inserted in otherwise-identical music, and found that beta-range modulations helped more than other frequency ranges for participants with more ADHD symptoms. Results suggest the possibility of an oscillation-based neural mechanism for targeted music to support improved cognitive performance.