Music listening has proliferated in the workplace, yet its effects have been overlooked, and classic investigations offer conflicting results. To advance our understanding, we draw from self-regulation and resource allocation theories to suggest that listening to music has curvilinear effects on attentional focus and performance on work tasks and that willpower belief is a key boundary condition. We test these hypotheses across three studies: a pilot study of 108 employees from a software company who took part in a 2-week experience-sampling methodology study and self-rated their music listening and performance, a laboratory study (Study 1) of 252 undergraduate students in which task attentional focus and objective performance on proofreading tasks were captured across repeated trials while listening to music, and a 3-week experience-sampling methodology study (Study 2) of 247 employees that included a within-person manipulation of music listening (little to no music vs. 1 hr longer than usual vs. 3 hr longer than usual), daily self-ratings of task attentional focus and task performance, and weekly coworker ratings of task performance. We find mixed support for our hypotheses. Time spent listening to music exhibited an inverted, U-shaped relationship with self-rated (pilot study) and objective (Study 1) task performance. Individuals with higher willpower belief maintained higher levels of task attentional focus regardless of the amount of music they listened to (Studies 1 and 2), and the curvilinear relationship of reported music listening with self-rated task performance was more pronounced for individuals who believe that willpower is limited (pilot study and Study 2). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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好事太多了？对工作中听音乐的多层次检查。


听音乐在工作场所激增，但其影响却被忽视，经典调查得出了相互矛盾的结果。为了加深我们的理解，我们借鉴自我调节和资源分配理论，认为听音乐对注意力集中和工作任务表现具有曲线效应，而意志力信念是一个关键的边界条件。我们通过三项研究来测试这些假设：一项针对一家软件公司 108 名员工的试点研究，他们参加了为期 2 周的体验抽样方法研究，并对他们的音乐聆听和表现进行了自我评估；一项针对 252 名员工的实验室研究（研究 1）本科生在听音乐时通过反复试验捕获任务注意力集中和校对任务的客观表现，并对 247 名员工进行了为期 3 周的体验抽样方法研究（研究 2），其中包括对音乐聆听的个人操纵（很少或没有音乐 vs. 比平时多 1 小时 vs. 比平时多 3 小时）、任务注意力集中度和任务表现的每日自我评分，以及任务表现的每周同事评分。我们发现对我们的假设的支持好坏参半。听音乐的时间与自评（试点研究）和客观（研究 1）任务表现呈倒 U 形关系。具有较高意志力信念的个体无论听多少音乐，都能保持较高水平的任务注意力集中（研究 1 和 2），并且对于那些相信以下内容的个体来说，报告的音乐聆听与自评任务表现的曲线关系更为明显：意志力是有限的（试点研究和研究 2）。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。