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Need inspiration? Happy background music can help people get the creative juice flowing.
Simone Ritter, at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and Sam Ferguson at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, have been studying the effect of silence and different types of music on how we think.
They divided 155 volunteers into five groups.Four of these were each given a type of music to listen to while taking a series of tests, while the fifth group did the tests in silence.The tests were produced to judge two types of thinking:divergent thinking, which refers to the process of creating new ideas, and convergent thinking, which is how we find the best solution to a problem.Ritter and Ferguson found that people were more creative when listening to music they thought was positive, coming up with more special ideas than the people who worked in silence.
“We also performed other types of music that were sad, anxious and calm, and didn’t see this effect,”says Ferguson.“It seems that the type of music present is important, rather than just any music.”In addition, no type of music helped convergent thinking, suggesting that it’s better to solve problems in silence.
Ritter and Ferguson write that their finding could be used to improve creative thinking in places like educational institutions or laboratories, but Irma at the University of Helsinki in Finland, says happy music may help creativity by setting off the release of dopamine, a brain chemical involved in pleasure and relief.“Dopamine also increases creative thinking and goal-directed working,”says Irma.And she also thinks happy music may not help convergent thinking because this kind of thinking relies more on logic and less on creativity.
21. How does happy background music help people work?
A.By making people enjoy the juice. B.By influencing people’s behavior.
C.By inspiring people to work less. D.By improving people’s creativity.
22. What can we learn from the passage?
A.Dopamine can direct our convergent thinking.
B.Divergent thinking helps find the best solution.
C.Divergent thinking helps produce the new ideas.
D.Dopamine can reduce our divergent thinking.
23. What could be the best title for the passage?
A.Happy Music Makes You Lively B.Happy Music Excites Your Creativity
C.Happy Music Keeps You Clever D.Happy Music Simplifies Your Work
