1.) Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00541/full

It seems counterintuitive that listening to pleasurable music, rather than neural music, can have many positive affects on reinforcement learning and reward-based decision making in music therapy and education.

Dopamine release plays a major role in the rewarding aspect of music. In certain studies, it has been shown that people with greater dopamine efficacy learn better to approach rewards. Those with lesser dopamine efficacy instead learn better to avoid punishments. In this specific study, it is also shown that accuracy and response-time is notably increased in a subject listening to pleasurable music rather than neural music.

Musical pleasure has the ability to influence task performance, which could have many implications within neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, learning, and musical therapy. It also offers an ecological and dynamic approach to investigating reward-based decision making in many practical applications in education and therapy. Parkinson’s disease represents a particularly promising avenue for future research on musical pleasure, as music therapy has already shown to improve motor and cognitive ability.

Music is intensely important and pleasurable to many people. With further investigation into how musical pleasure can affect reinforcement learning, its influence could lend itself to many applications in education and therapy.

2.) Link: https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/12/do-bad-students-really-make-the-best-stars.html

It seems counterintuitive that being loud, outspoken, and rebellious is what always seems make a successful artist when it’s also what makes an unsuccessful student. It seems to most aspiring artists that more success can come from breaking the law rather than sticking to it.

In reality though, education status doesn’t define or influence success. Schools don’t make successful people, they merely provide opportunities and it is the student’s decision to grab those opportunities. Once ambition meets those opportunities, many great things can happen.

Ultimately, someone’s journey to success can’t be defined by if they chose education or not. The person that decides not to move forward, stays in one place, and who’s experiences never change, is ultimately the lesser artist than the one who seeks opportunity. Education doesn’t make you a better artist, it just makes you different. Your art is only as strong as your experiences and how you decide to interpret and project those unique experiences.

“An obedient student with no ambition is almost as pointless as a dropout with no ambition.” (Hockley, 2018)

3.) Link: https://zapier.com/blog/music-and-productivity/

It seems counterintuitive that a shown increase in productivity when listening to music is simply “just because” music makes people happy. Music has been proven to aid cognitive performance and work productivity. Ultimately, putting on a good song for the moment can help anyone stay focused and productive.

Relating back to the previous article on musical pleasure, by associating a reward behavior like music with a desirable outcome like getting work done, you train your rain to associate positive behavior with hormonal reward (dopamine release). In this specific study, a significant increase in mood, quality of work, concentration, and productivity was shown while listening to music. Adversely, listening to music you already know or to what can be defined as “catchy pop music” is shown to decrease performance.

Counterintuitively, musicians are always analyzing what they’re hearing so rather than listening to music, ambient sound can be used to take away the distracting elements of music. Background noise is shown to have an increased effect on productivity when performing creative tasks. Nature sounds can reduce stress as well as increase productivity. Ultimately, listening to the right music at the right time can help you stay focused and productive