by antonia.muszi -

Does Stress kill Creative Processes?

Information is vast, inspiration is vast, creativity is vast but our time is short

An article published by the Scientific American addresses the popular myth that humans only use 10 percent of their brains. This misconception has been widely debunked by neuroscientists. The article explains that while it’s true that not all parts of the brain are active at the same time, the idea that 90 percent of the brain is unused is simply untrue.

Neuroimaging techniques such as PET scans and fMRI have shown that even during simple tasks, much more than 10 percent of the brain is active. Different regions of the brain are responsible for various functions, and the brain operates as a highly integrated network.

Overall, the notion that we use only a small fraction of our brains is a myth, and the article highlights the importance of dispelling such misconceptions to promote accurate understanding of brain function.1

Does performance pressure, stress and a lot of tasks at the same time improve creativity?

According to the findings of the Harvard Business Review, the simple answer is „no.“ When creativity is put on a time crunch, it typically suffers. While time pressure might push individuals to work harder and accomplish more, and it might even give them a sense of increased creativity, it tends to hinder creative thinking overall. However, the brief response doesn’t cover everything. Let’s jump into what time pressure entails, how it affects individuals in a work setting, and the various methods to handle it in order to boost creativity.

Our research suggests that as individuals experience greater time pressure on a given day, their likelihood of thinking creatively decreases. Interestingly, many people seem to be unaware of this trend. Participants in our study tended to rate themselves as more creative on days with high time pressure, despite evidence to the contrary in their daily diaries. These self-assessments didn’t align with the actual decrease in creative thinking observed over time as pressure mounted.

Furthermore, the decline in creative thinking was most noticeable during periods of extreme time pressure. Participants were asked to rate their perceived time pressure daily on a scale from one to seven, with seven representing the highest pressure level. On days when they rated their pressure as a seven, individuals were 45% less likely to engage in creative thinking compared to days with lower pressure ratings.2

Amabile, Teresa. The Time-Pressure/Creativity Matrix. 2014. Harvard Business Review, Aug. 2014, hbr.org/2002/08/creativity-under-the-gun.

Overwork leads to a decrease in creativity

Working excessively can stifle your creativity because even when your brain appears to be inactive, it’s actually quite active. Giving yourself time to relax allows your brain’s Default Network to become more active, fostering connections between different brain regions that don’t typically interact. This often leads to moments of inspiration and heightened creativity.3

»Taking time to revamp, refresh, and relax is just as important to success as a motivated work ethic.«

Erin Wildermuth

Want to know more? Here you go:

Is Work Killing Creativity? | Kirsten Anderson

Sources:4

  1. Boyd, Robynne. “Do People Only Use 10 Percent of Their Brains?” Scientific American, Scientific American, 7 Feb. 2008, www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/. ↩︎
  2. Amabile, T., Hadley C. and Kramer S. “Creativity under the Gun.” Harvard Business Review, Aug. 2014, hbr.org/2002/08/creativity-under-the-gun. ‌ ↩︎
  3. Wildermuth, Erin. “The Science of Overwork.” Full Focus, 6 Mar. 2018, fullfocus.co/the-science-of-overwork/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024. ↩︎
  4. I know that I am mixing APA and MLA styles, but MLA in-text looks horrible and APA is very complicated, when it comes to the source index. I took the best of both worlds. ↩︎
by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Colors in Music Education

Research shows that use of colors has a significant effect on memory. In the article The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations: evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students (2020), J. Khan and C. Liu got their hypothesis confirmed. They wanted to test if students remember words better when they are written on colorful paper. The participants were parted in two different groups and thereafter tested in English collocations. The first group read the glossary on yellow paper sheets, while the second group practiced with normal black and white paper. According to the article, the first group outperformed the second. 

Colors are used as tools all over the world. Personally, I have used color-coding to structure my notes and remember glossary for tests in school. In my head, different words and numbers are still connected to specific colors, and I believe it is a result of the use of colors in my notebooks. I associate several sociological glossaries with the color yellow, and picture some religious terms as red. Using colors as a memorizing technique has been helpful throughout my education. 

How could this technique be used in music education?

One of my best friends used to have stickers on her piano as a child. Small pieces of masking tape with written letters were placed on the different keys (C-B). I always thought it was sort of stupid. For some reason, I considered it cheating, and thought she would never really learn the placement of the tones when she always relayed on the stickers. I might have had a point, but I now have an easier time also seeing the advantages. 

I started playing the piano when I was 10 years old. Because I had been playing the trumpet for 3 years, I already knew how to read sheet music by that time. This made it easier for me to understand the placement of the tones and how they were connected. In retrospect, I truly understand that this part would be a lot more difficult for younger people without any musical knowledge. Especially children with developmental disabilities or learning disorders such as ADHD and dyslexia could struggle to read, understand and remember musical notation. I believe that stickers and the use of colors could help this group getting musical knowledge and motivation for further learning. 

Children xylophones are often covered in 7 different colors. Each bar has its own color, all the way up to the second C (that shares color with the first C). When researching this topic, I quickly discovered that the color pallet is somewhat universal. The C is red, D is orange, E is yellow, F is green, G is blue, A is purple, and the B is pink. Just like the colors of the rainbow. The colors could also contribute to a better understanding of “half steps”, if the black keys were given a shade between the colors on each side.  

Colors stimulate brain activity and provoke creativity. According to the Psychology of Color, all colors have different meanings and activates different parts of the brain. When implementing colors in education and connecting different tones with colors, it is important to choose the colors wisely. Certain colors contribute to improved mood, health, motivation and concentration, while other are not good for us in the long run. For instance, use of the color white in public spaces and schools has been linked to increased stress levels and reduced concentration (Grube, K.J. 2014). If colors are too intense, they can also be irritating and exhausting to look at. However, with the right wavelength, colors help us memorize and recognize differences. It also has the potential to positively address the growing issue of attention span among today’s youth. 

References

Grube, K.J. (2014). Detrimental Effect of White Valued Walls in Classrooms. Educational Planning, v21 n2 p69-82. 

Khan, J. & Liu, C. (2020). The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations: evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40862-020-00098-8

Koltuska-Haskin, B. (2023). How Colors Affect Brain Functioning. Psychology today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/how-my-brain-works/202301/how-colors-affect-brain-functioning