The effects of sedative and stimulative background music on the spontaneous vocalizations of severely and profoundly retarded adults

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of prerecorded stimulative and sedative orchestral background music on the frequency and duration of vocalizations in severely and profoundly retarded adults. Subjects were thirty severly and profoundly retarded individuals, ages 19 to 43 years old. A counterbalanced design was used to alternate the order of the type of music on two 10-minute stimulus tapes. Two different scores were obtained for each subject, one indicating the number of discrete vocalizations, the other indicating the total duration of vocalizations. Both measures were obtained for each of the five experimental conditions (two music conditions, three baselines). Interrater reliability for two judges across the five experimental conditions indicated a mean r of .88 for frequency of vocalizations and a mean r of .83 for duration of vocalizations. Results indicated no significant differences between the effects of background music versus no music (baseline) and sedative versus stimulative music on the duration or frequency of vocalizations in severely profoundly retarded adults. The results did suggest, however, a greater duration of vocal responses during the baseline (no music) than during the music conditions. Of the two types of music examined, the stimulative music appeared to evoke a greater number of vocal responses than sedative music. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

Keyword(s): Sedative-music, stimulative-music, background-music, adult, severe-mental-retardation, profound-mental-retardation.

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