1. Do Auditory and Visual Stimuli Affect Heart Rate
By: Drake Maguire
10th grade
Central Catholic High School

2. Purpose
Determine if watching videos while listening to music will affect a person's heart rate.
Questions
Do videos by themselves affect heart rate?
Does the particular song chosen affect heart rate?
Will the video with the song combined cause a significant effect?
Does the testing result depend at all on gender?

3. Background Research: General
Songs have been known to affect heart rate according to Pavia University
Usually the change in heart rate depends on the song and person
Heart rate can also change due to videos and video games
Penn State found listening to music 20 to 30 minutes a day lowered heart rate.
Harvard stated that music can bring heart rate back to its baseline while exercising.
A study by Oxford University says that external stimuli, emotions and your condition affect heart rate.

4. Introduction: Heart Rate
Heart Rate: the frequency of the cardiac cycle.
Average heart rate for adult humans: 60 to 100 beats per minute.
Things that influence heartbeat: exercise, body position, body size, medication use, illness, various external stimuli.

5. Hypothesis
Null:
The song and videos themselves and the music and video combinations will make not significantly alter heart rate.
Alternate Hypothesis:
1. Music will significantly change heart rate.
2. The videos will significantly change heart rate.
3. The combination of music and video will significantly alter heart rate.

6. Song and Videos The song chosen was Beethoven’s 5th symphony
The videos watched were “World’s Most Relaxing Video ” and another called the “Art of Snowboarding”
The “World’s Most Relaxing” video was picked because nature videos have been known to calm people down
The “Art of Snowboarding” was chosen because it showed stunts, which could make their heart rate faster

7. Materials IPad- song TV- videos Stopwatch Pencil Note Cards
Consent Forms
24 participants/Experimental Subjects( 10 male 14 female ages 14 to 50)

8. Participant Requirements
Recruitment:
Human Consent Forms. family, friends, and people from school.
Exclusions:
No one below 14 and above 50.
No one who knew the nature of the test in advance.

9. Procedure 1. Obtained Consent Forms
2. Gave participants note card and pencil
3. Told them to write their gender and age on the note card
4. Explained to them how to take their pulse to find there heart rate.
5. Took their pulse and then wated for 3 minutes and 30 seconds (during this period there was no sound) then took their pulse this was the control.
6. Played the song for 3 minutes 30 seconds then told them to write down their heart rate
7. Waited 5 minutes after every test and made sure heart rate recovered to baseline.
8. Played video 1- heart rate recorded
9. Played video 2- heart rate recorded
10. Played song/ video 1- heart rate recorded
11. Played Song/video 2- heart rate recorded

10. Variables Controlled Variables: Participants always in a quiet area
Done between 12:30pm and 1:00pm
Always done in the same area
Manipulated Variables:
Song
Videos

11. External Stimuli Graph
Pvalue = .469

12. External Stimuli Graph (Male)
Pvalue = .406

13. External Stimuli Graph (Female)
Pvalue = .602

14. Conclusion
Does the song by itself affect a person's heart rate significantly?
Fail to reject null.
Does the video by itself affect a person’s heart rate?
Is there an effect on heart rate when music and videos are played together?
Does gender affect the results?
Although the means did vary some they did not vary outside of chance and failed to reject the null hypothesis.

15. Explanation
Heart rate could have started to return to baseline after the test
Particular song and videos chosen didn’t affect heart rate because the appeal of them
Could have been distractions in the testing room
However some people did show a significant response
Now planning to record heart rate during the tests with a machine and have a more narrow population
People vary greatly in their, feeling, mood, intention, age, etc.

16. Errors/Limitations
Participants sometimes had distractions (like laughing)
Done in a group
Only 24 people tested
Pre existing knowledge?
Motivation?
Peer Pressure?
What they did before coming to the testing area
Current Health?
Favorite Song/ Video?
Any diseases with the heart.
Did the videos or song remind them of anything?

17. Errors/Limitations Pulse was taken manually
In future studies earphones might be used for a good hearing of the music
Participants might have not liked the song or the video
The pulse was taken after the tests not while they were going on
Only tested the person’s heart rate and did not test other ways it affected the heart
Wide range of people

18. Extensions
In further studies, try to have something (like a machine) to monitor heart rate during the test
Also test a song that has been known to affect heart rate
Use earphones for clearer audio to see if results would vary
Do a more narrow population of people

19. Bibliography
Crisanti, Analeigh. “Does Listening to Music Affect One's Heart Rate”. Web. January, 1st, 2019.
Oxford University. “Does Music Affect Heart Rate?”. Web. January 4th 2019.
Koelsch, Stephen. “European Heart Journal”. Webhttps://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/36/44/3043/ September, 9th,
Harvard University. “How a Music May Affect your heart rate.” Web. June heart. January, 5th 2019
Strauss, Mozart. NBIC. “The cardiovascular effect of music genres”. Web. June 2016https:// January, 7th, 2019
Edelson, Ed. ABC News. “Music can make the heart beat faster”. Web. June 23rd January, 2nd 2019

20. Spreadsheet

21. Anova: Single Factor