Pain Perception

Abstract

Abstract How can one resist the urge of feeling too much pain? Can external stimuli influence how much pain is felt? This project examines whether music is an effective distraction from pain, relative to other distractor conditions. It tested the hypothesis that pleasurable stimuli would be more effective distractors than less pleasurable stimuli. Pain was induced using the Cold Pressor task, which involved submerging one’s hand in cold water and holding it there as long as one can tolerate. Seventeen participants completed the Cold Pressor task in four different conditions: in silence, while listening to self-chosen music, while eating cookies, and while listening to an audiobook on economics. Music and cookies were the pleasurable distractors and silence and the audiobook were the non-pleasurable distractors. Tolerance time was measured in each condition. A repeated ANOVA revealed no significant differences in tolerance time between conditions, though the pattern of means was consistent with those predicted, with the highest tolerance times seen in the music condition. The current results may be regarded as inconclusive.