Mia in the Experiment Room
Author: Mia Iandolo | Major: Psychology | Semester: Fall 2024
Experiencing a sexual assault often results in lasting psychological trauma that inhibits the ability for that individual to function; therefore, coping strategies are needed to reduce those symptoms. Music has been shown to be a helpful coping mechanism to decrease anxiety and may relate to memory, but no study to date has examined these simultaneously as they relate to trauma. My study aimed to do so, by developing an understanding of the effect of listening to calming music (vs silence) on both anxiety levels and memory recall following the description of a sexual assault. The results of this research has implications for factors impacting the processing potentially traumatic information and may have extensions to the treatment of clinical populations.
I found Dr. Ana Bridges in the spring of 2023, when I was applying to join psychology labs. Her Diversity Research and Enhanced Access for Minorities (DREAM) lab really drew my attention because of its emphasis on the people that society sidelines. After I was accepted into the lab, Dr. Bridges let me know that she’d be willing to serve as my mentor, so in the fall 2023 semester we began meeting weekly to work on developing my thesis. I went into those meetings wanting to combine the things I was passionate about into my research. I really wanted to center my research around trauma, specifically sexual assault trauma and the mental health conditions that accompany it, because many of my close friends have unfortunately had that experience. Additionally, I have always loved music, so I wanted to try to incorporate that into my thesis as well. Diving into previous research showed me that not a lot of work had been done on the effects of music on the anxiety that results from a sexual assault, so there was the perfect niche. Then while reading previous studies, Dr. Bridges and I came across one that examined the effects of music on memory, so we decided to add that as an additional level in my study.
The final version of my study was an experimental design: participants would sign up through Sona, come into the lab, and go through an online Qualtrics form. The participant took a baseline anxiety measure—State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)—listened to a script detailing a sexual assault, then took the anxiety measure again. Then using random assignment as programed into the form, the participant experienced either the calming music condition—they listened to “Gymnopedie No. 1″ by Erik Satie—or the silence condition—they sat in silence for five minutes—before they took the anxiety measure for a third time. The participants then took a multiple-choice memory test based on the traumatic narrative they listened to. They then watched a video to bring their mood back up before completing the anxiety measure for the final time and filling out a few demographic questions.
In the spring 2024 semester, once the design of the study had been finalized, I applied for IRB approval and grant funding and received both. I then spent the summer 2024 semester designing and testing the Qualtrics survey. Dr. Bridges also helped me utilize some of my grant funding to purchase the materials I needed to run my study: a laptop, headphones, batteries, and alcohol wipes. Everything was then set for me to begin data collection. At the start of the fall 2024 semester, I trained one of my fellow DREAM lab research assistants, Reese Myatt, in how to run participants, so that there would be more time slots for data collection. After that, I opened my study on Sona, and we ran the study through the end of the semester, ending up with a total of 99 participants.
The spring 2025 semester will be dedicated to data analysis which will occur through testing for mediation using regression analysis according to the Baron and Kenny (1986) approach. I hypothesized that (H1) Participants who listen to calming music after hearing the trauma script will report lower anxiety levels than those who did not listen to music, controlling for baseline anxiety levels; (H2) Participants who listen to calming music after hearing the trauma script will demonstrate less memory retention than those who didn’t listen to music; (H3) Participants’ anxiety levels will be significantly positively related to their memory retention; and (H4) The association between listening to calming music and memory for a traumatic script will be partially mediated by anxiety levels. I will also present my honors thesis during that semester at the 2025 conference of the Southwester Psychological Association (SWPA) in Little Rock and during my thesis defense.
Throughout the entirety of my work on my thesis, I have been attending weekly meetings with Dr. Bridges. These meetings have been invaluable to me as she has helped me refine my ideas, guided me through the process of IRB and grant funding submissions, and showed me how to handle issues with participants. She also taught me how to navigate and program in Qualtrics as well as how to troubleshoot technological issues with the form. Dr. Bridges also dedicated several of our DREAM lab meetings to working on my thesis. During these, she and my fellow lab members helped me write the memory test questions, provided feedback on the Qualtrics survey, and helped me create an abstract to submit to SWPA.
I’m very grateful to have received the Honors College Research Grant as it helped me set up and run my study and it helped me finance one of my professional goals, medical school. The funding allowed me to obtain all the materials necessary to run my study including the laptop, its charger, the headphones, the headphone batteries, and the alcohol wipes to clean the headphones in between participants. The grant funding also gave me the ability to dedicate more time to my research and my academics as it served to offset some of my outside costs during the summer and fall 2024 semesters. One of the major outside costs was that of some of my medical school secondary applications. This funding meant I could afford to complete more applications, thereby increasing my chances of acceptance into a medical school.