The Effects of Music & Auditory Beat Stimulation on Anxiety
Phase: NA
Conditions: Anxiety
Sponsor: Toronto Metropolitan University

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Effects of Music and Auditory Beat Stimulation on Anxiety 
Study Protocol 
Approved by the Ryerson Ethics Board: REB 2020-068 on March 26th, 2020, renewal 
approval:  March 18th, 2021 
NCT#:  
Date: 2021-11-26 
 

Study Protocol 
Participants 
 
Participants (n=318) who are taking anti-anxiety medication will be recruited from Prolific, an online research 
recruitment platform. A power analysis was conducted drawing effect sizes from a previous study that examined 
how anxiety levels (measured by the STAI), were affected under the following experimental conditions: binaural 
beats, music with binaural beats and no-intervention (Padmanabhan et al., 2005). The power analysis indicated that 
to achieve a power of 0.80 at a significance of p = 0.05, a minimum of 45 participants in each treatment group are 
required (Padmanabhan et al., 2005). An additional 10 participants will be recruited to account for potential 
participant attrition. Participants will be pre-screened for moderate to severe anxiety using the STICSA trait 
questionnaire (Grös, Antony, Simms, & McCabe, 2007). Participants will then be randomly assigned to one treatment 
arm. 
 
Experimental treatment conditions 
 
Each of the experimental treatment conditions below will be 24 minutes in duration, as this seems to be the exposure 
time needed for binaural beats to reduce anxiety levels and for general effectiveness of binaural beats in other areas 
such as cognition (Garcia-Argibay, 2019; Isik et al., 2017). 
 
1. Pink noise (control condition) 
2. Theta ABS 
3. Theta ABS with music generated by LUCID’s calm mode 
4. Music generated by LUCID’s calm mode 
Procedure 
 
After reading and signing the consent form and going over experimental expectations, participants will be asked to 
fill out the Short Test of Music Preferences (STOMP), Queen’s Music Questionnaire, the Positive and Negative Affect 
Scale (PANAS), Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the STICSA state version. 
Participants will then undergo their respective listening condition. After undergoing experimental treatment, 
participants will complete the following questionnaires: STICSA state version, SAM and the PANAS.  
Outcome measures and questionnaires 
 
Participants show a more pleasurable emotional response to their own preferred music compared to experimenter-
selected music (Davis & Thaut, 1989; Thaut & Davis, 1993). We therefore decided to incorporate the Short Test of 
Music Preferences (STOMP) as a covariate in our analyses (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003). The Queen’s Music 
Questionnaire will be administered to assess musical education and daily music exposure of each participant, which 
will be used as a covariate in our analyses. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire will be used to determine 
participants’ extraversion and introversion (Rocklin & Revelle, 1981). The State Trait Inventory for Cognitive and 
Somatic Anxiety (STICSA) will be used to pre-screen high trait anxiety participants (trait version) for 
participation in this study (Grös et al., 2007).  
 
The state version of STICSA will be used to assess state anxiety before and after experimental treatment. This will 
serve as the primary outcome measure. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) will be used to assess mood 
(Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) before and after experimental treatment. The Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) 

questionnaire will be used to assess valence and arousal of the participant before and after experimental treatment 
(Bradley & Lang, 1994).  
References 
 
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