TABLE 1.
Information about the selected studies on flow and music.
| Study | Sample | Experimental design | Condition(s) | Session(s) | Instruments of Flow assessment | Flow perspective | Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrigley and Emmerson (2013) | 236 students attending music performance programs at a conservatorium of music of an Australian university | Confirmatory Factor Analysis for the validation of an instrument of Flow assessment | 1 condition: Flow State Scale-2 | 1 session | Flow State Scale-2 (Jackson and Eklund, 2002; Jackson et al., 2008) | State flow | Low levels of flow among participants after examinations and no correlation between flow and several characteristics of context was found. |
| Pates et al. (2003) | 3 female netball players | A single- subject multiple baselines across individuals design | 11 conditions | 11 sessions (trials) of shooting and assessment | Flow State Scale (Jackson and Marsh, 1996; Jackson and Eklund, 2004) | State flow | All athletes improved their performance across 11 trials. Flow levels of only two athletes in three increased. |
| Nijs et al. (2012) | 65 musicians (professional and amateur) | Correlational | No conditions | 3 sessions (assessment- interaction with Music Paint machine- assessment) | Flow State Scale (Jackson and Marsh, 1996; Jackson and Eklund, 2004) | State flow | Music Paint machine is flow conductive |
| Sinnamon et al. (2012) | 125 students of music (amateur and elite) attending two conservatories | Between subject design | 2 conditions | 1 session | Dispositional Flow State Scale-2 (Jackson and Eklund, 2002; Jackson et al., 2008) | Dispositional or trait flow | DFS-2 showed a high reliability and validity in this musical context |
| Fritz and Avsec (2007) | 84 student of music at the Music Academy of Ljubljana | Correlational | No conditions | 1 sessions | Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (Jackson and Eklund, 2002, 2004) translated in Slovene | Dispositional or trait flow | Flow experience showed low correlation with satisfaction with life, except for dimensions of action-awareness, challenge and skills balance and autotelic experience. No correlation between any dimension of well being and “Loss of self-consciousness” and “time transformation” was found. Flow correlated especially with emotive dimensions of well being. |
| Marin and Bhattacharya (2013) | 76 piano performance students | Correlational study with prediction of trait emotional intelligence and amount of daily practice on flow | 2 conditions (high vs. low performers) | 1 session | Dispositional Flow Scale-2 (Jackson and Eklund, 2002, 2004) | Dispositional or trait flow | Amount of daily piano practice and level of trait emotional intelligence predicted flow. In details, flow did not correlate with high achievements (as winning a prize in piano competition) and emotive aspects of music seemed to be able to support flow merging. |
| de Manzano et al. (2010) | 21 professional pianists | Within subject design | 5 trials | Warm up period-musical performance and | Short Flow State Scale (Jackson and Eklund, 2004) | State flow | Flow seemed to be related to a parasympathetic activity which can influence |
| Baker and MacDonald (2013) | 30 participants (15 retireers and 15 university students) | Within subject design | 3 conditions [lyric creation (LC); song parody (SP); and original songwriting (OS)] | Each condition was scheduled on separate days and was always followed by a Flow assessment. | Short Flow State scale and Core Dispositional Flow Scale (Martin and Jackson, 2008) | State and dispositional or trait flow | No significant difference among conditions and between students and retireers concerning both flow as a trait and a as a state was found. At a global level, state and trait flow correlated with questionnaire scores concerning song creation and Core Dispositional Flow Scale showed the highest correlation with the questionnaire scores. Dispositional flow influenced positively the process of song creation. |
| Martin and Jackson (2008) | 22 4 young classical musicians attending high school | Study for the validation of Flow brief measure | No conditions | 1 session | First study: Short Flow State Scale in a musical context | Dispositional or trait Flow | From CFA emerged an acceptable fit (Chi- square = 45.11; df = 27). |
| Butkovic et al. (2015) | 10,699 twins aged between 27 and 54. | Correlational study with prediction of intelligence, personality, motivation and flow proneness on music practice | No conditions | 1 session | Swedish Flow Proneness Questionnaire (SFPQ) | Dispositional or trait flow | Music flow predicted music practice and it depended more on genetic than situational factors. |