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Hip Hop Dance Experience Linked to Sociocognitive Ability
Justin W Bonny1,2, Jenna C Lindberg1, Marc C Pacampara1
1foundry10, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Plos One
|February 2, 2017
Summary
Hip hop dance experience enhances cognitive skills like mental rotation, potentially benefiting science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM) performance. This activity may also improve social cognition abilities.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Dance Studies
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Expertise in activities like gaming and sports is linked to cognitive skills crucial for STEM.
- These cognitive skills include working memory, mental rotation, and problem-solving.
- The potential link between hip hop dance and cognitive abilities remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if hip hop dance experience correlates with cognitive abilities relevant to STEM.
- To examine the relationship between hip hop dance and social cognition, specifically theory of mind.
- To determine if hip hop dance engagement can enhance specific cognitive and sociocognitive skills.
Main Methods:
- Participants with varying hip hop and other dance experience completed computerized cognitive tasks.
- Assessed skills included working memory capacity, mental rotation speed and accuracy, problem-solving efficiency, and theory of mind.
- Statistical analyses controlled for demographic factors and experience in other dance styles.
Main Results:
- Greater hip hop dance experience was associated with faster mental rotation of hand images, especially at larger angle disparities.
- A trend indicated improved accuracy in identifying positive emotions from cropped facial images with more hip hop experience.
- No significant effects were found for working memory or problem-solving efficiency.
Conclusions:
- Hip hop dance experience appears to engage specific cognitive abilities that underpin STEM skills, similar to gaming.
- Hip hop dance may offer a unique avenue to engage individuals not drawn to traditional kinesthetic or gaming activities.
- Further research could explore hip hop dance's potential for enhancing sociocognitive skills and its broader educational applications.
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