I have always wondered how people can concentrate while watching TV or listening to music. When I am studying, I need silence to concentrate, otherwise I do not retain information and I am unable to think to my best ability. My sister on the other hand has always been a great student, and she told me that she couldn’t study or do homework without the music on. When I heard this I was shocked because I didn’t think it was possible to be better at something while multitasking rather than concentrating solely on one thing. In 9^th grade, I had a teacher who played classical music when we took exams, thinking this would be beneficial. People have different views on this topic, but I cannot seem to understand how multitasking (listening to music while completing a task such as homework) can be better than focusing on one thing at a time.

When you listen to music with lyrics, you are activating language-processing centers of the brain. This means that while you are trying to concentrate on one thing, you may not even realize it but you are also concentrating on the lyrics to the song you are listening to. This can cause confusion and can lead to less concentration and difficulty retaining information.

I decided to take this matter into my own hands. I went down to our Penn State school library and asked a bunch of students with their headphones in, why they listened to music while they were studying. One student, Olivia, said “because it makes me relaxed and when I am relaxed I can focus better on my studies”. This was the only response that seemed logical to me. I then asked her if she knew that, through studies, it was shown that you retain less information while listening to music, if she would still continue to do so while doing work? She replied Yes, because I personally think it helps me.

For people, such as Olivia, who feel that music helps them relax, there are other alternatives to help soothe you than listening to music during your homework/study time. Perham explains that you should listen to music before getting to work, to engage what’s known as the “arousal and mood effect.” If you hare happy before you get to work, studies have shown that this can lead to positive results in studying and completing assignments.

Lastly, there has been a study done referred to as the “Mozart Effect” which is “a set of research results indicating that listening to Mozart’s music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as ‘spatial-temporal reasoning’”. Listening to music without lyrics has a positive effect on your study habits, which is how the Mozart Effect was founded. If you are the kind of person who thinks that they cannot complete a task without listening to music, try switching to Mozart, or any other classical form of music without lyrics. Although the studies say that listening to Mozart while studying will help improve your grades, I personally feel that I benefit from silence; you need to enjoy what you are listening to and complete your own miniature study to see what is right for you. I have realized that what my 9^th grade teacher was trying to do was implement the Mozart Effect on us. Even though it was distracting to me, it improved the classes scores on tests overall.

Studying while listening to music is not beneficial when there are lyrics because it activates the language-processing centers of the brain but listening to music without lyrics can be quite beneficial to some people. What works for you?