The Effect of the Sound of Music

There are a lot of myths involving playing music while working. Some say it helps, others say its hurts, while still others think that classical music helps developing brains. For a kid in college, what is the best way to go about listening to music while doing work?

A 2010 study from Applied Cognitive Pyschology sought an answer to this question. The study was fairly small with 25 undergraduate students ranging from 18-30 years old. They were asked whether they enjoyed heavy metal music, and if they did they were not asked to be subjects in the test. This is because there were five categories of music or sound that the subjects had to listen to while attempting to memorize a list in five minutes then recall it in a 20 second span. The five categories were quiet, changing-state speech (random numbers from 1-9), steady-state speech (repetition of the number ‘3’), likable music (which the subjects provided for themselves), and dislikable music (a heavy metal song, same one for each subject). The accuracy of memory was measured based on how well the people in the study could recall the lists they had looked at for five minutes.

The study found that the subjects, based on how they rated working with each of the five categories of sound, preferred the music they chose to work with. However, the results from the study proved that a quiet setting is the most productive for the best results on the memory game, and the liked music had as poor results as the disliked heavy metal music. Therefore, even though the subject wanted to listen to the music they requested, it actually did not help them in the study. This suggests that listening to music is less productive than working in quiet settings. However, the study was very small and the age range of 18-30 probably cannot be generalized for all age groups.

What about the good effects of music? What about the Mozart effect that suggests classical music improves certain functions of the brain? This article from the Journal of the Royal Society on Medicine explains that in the past there was one controversial study in 1993 that after listening to Mozart for 10 minutes on the piano subjects’ IQs rose by an average of 8-9 points for a duration of 10-15 minutes. However, these unprecedented results still caused other scientists to try to refute this conclusion. Jenkins, the author of this article, looks at other researchers to discover a few, but not all who have attempted, came up with the same results. The music does have an effect on the spatial recognition of the brain, but the heightened intelligence does not have permanent effects but instead only works for 12 minutes on average. Therefore, listening to Mozart while doing math homework may or may not help.

These two pieces I have reviewed both seem to suggest that since the topic is still so up in the air about the benefits (whether from a small study or inconclusive results on the Mozart effect), I would suggest working in silence in order to prevent distractions.

 

5 thoughts on “The Effect of the Sound of Music

  1. Chloe Atherton Cullen Post author

    Hey Sydni! This blog doesn’t give a clear answer because there haven’t been enough studies coming up with the same conclusion in order for an answer to be considered right. For now, it seems a lot of evidence suggests that we should not listen to music. For the Mozart effect, multiple researchers have looked into this but a few have come up with the answer that the Mozart effect actually works. I suggest if you’re interested in that please add a comment with a link that shows what the third variables of the IQ test were, because looking at the study procedure I couldn’t find any that would result in a direct change in IQ for a short amount of time after this music was played. Also, the other study came to the conclusion that quiet settings (settings without music) do help, but the study was so small that it could be a false positive. I would love to see what research you find.

  2. Jacklyn Nicole Hucke

    Being a music buff, if I try to listen to music when I study or do homework, I always find myself singing along with the artist and then end up writing the lyrics down as I try to write a paper. Long story short: it just doesn’t work for me. Although I really wish it did. Researches Adrian Furnham and Anna Bradley say that “Music reduces the tension and boredom that are highly correlated with routine work but acts as a distracter for complex mental work” but being able to listen to music while working also depends on the way ones brain operates. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this situation!

    http://keene-equinox.com/2012/09/studies-show-that-music-affects-your-study-habits-and-grades/

  3. Sydni Noelle Jean

    There could be other factors that cause the IQ of these people to increase. They could have did other things before taking the test or before doing their homework. Also, this blog doesn’t answer the question or gives a clear understanding if music helps or not.

  4. Bradley Ross Wakai

    This is an interesting post to me because just the other day I asked my friends how they could listen to music while they do homework and study because it prevents me from being able to focus or remember anything. I agree with you though that the sample size was too small in the studies for there to be an accurate conclusion to this question.

  5. Gabrielle Gordin

    Whether I’m doing homework, walking to class or just laying in bed, there are always a pair of headphones in my ear and I’m constantly bobbing my head to the music coming out of my iPhone. I’ve always wondered if music actually helped me be productive, but I never really cared because I simply enjoyed listening to it. After reading this article, I actually became really interested in finding out whether music helps me do my work better or not, and found an article on Psychology Today (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201312/does-music-help-memory) stating that studies show that music may have an impact on our emotions, causing us to feel more positive rather than negative. Therefore, like you explained in your post, our memory will show the best results, because negative emotions impair memory. Hopefully, at least for my own sake, there’s an indirect effect from music that causes our memory to become enhanced.

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