While sitting down to study in the Findlay Commons I look around and notice all the different study habits between students. A certain study habit is more effective for someone in comparison to others because all brains work differently when trying to integrate memorization or muscle memory. A study shows the most effective study habits include practicing by yourself, memory games, and going to your own quiet place. Those ways are typically the way I study. But, when I walk around the commons I notice more people than not wearing headphones and studying. I never really understood the reasoning of listening to music while studying because it is another voice in your head that takes away the sole purpose of memorization. Since I never understood the meaning for this interesting study habit, I researched whether music leads to better results for those that listen to it.
I tried to listen to music while studying and could not focus on the task at hand. But, a study shows that music is beneficial when studying. A study done by Elana Goodwin states, “Studies have shown that listening to music before studying or performing a task can be beneficial as it improves attention, memory, and even your ability to do mental math as well as helping lessen depression and anxiety.” The researchers typically compare this to the Mozarts Effect. For those who do not know, the Mozarts Effect is a study that shows while listening to Mozart’s music one receives a short-term improvement in their capabilities.
But, I found a flaw in there correlation with Mozarts Effect. I walked up to 10 different kids in the Findlay commons that were studying for a quiz or midterm and listening to music. I proceeded to ask them what genre of music they were listening to and whom. The responses varied from rap, to pop, to country, but none of them had Mozarts’ pieces playing in their earbuds. The survey take was very small, but typically high school/college students who have proven to benefit from listening to music while studying are listening to different genres.
Another study done also proves that listening to music can effect studying. But, the studying must be an organizational related study. Perham, the researcher involved in the study claims, “Listening to music may diminish your cognitive abilities in these situations because when you’re trying to memorize things in order, you can get thrown off and confused by the various words and notes in the song playing in the background.” The organization of one’s study can be altered because of the words or beat that is constantly in one’s head. The music genre does not matter, the sound effects the performance in itself.
The studies shown prove that music can be both beneficial and digressive. Differentiating between the type of study someone is engaged in plays a key factor. Also, the person’s tolerance level to noise and whether they use it progressively can determine whether they listen to music while studying. Studying should not be based off other peoples’ opinions of how study. There is no better way to study but your own because different study habits make one more comfortable in comparison to others. This study shows that I should not be so quick to judge other students and how they study because maybe they find it beneficial. Some people succeed when put in specific scenarios, and one scenario I will never find useful is music during study hours, but people are different and results vary.
Works-Cited:
1.) http://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/149570/Do-Or-Dont-Studying-While-Listening-To
2.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281386/
3.) http://psychcentral.com/lib/top-10-most-effective-study-habits/2/
4.) http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2012/10/08/does-music-help-you-study/
While studying, some people prefer to listen to music. Others need total silence, it just depends on who you are and what helps you study. The reason why some people need to listen to music is to either crete a background noise, or to relax them and lower stress levels. It has been proven that stress levels are decreased by music. The student could possibly be stressed out over what he or she is studying for, and the music would bring that stress level back down. Additionally, music can relax people to the point where their attention is 100% focused on what they are studying. The music just creates this calm throughout their body and enables them to concentrate extremely hard on what they are doing. Aside from making them feel better, the music will block out excess noise in the room from other students whispering to each other or the rustling of papers. These are all the positive effects music should have on studying. If the music is causing a negative effect on studying I would highly suggest changing study habits, but that’s a given. Over all, each person is different and if their “thing” while studying is music than so be it, let them listen to music. There is no way it can harm the others around them, who are probably too focused with their own work to notice them anyway.
Earlier in the blog period, I created a similar blog asking the same question. This is a topic that generally interests me as I alway do my homework with music playing in the background. However, I always want to make sure that I am working in an efficient manner. So if that means changing my listening preferences and saving an hour of time I would normally spend changing the song I’m interested. The one aspect that your blog as well as mine both concluded was that music while studying strictly is based upon the individual. There are a number of confounding variables that come into play that can influence this data. For example, genre, tone, volume, rate, and whether or not the person is accustomed to working with music can all make a difference in their performance. I have attached a link to the blog post I made regarding the same subject, I hope it can add some more information to this subject.
http://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/10/19/23167/
I agree with you, I cannot study with music on. It distracts me too. However, I have witnessed the same thing, many students here at Penn State have their earbuds in whenever they are doing work, so clearly your findings are correct- results vary and everyone is different. If you want, you can read this article, it has a lot of information on this topic too 🙂
http://college.usatoday.com/2012/09/10/should-you-listen-to-music-while-you-study/
I found your blog interesting because I always listen to music while I study. I just find it calming and relaxing and helps me read at a faster tempo. It seems there are some theories on the impact of music and studying. Some scientists say that if you’re doing any language-related work your should stay away from music with lyrics tied in because your mind will try to process what the song is saying and will ignore the mental process of the reading/writing being done. It seems like the theory also states that if you’re doing math related work music with lyrics might not be so problematic.
While scrolling through posts this one immediately intrigued me, most likely because i am currently listening to music and often do while studying. From my perspective, I have found listening to music while doing work very beneficial, but the genre is very important to me. I actually have found that rap may have a negative effect while studying but listening to old artists like ludwig van beethoven keeps me extremely focused on the task at hand. Definitely not the most exciting music, but it gets the job done.
I’m with you whenever I try to put on music while studying it completely messes with my train of thought. I can’t focus, instead I am the person who just keeps changing the song and not able to find one I like. In the car I am the person who listens to half a song then gets bored and changes it. But, I am the person who can watch TV while studying and doing homework without issue. I put on my netflix show and just let it play. I have found that I relate certain things I was studying or reading to something I heard from the show that was playing. Here is a personal blog from someone who also feels that TV helped them to study.
I have studied listening to Mozart before, and completed assignments this same way as well. There have also been times were I couldn’t focus because the music was too drawing to my attention. My only question would be could this depend on the topic that I was studying?
I found your blog post to be very interesting. As I study in Findlay Commons as well I constantly find myself looking around at others studying and I easily become very distracted. I usually put my headphones in and listen to music while studying, I have noticed that this enhances my performance as I am able to block out any other sounds. I enjoyed reading about all of the studies conducted on this topic, and find it interesting to read about the different effects that music can have on ones studies. I found an article that weighed out some positives and negatives on listening to music while studying. It includes some great points as well so I hope you give it a read!
http://college.usatoday.com/2012/09/10/should-you-listen-to-music-while-you-study/