Running Head: MUSIC AND MEMORY
Music and Memory: The Effect Studying to Music has on the Ability to Memorize Information.
Michael Fisher
Introduction
People today are bombarded with stimuli, especially from media sources. Television, music, radio, and internet compete for are attention and assault our senses on a daily bases. For most of us it is just a part of everyday life, so much so in fact that times of peace and quite are beginning to seem alien. But what effect does all this stimuli have on us? This study aims to look at one effect this stimulus overload may have.
Music is an important part of life. It is safe to say that most people enjoy listening to music in someway. This is especially true for youth. Anyone can walk across any campus in the
A study of secondary education students (8-10 grades) found that most did homework in their own rooms, over 80%, where almost all of them had at least a stereo/radio, 92.1% (Beentjes, Koolstra, and Van Ver Voort, 1996). Of the students studied only 18% reported never using the media in their room while studying. Almost all who had radios/stereos reported using them while they studied, 80%. This study also found that these numbers went down when the student studied in some other location such as the living room. It was reported that 67% of the students could hear the music in the background but kept their minds on their homework while 37% said that the back ground music demanded more of their attention as they tried to carefully listen to the music at the same time has doing their homework. Furthermore, 27% reported to switching back and forth from listening to the music to doing homework and 21% reported doing so frequently. Only 17% said that they never really heard/ paid attention to the music while studying. The study reports that the students felt that the presence of music slightly aided in paper-and-pencil assignments but had a negative impact on learning assignments.
Rock and Roll has been found to hinder the performance on mathematical and verbal test but not on reading comprehension (Tucker and Bushman, 1991). In conflict to that study another found that scores on a reading comprehension test scores did go done when the subjects listened to music while studying. (Etaugh and Ptasnik, 1982).
The familiarity of the music also plays a role. It has been found that unfamiliar noise/music causes poorer performance on reading comprehension (Hilliard and Tolin, 1979).
Some studies have been done to look at who is more affected by studying to music. Those who reported frequently studying to music have been found to be less effected by the presence of music during a reading comprehension test (Etaugh and Michals, 1975). Also extraverts have been found aided by studying to music while introverts are hurt by it (Furnham and Bradley, 1997). In this study the extraverts where help by music in memory tasks but hurt in reading comprehension while the introverts where hampered in both areas. This was again attributed to the extraverts to studying more frequently to music than the introverts who preferred to study in silence.
Many of the studies done, test the subjects while music is playing to see its effect on performance. This approach doesn’t create a very real situation as most students will not be taking tests while music is playing in the background. This study wants to look at the effects of studying to music has on ones ability to memorize information for later recall, like a student would have to do when studying for tests and quizzes. It also wants to look at the effects of varies types of music (classical/instrumental, Rock and Country) will have to see if studying to one type of music is better than another.
It is hypothesized that those who study to music will perform worse on an information recall test than those who study in silence. With that it is also believed that those who listen to classical music will perform better than those who listen to rock or country on the same test.
Method
Participants
Subjects were found through the Intro to Psychology classes at
The subjects were randomly assigned to four different groups with 20 in each group by drawing numbers out of a hat. Each group was randomly assigned, by the same method, a measure of the variable: no music, classical/instrumental, country, rock.
The subjects completed a questionnaire during the experiment about their study habits. Through the questionnaire it was found that 75% of them regularly study with music playing while only 60% of them worked on homework assignments while listening to music. The majority, 80%, when listening to music used headphones or other personal devices as apposed to listening to music over the speakers. Only 35% percent reported regularly watching TV while doing homework and 40% while studying. Most of the subjects do most of their studying where they live, 60%, versus 33% who preferred the library and 7% in other locations.
Materials
Music was chosen for each group, with the exception of the no music/control group, based on it being considered typical and common for that genre. The classical instrumental group listened to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The rock group listened to Dude Look Like a Lady by Aerosmith. The country group listened to Goodbye Earl by Carrie Underwood. The music was played over the speakers in the classroom using the system provided in the room. A stop watch was used to time the study and break sessions about music and study habits.
A list of twenty-five countries and their capitals was typed up and printed for the subjects to study and memorize. A simple quiz was then made to test their memorization of the information. The quiz listed 20 of the 25 countries in a different order and gave all 25 capitals and the word bank. The subjects would than have to try to match the correct capital to the country. A questionnaire was also used to obtain information on their study and music listening habits and as a distracting device. The subjects were tested in a typical university classroom at the university in the late evening.
Procedure
The subjects were divided into groups by drawing numbers from a hat and then groups were assigned to their variable levels by the same method. Instruction was given to each group and informed consent was obtained.
The study materials were passed out and the music was started. Each group was given four minutes to study the material. After the four minutes the music was stop and study guides were collected.
A questionnaire was then passed out to obtain study and music listening habits from the subjects and also to serve as a distracting devise. When all questionnaires were completed and collected the tests was distributed. Each subject was given a maximum of eight minutes to complete the matching test. When all tests were completed they were graded and scored out of twenty (scoring the number of correct answers). The scores were then recorded into a SPSS file for statistical analysis.
References
Beentjes, Johannes W.J., Koolstra, Cees M. and Van Der Voort, Tom H.A. (1996).
Combining background media with doing homework: Incidence of background media use and perceived effects. Communicating Education, 45, 59-72.
Etaugh, Claire and Michals, David (1975). Effects of on reading comprehension of
preferred music and frequency of studying to music. Perceptual and Motor Skills,
41, 553-554.
Etaugh, Claire and Ptasnik, Patricia (1982). Effects of studying to music and post-study
relaxation on reading comprehension. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 55, 141-142.
Furnham, Adrian and Bradley, Anna (1997). Music while you work: The differential
distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11, 445-455.
Hilliard, Mark O. and Tolin, Philip (1979). Effect of familiarity with background music
on performance of simple and difficult reading comprehension tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 49, 713-714.
Tucker, Alexander and Bushman, Brad J. (1991). Effects of rock and roll music on
mathematical, verbal and reading comprehension performance. Perceptual and
Motor Skills, 72, 942.
