Caleb Davis

Research Project
R. Andrew Brown
UWRT 1103-024
5/04/15
How does music affect ones ability to memorize a math formula or the scientific
method? During exam week, does music minimize stress while improving memory and cognitive
thinking? As I write this paper, will it suit me best to listen to my favorite album or just sit in
silence? With exam week coming fast, I wanted to research how and why listening to music
affects studying and retention. Gaining this knowledge will certainly help me in the future in
college and in life. I consulted several online sources, but I also used myself as a test subject to
see how music affects my own mind. Many scholars have performed experiments and debated on
how music affects the mind. Some say that all music is detrimental to the study process. Other
scholars believe that music, especially certain genres; have a positive impact on retention. My
results are strongly in favor of one side, but there are a few mixed results. I will exam my
research findings as well as my own experiments in this paper.
More than half of American teenagers listen to music while studying. Many find listening
to a certain kind of music relaxing. Some say music relieves stress. While this has been found
true, using music as a stress reliever while studying comes at a price according to a study by the
University of Toronto. Listening to music has been shown to hinder reading comprehension. Not
many people would read a book while playing their favorite music. Why? - Because they often
cannot concentrate on the book while music is playing. The same thing happens when a student
is studying. The brain has a harder time comprehending the words on a page while a song in
playing. The brain must dually interpret the music and the visual words. This was shown in the
University of Toronto study in which people identified as introverts and extroverts were used
(Miller).

An experiment was done at the University of Maryland at Baltimore in order to ascertain

if the myth that soft classical music actually enhances cognitive performance. Students from a
psychology class were given a math exam with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
division. The students took the test in a total of five conditions. The conditions were-silence,
rock music played at a loud intensity, rock music played at a soft intensity, classical music played
at a loud intensity, and classical music played at a soft intensity. Results showed that all scores
were significantly higher in the silent condition than in all music conditions, but there was a
significant improvement in the scores in the music at soft intensity. Surprisingly, there was no
significant difference in the scores based on the genre of music. If one insists on listening to
music while studying, cognitive performance in best when music is played softly (Dolegui).
When I did last math homework, I listened to some electronic music. This included music
classified as easy listening. I timed how long it took me to complete the ten question
homework assignment. I also time how long it took me to complete a previous assignment of the
same length in complete silence in a quiet room. Results showed strongly in favor of maximized
cognitive performance in silence. But, this could have been due to several variables such as
tiredness of the difficultly of the math problems. But, I still believe that any music hinders my
performance in math.
While math is best done in silence, I found that I gain inspiration for writing from
listening to my favorite types of music. When I have a daunting paper due in a few days, I
usually get very stressed out. In, my stress, it is easy for me to lose focus on the assignment and
to keep my mind from wandering. I find that listen to Broadway show tunes (a favorite genre of
mine) actually keeps me from getting distracted while writing papers. The familiar melodies and
lyrics seem to jog my memory and bring me into the comfort of the familiar. While, listening to

music my make me take longer to write papers, the content of my writing is better under the
influence of music.
Music that is disliked has been shown to be less damaging on cognitive performance. The
less acoustic variation in a song, the less it damages cognitive performance. Music with a steady
waveform does not hinder studying as much as complicated music. In fact, background noise has
shown to help students stay focused (Perham, Nick, and Sykora). I know from my own
experience that I work best when background noise is present. Because of this, I often refrain
from going to the quiet rooms at school and study in Prospector. Absolute silence often causes
my mind to wander.