Today, students are surrounded by multiple types of distractions through technology from video games, music, and movies, to Facebook and other types of social media. While some students relish in the distractions, others do not. There have been multiple studies conducted on how music effects learning, and results have been mixed (Lehmann, and Seufert, 2017).
In some cases, it has been noted that several studies in healthy populations reported positive effects of music on encoding and decoding of verbal material when music was used as background, (De Groot, 2006; Ferreri et al., 2014, 2013), contrasted to sung or spoken material (Rainey and Larsen, 2002). In some studies, it has been determined that there was no significantly constant effect from background music when related to verbal learning.
Also, there was no improvement or reduction in a verbal learning performance during background stimulation conditions (Jänke and Sandmann, 2010). With relation to research on the Mozart effect, and the arousal-mood hypothesis, it was revealed that background music can possibly help learning results. It is assumed that the Mozart of background music has a direct effect on cognitive skills (Lehmann and Seufert, 2017).
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There are still many questions out there concerning how music impacts learning (Verga, Bigand, and Kotz, 2015). In research concerning music and social interaction it is stated that neither music or social interaction can give out any clues because adult learners are better at learning new words cognitively without any extra help.
In other words, music and social interaction may interfere with learning because it increases the learning cognitive load. (Racette and Peretz, 2007; Moussard et al., 2012, 2014). Other studies found that it negatively impacted learning outcomes (Furnham and Bradley, 1997; Randsell and Gilroy, 2001; Hallam et al., 2002). Additional studies report that there is a positive impact (de Groot, 2006), especially on students with learning disabilities (Savan, 1999).
One study tried to explain why results were mixed. It was revealed that music features such as tempo and intensity do have an effect on learning results. Music characteristics such as soft fast music had a positive effect, while loud fast and soft slow, or loud slow music hampered learning (Thompson et al. 2011). Also, instrumental music bothers learners less than music with lyrics (Perham and Currie, 2014).
Additionally, it is possible that a learner’s abilities such as musical expertise (Wallace, 1994) or their knowledge of a presented music could also influence their ability to learn. This study wanted to determine how listening to 30 seconds of classical music (Vivaldi’s Seasons) during review of a random list of words would affect word recall as opposed to reviewing a random list of words without music.
References
- Lehmann, A., & Seufert, T. (2017). Effects of background music on concentration of attention.
- Ferreri, L., Rodriguez-Fornells, A., & Barbera-Farre, M. (2014). Positive effects of music and audio-visual training on verbal memory.
- Ferreri, L., Megias, M., Guàrdia-Olmos, J., & Molina-Holgado, E. (2013). Modulation of brain network connections during verbal learning tasks depends on the presence of positive or negative mood.
- Jänke, L., & Sandmann, A. (2010). Effects of background music on concentration of attention: An ERP study.
- Schellenberg, E. G., Nakata, T., Hunter, P. G., & Tamoto, S. (2007). Exposure to music and cognitive performance: Tests of children and adults.
- Steelman, L. A., & Steelman, G. R. (1984). The Mozart effect: An artifact of preference.
