The distracting effects of vocal and instrumental music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

The effects of background music on English reading comprehension for English foreign language learners: evidence from an eye movement study

Based on previous literature, the present study examines the effects of background music on English reading comprehension using eye tracking techniques. All the participants, whose first language was Chinese, were selected from a foreign language college and all of them were sophomores who majored in English. The experiment in this study was a 2 (music tempo: fast and slow) × 2 (text difficulty: difficult and easy) × 2 (background music preference: high and low) mixed design. Both musical tempo and English reading passage were within-subjects factors, and the level of music listening preference was a between-subjects factor. The results showed that the main effect of the music tempo was statistically significant, which indicated that participants read texts more quickly in the fast-tempo music condition than in the slow-tempo music condition. Furthermore, the main effect of the text difficulty was statistically significant. Additionally, the interaction between the text difficulty and music tempo was statistically significant. The music tempo had a greater effect on easy texts than on difficult texts. The results of this study reveal that it is beneficial for people who have a stronger preference for music listening to conduct English reading tasks with fast-tempo music. It is detrimental for people who have little preference for background music listening to complete difficult English reading tasks with slow-tempo music.

Slower tempo makes worse performance? The effect of musical tempo on cognitive processing speed

The effects of musical tempo on cognitive processing speed were investigated, and the mediating effect of arousal was empirically tested. In an experiment, participants were divided into fast tempo, slow tempo, and no-music groups and completed three cognitive processing speed tests measuring motor speed, visuospatial processing speed, and linguistic processing speed. The results indicated a significant effect of musical tempo on processing speed and task performance in all three tasks. The slow-tempo group exhibited slower processing speed and worse performance than the no-music group in all three tasks. The fast tempo group displayed no significant difference in processing speed or performance compared with the no-music group. In the linguistic processing task, those who listened to slow-tempo music had better accuracy than those in the other conditions. Arousal did not mediate the relationship between musical tempo and cognitive processing speed.

Using Strategies from Physical Training of Athletes to Develop Self-Study Programs for Veterinary Medical Students

Veterinary medical students, similar to elite collegiate athletes, are developing strategies for learning new skills and for self-care to take their performance to the next level. As veterinary students learn to successfully navigate an information-dense, high-volume curriculum, many sacrifice wellness, leadership opportunities, extracurricular activities, and social interactions. Strategies from athletes' physical training were used to design a self-study program for first-year veterinary medical students. Major considerations in program design were the characteristics of the human being, learning goals, and contextual constraints. The study program included a warm-up, study sessions, and a cooldown. The program was offered to first-year veterinary medical students at Purdue University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Thirty-two students requested study programs and 21 completed surveys at the semester end. Results were analyzed quantitatively and by using an adapted conventional content analysis approach. Responses were organized into three main domains: reason for participation, program utility, and program satisfaction. Students shared that the most helpful aspects of the program were assisting with organization and time management, providing accountability, and reducing overwhelm by enhancing well-being and performance; they reported that these learned skills would support their well-being as future professionals. This article describes the experiences of one group of veterinary students at one college using these programs. The long-term goal is to develop a model program for all veterinary students to manage curricular demands while maintaining well-being.

Do you listen to music while studying? A portrait of how people use music to optimize their cognitive performance

The effect of background music (BGM) on cognitive task performance is a popular topic. However, the evidence is not converging: experimental studies show mixed results depending on the task, the type of music used and individual characteristics. Here, we explored how people use BGM while optimally performing various cognitive tasks in everyday life, such as reading, writing, memorizing, and critical thinking. Specifically, the frequency of BGM usage, preferred music types, beliefs about the scientific evidence on BGM, and individual characteristics, such as age, extraversion and musical background were investigated. Although the results confirmed highly diverse strategies among individuals regarding when, how often, why and what type of BGM is used, we found several general tendencies: people tend to use less BGM when engaged in more difficult tasks, they become less critical about the type of BGM when engaged in easier tasks, and there is a negative correlation between the frequency of BGM and age, indicating that younger generations tend to use more BGM than older adults. The current and previous evidence are discussed in light of existing theories. Altogether, this study identifies essential variables to consider in future research and further forwards a theory-driven perspective in the field.

Auditory Distraction During Reading: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis of a Continuing Controversy

Everyday reading occurs in different settings, such as on the train to work, in a busy cafeteria, or at home while listening to music. In these situations, readers are exposed to external auditory stimulation from nearby noise, speech, or music that may distract them from their task and reduce their comprehension. Although many studies have investigated auditory-distraction effects during reading, the results have proved to be inconsistent and sometimes even contradictory. In addition, the broader theoretical implications of the findings have not always been explicitly considered. We report a Bayesian meta-analysis of 65 studies on auditory-distraction effects during reading and use metaregression models to test predictions derived from existing theories. The results showed that background noise, speech, and music all have a small but reliably detrimental effect on reading performance. The degree of disruption in reading comprehension did not generally differ between adults and children. Intelligible speech and lyrical music resulted in the biggest distraction. Although this last result is consistent with theories of semantic distraction, there was also reliable distraction by noise. It is argued that new theoretical models are needed that can account for distraction by both background speech and noise.

Eysenck's Theory of Personality and the Role of Background Music in Cognitive Task Performance: A Mini-Review of Conflicting Findings and a New Perspective

The question of whether background music is able to enhance cognitive task performance is of interest to scholars, educators, and stakeholders in business alike. Studies have shown that background music can have beneficial, detrimental or no effects on cognitive task performance. Extraversion—and its postulated underlying cause, cortical arousal—is regarded as an important factor influencing the outcome of such studies. According to Eysenck's theory of personality, extraverts' cortical arousal at rest is lower compared to that of introverts. Scholars have thus hypothesized that extraverts should benefit from background music in cognitive tasks, whereas introverts' performance should decline with music in the background. Reviewing studies that have considered extraversion as a mediator of the effect of background music on cognitive task performance, it is demonstrated that there is as much evidence in favor as there is against Eysenck's theory of personality. Further, revisiting Eysenck's concept of cortical arousal—which has traditionally been assessed by activity in the EEG alpha band—and reviewing literature on the link between extraversion and cortical arousal, it is revealed that there is conflicting evidence. Due to Eysenck's focus on alpha power, scholars have largely neglected higher frequency bands in the EEG signal as indicators of cortical arousal. Based on recent findings, it is suggested that beta power might not only be an indicator of alertness and attention but also a predictor of cognitive task performance. In conclusion, it is proposed that focused music listening prior to cognitive tasks might be a more efficient way to boost performance than listening to background music during cognitive tasks.

EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task

As tantalizing as the idea that background music beneficially affects foreign vocabulary learning may seem, there is-partly due to a lack of theory-driven research-no consistent evidence to support this notion. We investigated inter-individual differences in the effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. Based on Eysenck's theory of personality we predicted that individuals with a high level of cortical arousal should perform worse when learning with background music compared to silence, whereas individuals with a low level of cortical arousal should be unaffected by background music or benefit from it. Participants were tested in a paired-associate learning paradigm consisting of three immediate word recall tasks, as well as a delayed recall task one week later. Baseline cortical arousal assessed with spontaneous EEG measurement in silence prior to the learning rounds was used for the analyses. Results revealed no interaction between cortical arousal and the learning condition (background music vs. silence). Instead, we found an unexpected main effect of cortical arousal in the beta band on recall, indicating that individuals with high beta power learned more vocabulary than those with low beta power. To substantiate this finding we conducted an exact replication of the experiment. Whereas the main effect of cortical arousal was only present in a subsample of participants, a beneficial main effect of background music appeared. A combined analysis of both experiments suggests that beta power predicts the performance in the word recall task, but that there is no effect of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. In light of these findings, we discuss whether searching for effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning, independent of factors such as inter-individual differences and task complexity, might be a red herring. Importantly, our findings emphasize the need for sufficiently powered research designs and exact replications of theory-driven experiments when investigating effects of background music and inter-individual variation on task performance.

Musical preferences and learning outcome of medical students in cadaver dissection laboratory: A Nigerian survey

Background music has been reported to enhance learning in the cadaver dissection laboratory. This study was designed to determine the impact of various forms of musical genre and some of their characteristics on students' learning outcome in the dissection laboratory. Some selected musical genre in vocal and non-vocal forms and at different tempi and volume were played as background music (BM) to 253 Medical and Dental students during various sessions of cadaver dissection. Psychological Stress assessment was done using Psychological stress measure-9. Participants love for music, preferred musical genre and other musical characteristics were assessed. The impact of the various musical genre and their characteristics on learning was done via written examination on the region dissected during each musical session. A positive relationship was noted between students' preference for musical genre during leisure with their preference for BM during private study time (P<0.01). Statistically significant differences (P<0.01) were established in the impacts of the selected musical genre on some selected learning factors. Country and Classical music gave the highest positive impact on the various learning factors in CDL followed by R&B. No significant difference was noted between the cognitive values of vocal and non-vocal music. Classical music most effectively reduced the stress induced by dissection in the CDL while Reggae and High life musical genre created a more stressful environment than regular background noise (P<0.01). Moderate volume level and Tempo were most preferred during both cadaver dissection activity and leisure hours. This study shows statistically significant differences in the cognitive values of some of the studied musical genre and their various characteristics. The inability to isolate the particular musical genre with these desired properties could account for the controversies in the reports of the role of music in academic environment.

Verbal learning in the context of background music: no influence of vocals and instrumentals on verbal learning

BACKGROUND

Whether listening to background music enhances verbal learning performance is still a matter of dispute. In this study we investigated the influence of vocal and instrumental background music on verbal learning.

METHODS

226 subjects were randomly assigned to one of five groups (one control group and 4 experimental groups). All participants were exposed to a verbal learning task. One group served as control group while the 4 further groups served as experimental groups. The control group learned without background music while the 4 experimental groups were exposed to vocal or instrumental musical pieces during learning with different subjective intensity and valence. Thus, we employed 4 music listening conditions (vocal music with high intensity: VOC_HIGH, vocal music with low intensity: VOC_LOW, instrumental music with high intensity: INST_HIGH, instrumental music with low intensity: INST_LOW) and one control condition (CONT) during which the subjects learned the word lists. Since it turned out that the high and low intensity groups did not differ in terms of the rated intensity during the main experiment these groups were lumped together. Thus, we worked with 3 groups: one control group and two groups, which were exposed to background music (vocal and instrumental) during verbal learning. As dependent variable, the number of learned words was used. Here we measured immediate recall during five learning sessions (recall 1 - recall 5) and delayed recall for 15 minutes (recall 6) and 14 days (recall 7) after the last learning session.

RESULTS

Verbal learning improved during the first 5 recall sessions without any strong difference between the control and experimental groups. Also the delayed recalls were similar for the three groups. There was only a trend for attenuated verbal learning for the group passively listened to vocals. This learning attenuation diminished during the following learning sessions.

CONCLUSIONS

The exposure to vocal or instrumental background music during encoding did not influence verbal learning. We suggest that the participants are easily able to cope with this background stimulation by ignoring this information channel in order to focus on the verbal learning task.

Influence of background noise on the performance in the odor sensitivity task: effects of noise type and extraversion

Recent research demonstrated that background noise relative to silence impaired subjects' performance in a cognitively driven odor discrimination test. The current study aimed to investigate whether the background noise can also modulate performance in an odor sensitivity task that is less cognitively loaded. Previous studies have shown that the effect of background noise on task performance can be different in relation to degree of extraversion and/or type of noise. Accordingly, we wanted to examine whether the influence of background noise on the odor sensitivity task can be altered as a function of the type of background noise (i.e., nonverbal vs. verbal noise) and the degree of extraversion (i.e., introvert vs. extrovert group). Subjects were asked to conduct an odor sensitivity task in the presence of either nonverbal noise (e.g., party sound) or verbal noise (e.g., audio book), or silence. Overall, the subjects' mean performance in the odor sensitivity task was not significantly different across three auditory conditions. However, with regard to the odor sensitivity task, a significant interaction emerged between the type of background noise and the degree of extraversion. Specifically, verbal noise relative to silence significantly impaired or improved the performance of the odor sensitivity task in the introvert or extrovert group, respectively; the differential effect of introversion/extraversion was not observed in the nonverbal noise-induced task performance. In conclusion, our findings provide new empirical evidence that type of background noise and degree of extraversion play an important role in modulating the effect of background noise on subjects' performance in an odor sensitivity task.

Personality and music: Can traits explain how people use music in everyday life?

This paper reports the results of a study on the relationship between individual differences and specific uses of music, referring to why and how people use music in everyday life. Questionnaire data from 341 respondents showed that open and intellectually engaged individuals, and those with higher IQ scores, tended to use music in a rational/cognitive way, while neurotic, introverted and non-conscientious individuals were all more likely to use music for emotional regulation (e.g. change or enhance moods). Results suggest that individual differences in personality and cognitive ability may partly determine the way in which we experience music. Limitations and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

The Big Five Personality Traits and Uses of Music

The current study set out to replicate and extend a recent paper ( Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007 ) on personality and uses of music using structural equation modeling. Responses to questionnaire data from 227 Malaysian university students showed that, in line with our hypotheses, individuals higher in Neuroticism were more likely to use music for emotional regulation (influencing their mood states), Extraversion positively predicted use of music as background or for distraction, and Openness to Experience predicted cognitive use of music. However, contrary to the target paper, Conscientiousness did not predict use of music for emotional regulation and Extraversion was positively rather than negatively linked with that use of music. Results are discussed in terms of the generalizability of previous findings on the Big Five as determinants of uses of music.

Examining Culturally Structured Learning Environments With Different Types of Music-Linked Movement Opportunity

This study describes two experiments that extended earlier work on the Afrocultural theme Movement Expression. The impact of various learning conditions characterized by different types of music-linked movement on story recall performance was examined. African American children were randomly assigned to a learning condition, presented a story, and tested on story recall. In Experiment 1 (N = 48), the authors confirmed the basic finding of Boykin and colleagues that learning conditions with polyrhythmic-percussive music type and high movement opportunity enhanced story recall better than other types of music-linked movement. In Experiment 2 (N = 128), the authors compared story recall in different music-linked movement conditions across grade levels and established improvement only for fourth graders in the learning condition with polyrhythmic-percussive music and high movement. Both fourth and sixth graders' lowest performance was in the condition devoid of any music or movement. Finally, a positive relationship was observed between performance and children's mood state in each learning condition. Movement Expression as a powerful tool for classroom learning for African American children is discussed.

Music is as distracting as noise: the differential distraction of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

Previous research has found that introverts' performance on complex cognitive tasks is more negatively affected by distracters, e.g. music and background television, than extraverts' performance. This study extended previous research by examining whether background noise would be as distracting as music. In the presence of silence, background garage music and office noise, 38 introverts and 38 extraverts carried out a reading comprehension task, a prose recall task and a mental arithmetic task. It was predicted that there would be an interaction between personality and background sound on all three tasks: introverts would do less well on all of the tasks than extraverts in the presence of music and noise but in silence performance would be the same. A significant interaction was found on the reading comprehension task only, although a trend for this effect was clearly present on the other two tasks. It was also predicted that there would be a main effect for background sound: performance would be worse in the presence of music and noise than silence. Results confirmed this prediction. These findings support the Eysenckian hypothesis of the difference in optimum cortical arousal in introverts and extraverts.