“If you’re studying for a test, putting on background music that you like may seem like a good idea. But if you’re trying to memorize a list in order – facts, numbers, elements of the periodic table – the music may actually be working against you, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, United Kingdom, looked at the ability to recall information in the presence of different sounds. They instructed 25 participants between ages 18 and 30 try to memorize, and later recall, a list of letters in order. The study authors are Nick Perham and Joanne Vizard, and the study will appear in the September 2010 issue of Applied Clinical Psychology.
Participants were tested under various listening conditions: quiet, music that they’d said they liked, music that they’d said they didn’t like, a voice repeating the number three, and a voice reciting random single-digit numbers.
The study found that participants performed worst while listening to music, regardless of whether they liked that music, and to the speech of random numbers. They did the best in the quiet and while listening to the repeated “three.”
Music may impair cognitive abilities in these scenarios because if you’re trying to memorize things in order, you may get thrown off by the changing words and notes in your chosen song, the authors speculate.”
Read more at CNN Health (Thanks @XLadyClaireX)
Good for all the people who enjoy listening to surreal music, unless it only works with “three”.
That is sort of obvious. When you are trying to learn words from a book or study and memorize information, full concentration is required. However when you just need to write stuff, or make practical homework, a nice background beat is appreciated.
Could’ve told them that. I remember my attempts at studying with music on, back in school — I’d start to remember the music instead of my lists of Latin cases or historic facts or what have you. If you’re memorising something, you need to focus on what you’re reading. Save the music for when you’re cleaning or doing something else that requires little brain power.
In reality though, one may study for months before an exam. Music can be useful as it stops you becoming completly bored. It’s about finding the best compromise of overall study time vs quality of study.
Matt: What did you study? It never took me more than a few days to prep for an exam. The only things that truly took time were projects and theses and the like, the things that take a lot of researching and writing. Besides, nobody is saying you can’t listen to music while taking breaks, just that it’s not such a very good idea to do so while studying.
I actually find music helps as I link words with the lyrics and then recap the lyrics in my head during the exam…. maybe i’m an oddcase.
but…what if yer studying music?
Were the researchers listening to music while doing this study?
I blame ‘steps’ for my crappy exam results. Not that I ever listened to them. I just blame them.
I accept that it probably makes memorising harder, but I personally find that when I’m writing coursework or something it helps me concentrate.