Music and Studying

Music and studying 1 Running head: DOES MUSIC HELP YOU STUDY Music and studying: Does listening to music help you study? 902421 John F. Kennedy High School Music and studying 2 Abstract In the western world, music is easily available through TV, radio, and videos. Background music is played in many public places like the mall and elevators. Many studies on listening to music while studying has been inconclusive because music can be interpreted in many different ways. Music and studying 3 Music and Studying Affects on studying Music becomes increasingly important in adolescent years with most teenagers averaging around 3 hours of listening to music a day. Teenagers use music to satisfy their emotional needs and portray the world around them. Studies have shown that studying at home has been accompanied by music or TV in the background (Kotsopoulou 1997; Patton, Stinard, and Routh 1983). Research on certain effects on playing music while studying shows very little significant differences between middle school, high school, and college students on whether listening to music helps them concentrate, gets rid of boredom, keeps them company, and helps them learn faster. It also shows that listening to music can interfere with studying. For instance if they sang along or developed to high of an arousal it would then become a distraction. University students showed that music had a more relaxing effect but was also more distracting then in younger students. This could mean the music choices they were listening to were increasing meta-cognitive awareness in older ages. Students at a younger age had the most positive response to fast pace tempo. While university students had a negative response to fast pace tempo. There were few significant differences between nationality and what types of music they played other than instrumental music, arousing and calming music. The Japanese played classical music the least. US played calming music the least and the US and UK played arousing music the least. While the Greeks Music and studying 4 listened to all of these the most. Overall, there is no specific type of music that is best for studying. Young people just often play music they enjoy. Most students do not play music while studying for a long period of time or revising for an exam. Henderson, Crews, and Barlow (1945) explored the effect of music as a source of distraction during the taking of a test. Along with memorising material or learning a different language. But they often play music when thinking or writing. This would suggest that the student are aware of how they will perform while listening to music and studying. Students mainly played music while studying when they were happy or bored and that their mood determined whether they wanted to listen to music while studying. Most students turned off music when they felt it becoming a distraction with there concentrating. Overall, the findings suggest parents and teachers to be not concerned about students playing music while studying. Students are aware of when music can be beneficial to studying and when it is interfering with concentrating. So generally when the music starts to become a distraction they would just turn it off. Music and studying 5 References Kotsopoulou, A. , & Hallam, S. (2010). The Perceived Impact of Playing Music while Studying: Age and Cultural Differences. Educational Studies, 36(4), 431440. Cripe, F. F. 1986. Rock music as therapy for children with attention deficit disorder: An exploratory study. Journal of Music Therapy 23: 30–7 Gregoire, M. A. 1984. Music as a prior condition to task performance. Journal of Music Therapy 21: 133–45