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Allison McClure
Mr. Forgey
English IIIA
14 December 2013
Listening to Music While Studying
Listening to music while studying creates an extremely vast barrier for learning and
understanding study material. Music works against you when memorizing a list in order, such as
facts, numbers, and elements of the periodic table. When memorizing things in order, the
changing notes or words in the songs throw you off while trying to study. (Landau) Music can
alter a variety of things such as mood, heart rate, it can even energize or be depressing; which
contributes greatly to studying. (Castello Y Tickell) Many studies have shown that grades
actually decrease when the student listened to music compared to when the student studies in a
quite environment.
The Mozart Effect is a theory stating that listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Wolfgang's
music will improve the intelligence of whomever is listening to it. (Huguelet) A study performed
at the University of Vienna shows that there is no evidence that listening to Mozart's music is
related to cognitive enhancements. (University of Vienna) Music, especially with lyrics, impairs
the comprehension of what is being studied. (Cutler) Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher, both
from the University of California, performed one of the first studies about the Mozart Effect. The
two found that the music improved the spatial-temporal intelligence of the student tested.
Spatial-temporal intelligence is simply just the ability to mentally manipulate objects in three-
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dimensional space. The researchers found that the music only helped scores improve for only 1015 minutes after listening to the music, so therefore the music would not effectively raise test
scores. (Ke) "If brain activity can sound like music, might it be possible to begin to understand
the neural activity by working in reverse and observing how the brain responds to music? says
Gordon Shaw, "Might the patterns in music somehow stimulate the brain by activating similar
firing patterns of nerve clusters?" Many other studies have shown the Mozart effect to be false.
One study at Appalachian State University presented a study with 36 college students that
contradicted the Mozart Effect. This study was an experiment where students listened to
Mozart's piano sonata and showed that it did not support the Mozart Effect. A second test at the
University of New York at Albany proves that when students tested while listening to Mozart,
the test scores that they received did not increase. Another test performed by a psychologist
named Eric Seigel, whom works at Elmhurst College, Illinois, consisted of a test in which
involved the person's ability to notice a change between shifted positions of the letter E as
various rotations were given. Since stimulation excites the brain and music may do that, it could
have an effect on a person's studying ability but does not show any drastic increases in scores, it
actually may even decrease scores. Overall, results of the Mozart Effect shows that music does
not change a person's I.Q. or reasoning abilities. (Lerch)
Cognitive limitations means that you can only do so many things at a time, so doing two
things at once may mean that you don't focus as well. (Castello Y Tickell) Thus doing one thing
at a time is more efficient then when trying to multitasking. Listening to music, texting, playing
video games, or anything like those are all distractions from completing homework or studying.
(Borland) "You've got semantic information that you're trying to use when reading a book, and
you've got semantic information from the lyrics. If you can understand the lyrics, it doesn't
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matter whether you like it or not, it will impair your performance of reading comprehension,"
says Perham. (Cutler) When doing homework, do not listen to music, or while listening to music,
don't do homework. (Strauss) Especially when memorizing, don't listen to music because one
will distract you from doing the other, and usually it is the music that distracts your studying, not
the other way around. (Saleem) Neural hardware in our brain's might be running our mental
software, which is how our brain structures support mental functions and also how the neural
circuits enable us to think and learn. Roederer stated that musical perception involves the
analysis of spatial excitation patterns along the auditory receptor organ. (Lerch)
Four specific studies at different colleges show how listening to music while studying is
not ideal and actually may lower test scores. One, the study done at the University of Phoenix
performed by Elizabeth Axford showed that when studying a language art, listening to music
with lyrics is especially a bad idea. The lyrics are both comprehended in the same part of the
brain so they do not mix well when both actions of studying and listening to music is performed.
"Students who studied with music playing had lower average test scores than those who didn't,"
says Xiaopeng Jiang and Arijit K. Sengupta. (Pela) A second study was taken place at the
University of Michigan. "Surprisingly, the results actually found no significant difference
between test scores with liked music, disliked music, and changing state speech. In other words,
whether students enjoyed the music or not, having it on while they worked was just as distracting
as hearing someone talk. Scores were significantly higher for tests taken in a quiet environment
or with steady-state speech," says Sheela Doraiswamy. (Doraiswamy) A third study was does at
Missouri Western State University. It says that though students may like to listen to music while
studying, it is not helpful. Rock and roll music is especially detrimental to the studies of
mathematical, verbal , and reading comprehension. Words in the music is distracting when trying
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to memorize. The best place to study is in a quiet room, not listening to music. Studies have
shown that whenever hearing irrelevant narrative speech or nonspeech sounds when studying or
memorizing, students couldn't recall the information. (Roy) Lastly, participants of a study done
at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, United Kingdom, performed worse on tests when
they listened to music compared to when they were in a quite environment. (Landau)
Music has an enormous effect on the body and how it functions. "Music passes through
several areas on its journey from the ear to the rest of the body. Sound waves are picked up by
the middle ear, causing the eardrums to vibrate. The brain turns this mechanical energy into
electrical energy, which is deciphered by the 'thinking' part of the brain, the cerebral cortex. It
then travels to the brain centers that control arousal, emotion, anxiety, creativity, and pleasure.
Next it goes to the hypothalamus, which controls respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, body
temperature, as well as nerves in the stomach and skin. This entire trip takes less than a
heartbeat," says Betty Holt. (Holt)
The Mozart Effect, which is only a theory that has also previously been believed to be
true, is indeed false. When memorizing facts, lists, numbers, or even elements from the periodic
table, it is best to study in a quiet environment with no distractions. The best place would be in a
library because at home there is likely to be many distractions. Lower test scores may be the
result if you decide to study with music or with distractions around. Concluding from the given
evidence found by the universities, music does not improve your studying ability, it actually
impairs the learning process.
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Works Cited
Borland, Chris. "NO MUSIC While Studying." Borland Educational News and Views. 26 Sept.
2006. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Castello Y Tickell, Sofia. "Should You Listen to Music While You Study?" USA Today College.
USA Today, 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Cutler, David. "Don't Listen to Music While Studying." Spin Education. N.p., 9 Nov. 2013. Web.
10 Nov. 2013.
Doraiswamy, Sheela. "Does Music Help You Study?" Mind the Science Gap RSS. University of
Michigan, 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Holt, Betty. "Do Different Types of Music Affect the Heart Rate?" Livestrong, 9 Jan. 2011. Web.
14 Dec. 2013.
Huguelet, M.C. "What Is the Mozart Effect?" WiseGEEK, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.
Ke, Susan. "Does the Mozart Effect Really Work?" Solon City Schools. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.
Landau, Elizabeth. "Music May Harm Your Studying, Study Says." The Chart RSS. Cable News
Network, 27 July. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Lerch, Donna. "The Mozart Effect: A Closer Look." University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
6 May. 2000. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Pela, Robert. "Should You Listen to Music While Studying?" Phoenix Forward Magazine.
University of Phoenix, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013
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Roy, Sarah. "The Effects of Different Types of Music on Cognitive Processes." Missouri
Western State University, 14 Dec. 2001. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Saleem, Hanson. "Music and Studying." DirJournal How to Guides RSS. Directory Journal, 10
Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Strauss, Valerie. "Checking It Out: Does Music Interfere With Studying?" The Washington Post.
20 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
University of Vienna. "Mozart's Music Does Not Make You Smarter, Study Finds."
ScienceDaily, 10 May 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.