The effects of background music on learning, performance and behaviour
Sue Hallam and Anastasia Kotsopoulou, Institute of Education, University of London
Introduction
The effect of music on the moods, emotions and behaviour of both individuals and groups has been noted
throughout history. A number of writers have discussed the functions of music (e.g. Merriam, 1964;
Gaston, 1968), while others have researched both the physiological and psychological effects (see Radocy
& Boyle, 1988 for a review). As a result of this research music has come to be considered as lying on a
continuum from highly stimulating and invigorating to soothing or calming (Gaston, 1968). There is
certainly strong evidence from a variety of sources that people respond differently to stimulative and
sedative music (Radocy and Boyle, 1988). However, within the field of education there have been few
studies investigating the non-contingent use of music in influencing the behaviour and performance of
children.
Hall (1952), exploring the possible uses of music in schools found that performance on reading
comprehension tests was significantly improved when background music was playing. 58% of the 245 8th
and 9th graders taking part in the study showed an increase in scores on the Nelson Silent Reading Tests.
There were also ‘settling down periods’ at the beginning of the morning and afternoon sessions and a midafternoon fatigue period when music was of greatest assistance. Her study also suggested that the major
portion of the aid given by background music was an increase in accuracy and that those students who
were ‘below average in intelligence and achievement’ benefitted more from the presence of background
music than those above average, suggesting that this could be because these students were more in need of
an aid to concentration.
In a smaller scale study of four hyperactive pupils, Scott (1970) found that the introduction of background
music into the classroom setting had a calming influence. Comparison of performance on an arithmetic
task across four conditions, the normal classroom environment, the introduction of background music into
the normal classroom, children sitting in three sided booths and children sitting in the booths with
background music revealed that the children were most productive when background music was introduced
into the normal classroom setting.
Recent research by Savan (1998) demonstrated improved behaviour and a greater concentration on school
work when background music was played during the science lessons of 10 children with learning and
emotional and behavioural difficulties. Savan hypothesised that many of their problems stemmed from
poor physical co-ordination and that stimulation of the brain with sounds of particular frequencies could
improve this. During each science lesson, the children, who attended a mainstream school, were played
music by Mozart as this was believed to have a high level of sounds of the appropriate frequency. Savan
hypothesised that this would stimulate the brain to produce a chemical, probably an endorphin, which
would lower blood pressure. The effect of lowering blood pressure results in decreasing amounts of
chemicals such as adrenalin and corticosteroids in the blood. By decreasing these chemicals, the whole
body metabolism is lowered producing a “calming” effect. To assess the extent of physiological changes in
the children measures of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate and temperature were made
before, during and after the lessons when the music was being played. All showed a significant decrease
when background music was played, lending support to Savan’s hypothesis.
These studies suggest that the use of music in the classroom may be beneficial to pupils’ performance.
Giles (1991) also suggests that most pupils function very well with music in the background and the right
music at the right time can make them less stressed, more relaxed, happier and more productive. She found
that the most effective music for improving children’s performance was what they liked, providing that it
did not overly excite them.
The aims of the studies reported here are to explore whether background music affects learning,
performance and behaviour.
Study 1
The pupils
The pupils were a group of children aged between 9 and 10 (8 boys and 2 girls) attending a day school for
children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Most of the children were attending for 4 or 5 days
each week. One child was attending for only 3 days each week. Observation of the group revealed a high
frequency of disruptive behaviour such as tantrums, crying, destructive behaviour, overt verbal and
physical aggression and general over activity. None of the children had any diagnosis of brain injury and
all were reported to have IQS within normal limits.
Materials
The music for the study was selected from that suggested by Giles (1991) as ‘mood calming’. Specific
pieces were chosen by playing short excerpts (60-90 seconds) to a group of 26 pupils attending a day
school for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children. The pupils were asked to assess each piece of
music on three dimensions happy/sad, calming/exciting, and like/dislike. The criterion for inclusion of any
individual piece of music in the experiment was that it should be interpreted as calming by the majority of
the respondents.
A standard Sony camcorder was mounted on a tripod in the corner of the classroom to record each
experimental session. A booklet of arithmetic problems within the child’s level of achievement was
prepared for each child. The music was played on a good quality cassette player.
Design
The design of the study was counterbalanced with each pupil acting as his/her own control. The first four
trials were completed without background music, followed by four trials with background music. After a
gap of one week the procedure was repeated in reverse order for three trial under each condition (See Table
1).
Table 1
Phase one
Phase two
Without music
With music
With music
Without music
T1 T2 T3 T4
T5 T6 T7 T8
T1 T2 T3
T4 T5 T6
The trials took place at the same time each day immediately after lunch. To counteract the effects of
practice and boredom with the task, the arithmetic task was changed for phase two. The new problems
remained within each child’s level of competence.
Procedure
Before each session the pupils were requested to sit quietly and complete as many maths problems
correctly as possible in a given time span. They were asked not to speak to the other children or move
around the room. If a teacher's help was required they were asked to raise their hand and wait until they
were asked to speak.
The pupils were reminded of the rules at regular intervals. If one of the pupils broke a rule they would
initially be given a reminder e.g. ‘You are expected to sit quietly’ or ‘You are expected to remain in your
seat’. If the behaviour was so extreme or persistent that it gave the remainder of the group little realistic
chance of settling to their tasks then the pupil would be told that they would be asked to leave the room if
they continued. If the pupil was removed from the room then their scores for that session were omitted.
For each session two measures were recorded; the number of correctly completed maths problems and the
number of times rules were broken (10 second interval sampling).
Rule breaking behaviour consisted of:
* addressing a teacher without first raising a hand and waiting to be spoken to
* any comments to other children
* leaving seat without first gaining permission
* hitting or making threatening gestures
* making excessive noise non-verbally (e.g banging something)
The explicit criteria as outlined above enabled observers to be trained easily and led to very high levels of
inter-rater reliability. The video sequences were analysed by three observers, all teachers at the school.
They were allocated pupils to observe for each session. In every second session a cross observation was
conducted as a simple running check of observer reliability.
Results
The mean score for mathematics performance with background music was 38.5 (SD 15.1) and without
background music 21.5 (SD 8.91). A repeated measures t-test revealed that the differences were significant
at the .002 level (t= -4.7, df = 8).
In relation to rule breaking the mean scores were 17.3 ( SD 6.07) for background music and 21.2 (SD 6.09)
without background music. This finding was not significantly different (t = 1.9, df = 8, p = .09).
Examination of the data revealed that the initial session of the first trial was largely responsible for the lack
of difference, this being the time when the pupils were adjusting to having background music. With this
initial session taken out of the analysis a paired t-test revealed a significant difference between the two
conditions at the .001 level (t=4.89, df = 8), with significantly fewer instances of rule breaking when
background music was present.
Correlations carried out between the number of completed maths problems and the number of rule
breaking incidents revealed a significant negative association, r = -.47, p = .036. This negative association
suggests that the improvement in mathematics performance, in part, was related to the improvement in
behaviour, which itself seemed to be related to the influence of the music.
Further analysis, comparing individual sessions in each trial, revealed that in 4 out of the 7 sessions there
was a significant positive affect on mathematics performance when background music was used. Even
where the differences were non-significant the effects of the music were always positive. The background
music at no time had a detrimental effect on performance. The differences in behaviour were much less
marked, although it was only in the very first session using music where there was a negative effect on
behaviour over the whole group of children. In 3 out of 7 sessions there was an improvement in behaviour
with background music and in 3 there was no significant difference. This suggests that, after the initial
settling down session, there were no negative effects on either behaviour or performance with background
music playing.
Overall, the findings suggest that the performance and behaviour of emotionally disturbed children within
the special school classroom may be enhanced by the introduction of background music. On the basis of
these findings it was decided to undertake a similar study in a mainstream primary school to establish if the
effects could be replicated with children without Special Educational Needs.
Study 2
The pupils
31 children took part in the study. They were aged 10 to 11 in year 6 in a junior school in the London area.
They were randomly allocated to two groups. The teacher reported that in maths lessons they were
normally quiet and industrious. They had also had some previous experience of working with background
music in creative subjects.
Equipment/materials
To ensure continuity with the previous study the same music was used. The class teacher selected the
arithmetic problems to be undertaken to consolidate work already covered in the syllabus and to be within
each pupil’s level of competence. The problems all concerned fractions.
Design
The mathematics sessions took place during the first lesson of each day on four consecutive days. For the
first fifteen minutes of each period, Group B (no music) completed their arithmetic work in one area of the
room. This was followed by general mathematics work. During this time Group A worked on general
mathematics tasks. Later in the session, group A (music), completed their arithmetic work for 15 minutes
while group B continued with general mathematics. This pattern was repeated over the four sessions with
the order alternated so that no group had a practice advantage. The pupils were instructed to work
independently on their arithmetic work without talking to other pupils and to sit quietly and complete
correctly as many of the maths problems as possible in the fifteen minutes. If the pupil required teacher
instruction to complete the work his/her score was discounted from the analysis. In each session, for each
individual, the number of attempted maths problems, the number correctly completed and the accuracy rate
was recorded.
Results
An examination of the mean number of problems completed during the 15 minute session revealed that the
mean for those listening to the background music was 34.9 (SD 7.7) problems and without background
music 27.3 (SD 7.8). This difference was statistically significant (p = .02). When performance was
considered for each day separately this pattern was repeated (see Table 3)
Table 3
Mean Number of Problems Completed with and without Music
With music
Without music
Mean
Sd
Mean
SD
Significance
Day 1
37.5
9.23
28
9.3
.007
Day 2
32.5
12.6
24.8
10.7
.05
Day 3
33.8
7.8
28.4
6.1
.026
Day 4
36.4
7.9
29
11.43
.03
When the number of correct problems was considered the overall mean with background music was 27.8
(SD = 7.5) and without background music 23.5 (SD = 2.8). This was not statistically significant (p =
0.12). However there was some variability within the sessions (see Table 4).
Table 4
Mean number of problems solved correctly with and without music
With music
Without music
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Significance
Day 1
28.8
10.2
19.7
8.1
.01
Day 2
22.7
12
19.9
10.3
NS
Day 3
26.6
11.4
25.8
6
NS
Day 4
29.3
7.2
24.4
11.5
NS
A percentage accuracy level was established by taking the number of correct responses and dividing them
by the number of attempted responses. The percentage accuracy rate with background music was 84% and
without background music 80%. This difference was not statistically significant (see Table 5). However,
there was a significant difference in the variance of the two sets of scores. With background music the
standard deviation was 12.7, without background music it was 5.57 (p = .025). There was considerable
individual variation in the level of accuracy when music was being played.
Table 5
Percentage Accuracy Level with and without Music
With music
Without music
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Significance
Day 1
76.9
18.3
73.8
14
NS
Day 2
71.9
25.1
79
16.5
NS
Day 3
77.4
21.57
90
5.9
NS
Day 4
81.4
15.5
80.7
12.7
NS
This small study demonstrates that background music can enhance the speed of working on mathematics
problems. As a result of this the students tend to get more problems correct but their overall accuracy level
is not improved.
Study 3
The participants
The 42 participants were all post-graduate students studying on either an Advanced Diploma or Masters
course in Educational Psychology.
Materials
The music used had been previously assessed by other adults as very exciting (Sabre Dance by
Khachaturian) or very relaxing (Gymnopodies I and III by Satie)
The students were all well educated but had different levels of expertise in different domains. It was
therefore decided to provide a task which none would have had any experience in completing and which
would be intellectually challenging. A logical reasoning test was devised. 20 reasoning problems were
provided. The students were provided with two examples at the start of the test, e.g. All these bonbons are
chocolate creams;
All these bonbons are delicious.
Chocolate creams are delicious.
Right/Wrong
The correct answer is ‘Some chocolate creams are delicious’.
Design
An independent design was used. There were three conditions, a control group with no music, a group with
fast, exciting music and a group with quiet, calming music. All the students completed the logical
reasoning task.
Procedure
The students were randomly assigned to the three groups. They were asked to complete the logical
reasoning questions. The starting time was noted and the time of completion of each student. Two
measures were taken, number of correct answers and time taken.
Results
The means and standard deviations for each of the three groups are given in Table 6.
Table 6
Type of
music
Exciting
Control - no music
quiet and calm music
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
mean
Sd
Logical
reasoning
task
13.15
3.33
11.5
2.8
11.86
2.28
Time taken
to complete
task
10
2.4
9.78
2 04
10.21
3.94
Although the means for the group listening to the exciting music are higher than the other groups an
analysis of variance revealed no significant differences between the scores. There was also no significant
difference in the time taken to complete the test. However, subjective reports from the students having
completed the test showed that those with the arousing music found it very distracting and many had put
their hands over their ears to try to avoid listening to it. They described it as ‘awful’ and described getting
the test done quickly to get away from the music.
This was in contrast to the group listening to the calming music who expressed pleasure at having listened
to it.
Study 4
The pupils
30 children from Greek schools in England were selected to take part. They were randomly allocated to
three groups; a control group; a group listening to quiet, calming music; a group listening to exciting
aggressive music. There were 15 boys and 15 girls, 5 in each group. All the children were in year 6, age
11-12.
Materials
Each student was provided with a booklet of 10 stimulus sentence cards and a booklet of 19 cued recall
cards. The ten sentences were selected from those used in a study by Pressley et al. (1987) The sentences
contained arbitrary relations in which particular men performed actions. The target words were the
adjectives which describe the men e.g. the ugly man bought some plastic
The booklet with the cued- recall cards consisted of the same sentences presented, one on each page with a
gap in place of the target word, e.g. the ....... man bought some plastic
After piloting with children of the same age as those to take part int he main study two pieces of music
were selected: Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor was selected as the pleasant, calming music;
J. Coltrane’s Meditations ‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost’ was selected as the unpleasant
aggressive music.
Design
Three groups of children either acted as a control group listening to no music, or listened to the pleasant
calming music or the unpleasant aggressive music.
Procedure
The children were divided into three groups on a random basis. They were instructed as follows: The
purpose of this study is to find out how well you can learn sentences. Please read the following sentences
and try to memorise them. You will have 10 seconds to read each sentence. Every ten seconds I will tell
you to turn the page to the next sentence. Do you all understand? Are there any questions?
Every ten seconds the children were asked to turn to the next page. When the sentences had been read the
booklets were collected and the cued-recall booklets given out. The children were then instructed ‘You
have to fill in the gaps with the missing word in every sentence. Spelling mistakes do not matter. You will
have 10 seconds to write the missing word in each sentence. Every ten seconds I will tell you to turn the
page. Do you understand? Are there any questions?’
There were no questions from the children at any point in the study. Where the background music was used
it was played during the whole procedure. Each piece was repeated until the completion of the study.
Results
The means and standard deviations for each group are given in Table 7.
Table 7
Control (no
music)
Unpleasant aggressive
music
Pleasant, calming music
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Whole
sample
4.9
1.37
3.3
1.49
6.9
1.52
Boys
5
1.87
3.2
1.9
7.2
1.3
Girls
4.8
.84
3.4
1.14
6.6
1.8
An analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences between the three groups (F= 15.17, df,
2,27, p=.0001).
Study 5
The pupils
30 children from Greek schools in England were selected to take part. They were randomly allocated to
three groups; a control group; a group listening to quiet, calming music; a group listening to exciting
aggressive music. There were 15 boys and 15 girls, 5 in each group. All the children were in year 6, age
11-12.
Materials
Each participant was presented with a booklet containing ten stories and a choice of response to them.
After piloting with children of the same age as those to take part int he main study two pieces of music
were selected: Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor was selected as the pleasant, calming music;
J. Coltrane’s Meditations ‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost’ was selected as the unpleasant
aggressive music.
Design
Three groups of children either acted as a control group listening to no music, or listened to the pleasant
calming music or the unpleasant aggressive music.
Procedure
The children were given the booklet with the stories. They were told, Please read the stories in the booklet
and tick the answers that describe what the individuals in the story will do in the situation they are in. If
you need more explanation please raise your hand. Example stories are given below:
Tom and Nick are classmates. Tom is good at maths while Nick is weak. Their teacher told them that
everyone who finishes their maths’ exercises can go out to play. Tom has almost finished hies exercises
when Nick asks him for help. What do you think Tom is going to do?
A. Tom will stay and help Nick
B. Tom will tell Nick that he does not know the answers so that he can to out to play
Peter and Angela are going to the cinema to watch a film and they are in a hurry because they are late. At
the traffic lights a blind woman is standing next to them and asks them if they can take her to the chemist,
which is in the opposite direction to the cinema. What do you think they are going to do:
A. They will refuse saying that they are in a hurry
B. They are going to help her knowing that they will miss the first 10 minutes of the beginning of the film.
Results
The means and standard deviations for the three groups are given in the table below.
Table 8
Control (no
music)
Unpleasant, aggressive music
Quiet, calming music
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Whole
sample
6.4
2.08
4.2
1.39
7.6
1.57
Boys
5.6
1.5
3.4
1.1
6.8
1.64
Girls
7.2
1.6
5
1.22
8.4
1.1
An analysis of variance revealed that the differences between the groups were found to be highly
significant (F=12.09, df=2,27, p=.0002).
Discussion
The studies above suggest that having particular kinds of music playing in the background can have an
effect on performance on a variety of cognitive tasks. These effects seem to be particularly marked in
primary school children and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Whether there are any
effects n the performance of adults is still very much an open question.
There were also differences in the responses of children to questions about helping behaviour when they
listened to what had previously been evaluated as pleasant calming music and unpleasant aggressive music.
Whether these effects would extent to actual helping behaviour remains an open question.
There are clearly a great many questions to be raised in relation to this line of research. The research is
clearly important in that music plays an important role in the lives of many people and particularly the
young who are often involved in studying and who often listen to music while doing so. There are however
many methodological problems. These include:
* Measuring the music - can we find ways of measuring music which will be reliably interpreted by
listeners as depicting particular moods or evoking particular approaches to studying?
* Is it possible or desirable to break down the elements of the music to explore the ways that the music is
having its overall effect?
* How can we generalise findings when the situations are often artificial?
* How can we measure arousal?
* How can we meaningfully categorise tasks so that we can generalise about the effects of listening to
background music on them?
* How can we assess learning outcomes?
* How can we assess the effects of music on learning in ‘real life’ situations?
* How do we measure behaviour?
* How can we measure behaviour outcomes in ‘real’ life?
It is unlikely that there are any simple solutions to these problems. Research will need to explore the effects
of music on learning, performance and behaviour using a range of methodologies. This presents a
challenge for us all in the future.
References
Fried, R & Berkowitz, L. (1979) Music hath charms....... and can influence helpfulness. Journal of Applied
Social Science, 9, 199-208.
Gaston, E.T. (Ed) (1968) Music in Therapy. New York: MacMillan
Giles, M. (1991) A little background music, please. Special Children, 51.
Hall, J. (1952) The effect of background music on the reading comprehension of 278 eighth and ninth
grade students. Journal of Educational Research, 45, 451-458.
Merriam, A.P. (1964) The Anthropology of Music. Northwestern University Press.
Oaksford, M., Morris, F., Grainger, B. & Williams, J.M.G. (1996) Mood reasoning and central executive
processes, Journal of experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition, 22(2), 477-493.
Radocy, R.E. & Boyle, J.D. (1988) Psychological Foundations of Musical Behaviour
Illinois: Charles Thomas
Springfield,
Savan, A. (1998) A study of the effect of background music on the behaviour and physiological responses
of children with special educational needs. British Psychological Society Education Section Review
Scott, T. (1970) The use of music to reduce hyperactivity in children, American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 4, 677-680.
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