Puzzle Connection: A Study On The Effects
Of Music Tempo On Memory
Judi Davidson
Fort Lewis College
“Music has the charms to soothe the savage
beast”
William Congreve
Does Music affect Memory?
• Mid 20th Century
• Factors that seem to affect memory
• Music has been found to stimulate many
different parts of the brain and body
• Psychological study of music is based on
this reason
Prior Research
• Alzheimer’s
• Mozart Effect
• Context-dependent memory and music as a
contextual element
• Music tempo studies
Does tempo of classical music affect recall of
words from short-term memory?
2x2 Between Subject Factorial
L
T
L
T
Fast
Fast
tempo tempo
Slow
tempo
Slow
tempo
Fast
Slow
Tempo tempo
Slow
tempo
Fast
tempo
Control
24
23
Results
22
Means Plots
21
20
18.0
control
Condition
fast-fast
Mean of Number of Words remembered
19
fast-slow
slow -slow
slow -fast
17.5
17.0
16.5
16.0
15.5
control
Condition
fast-fast
fast-slow
slow -slow
slow -fast
Descriptive Statistics
Dependent Variable: Number of Words remembered
Mean
16.75
16.40
16.56
15.80
17.80
16.80
16.22
17.10
16.68
Std. Deviation
2.90
3.96
3.47
3.55
4.60
4.16
3.25
4.28
3.82
N
12
15
27
15
15
30
27
30
57
Means of Number of Words remembered
18.0
17.5
Estimated Marginal Mean s
Learning Tempo Testing Tempo
Fast
Fast
Slow
Total
Slow
Fast
Slow
Total
Total
Fast
Slow
Total
17.0
16.5
Testing Temp o
16.0
Fast
15.5
Slow
Fast
Lear ning Temp o
Slow
Descriptive Statistics
Dependent Variable: Number of Words from puzzles found
Slow
Total
Tes ting Tempo
Fas t
Slow
Total
Fas t
Slow
Total
Fas t
Slow
Total
Mean
20.00
20.00
20.00
19.80
23.40
21.60
19.89
21.70
20.84
Std. Deviation
5.27
3.46
4.27
2.81
2.41
3.16
4.00
3.41
3.78
N
12
15
27
15
15
30
27
30
57
Means of Number of Words from puzzles found
24
23
Estimated Marginal Mean s
Learning Tempo
Fas t
22
21
Testing Temp o
20
Fast
19
Slow
Fast
Lear ning Temp o
Slow
Tempo
Learning vs Testing
• Music had more effect on number of words
found than number of words recalled
• In Learning, people tend to do better in slow
tempo condition than in fast tempo
condition
• Changing tempo had an effect
• However Learning with slow tempo no help
unless tested with slow tempo
Conclusion
• 95% confidence testing in slow tempo does
better than fast
• If not testing in same condition as learned
in, recall is not as good
• However, more effect on performance on
task than recollection of words
Therefore……..
Classical Music Tempo has a
effect on recall of words from
short-term memory
WHY?