How Listening to Music While Learning Can Impact Short-term Memory

Introduction

Studying is one of the biggest habits and demands amongst college students. Studying background noise preferences range amongst students from quiet library sections to uplifting and calming music from coffee shops. While some students prefer to work in silence, others need music or some other kind of background noise to focus. For a vast majority of college students, background noise such as music has become essential for their cognitive abilities to focus on retaining information or completing knowledgeable coursework. Technology advancements such as iPhones, tablets, and laptops have led students to gain easier access to listening to music through device applications. Researchers have generated studies that have examined how listening to music while retaining information can impact short-term memory, which plays a key role in learning ability. Prior and recent studies have examined how short-term memory while listening to music can be affected when trying to recall verbal and written information. However, few studies have tested short-term memory with no music and music conditions paired with visual tasks.

While some students are capable of learning solely by reading words on a screen or sheet of paper, others need some sort of visual representation while learning. Visual learning is comparatively of importance to verbal learning due to the different ranges of ways students can retain information while learning. Pictures, charts, diagrams, and maps are all aids that college students and professors are now using as a simpler way of explaining and understanding class material. Visual representation of material can help students learn to group and organize things together, therefore, creating greater memorization.

Chunking has been known to be an effective strategy for memory retrieval. A study conducted by Norris, Kalm, and Hall (2019), looked at chunking and redintegration in verbal short-term memory. The study involved six experiments that consisted of word lists that were 7 items long and either had single or double-paired words on a card. Some of the pairs were unrelated while others were closely related such as grass and seed. They were then tasked to complete a serial recall. The first experiment was exactly as conducted as priorly described whereas the second one short articulatory suppression training session. Experiments four, five, and six were the same as one and two with the only difference being pairs were chunked in pairs of three. The study aimed to find out what happens when more of the items on a list form chunks. Results show that coding words into chunks could allow for more words to be stored in memory by freeing up space and ultimately improve memory recall for both chunks and single words. These results are relevant of importance because chunking can be used as a strategic aid for memorization. Students are often on the lookout for ways to make their studying habits more productive, therefore, proven results from this study can benefit the homework and test scores of many students that learn how to integrate chunking into their lives.

According to a study by Calderwood et al.,(2014), multitasking while studying has become one of the greatest distractors amongst many college students. Participants, who were all students, were engaged in a 3-hour solitary study/homework session. Multitasking was measured on frequency and duration of distractions and media multitasking. Results indicated that on average, students spent 73 min of the session listening to music while studying. They also indicated that students who spent less time multitasking during the 3-hour duration, showed higher homework task motivation and self-efficacy to focus on homework. This study shows how much students choose to incorporate multitasking while completing their work. Technology advancements today have made it extremely easy for students to access music apps, social media app, television, and other media outlets that can act as distractions while studying. It has become a huge part of work productivity amongst students all over the United States.

While multitasking has made it difficult for students to study, another study by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1971) examined the importance of short-term memory on the ability to recall information. Short-term memory governs the flow of selected information through a control process in the memory system. Control processes are used in various scenarios and only in special circumstances. The study uses the term 'rehearsal' meaning covert repetition of information. Rehearsal is used when an individual knows that they will need to recall a piece of information later on. This study shows current relevance as it describes short-term memory as a selection of conscious control. When individuals are tested through school or work, this information will need to be passed through rehearsal to recall it later on.

Moreover, a study conducted by Lemaire (2019), looked at the effect of background music on episodic memory, while considering the wide variety of IQ levels which was rarely considered in other research. In this study, three groups were matched on sex, age, schooling years, and musical expertise. They memorized three-word lists while either listening to stimulating or relaxing background noise or music. They found that compared to relaxing background music and noise, stimulating background music slightly made it easier to memorize the third list. Moving forward with these results, it’s possible that listening to stimulating background music can improve episodic memory.

In addition, a study conducted by Reaves et al., (2014), looked at the effect of background music on visual associative memory. In the study, young and older adults were tasked to study face-name pairs either in silence or while listening to music. Their memory was then tested while listening to the same or different music and then rated how distracting they found the music to be. Results indicated that all participants found music to be distracting during the task than silence. However, memory was only impaired by music conditions in older adults. This research suggests that younger adults may have greater memory retention while listening to music and may also indicate why younger adults choose and can concentrate while listening to music and studying than most adults.

Furthermore, Nguyen and Grahn (2017) conducted a study that looked into the effects of music-induced mood and arousal across different memory tasks. Music was tested amongst recall, memory, and associative memory tasks. The experiment tested different all the memory tasks with mood-induced music, including low and high arousal music. Two types of mood-induced music were used, high and low arousal 90s instrumental music. A variety of conditions were used, music present at study only, test only, and both study and test. Results indicated that participants recalled more words when they listened to low arousal music, but only when music was negative for recognition memory. For associative memory, neither high nor low arousal music seemed to affect recognition. When comparing music to silence across all conditions, it revealed that background music did not significantly improve verbal memory performance. Overall, mood and arousal music affected recall and recognition memory however, memory was not enhanced by background music.

Another study by Rowe (1974), examined the ordered recall of sounds and words in short-term memory. The study included two experiments that were compared amongst 7-item sequences of sounds and words. Experiment one involved a verbal response to the task. Experiment two involved a non-verbal response to the task. In experiments, one, the order of sounds was more difficult to recall than words. In experiment two, results were similar to experiment one, the sound sequences were harder to recall than words. The results indicate that it is easier to recall words over sounds.

Prior research has examined how music affects short-term memory using verbal and auditory memorization tasks. However, little research has been conducted on short-term memory visualization tasks paired with music and no music conditions. The goal of this study was to examine whether or not short-term memory would be affected while listening to music versus not listening to music. To test this, students were instructed to perform a visual task after being exposed to either a music or no music condition and complete a recall test right after. After doing prior research on the effects of music and memory recollection, there were conflicting results that were produced on whether or not music would improve memory recall. Not only is this topic of uncertainty but it also serves of real-life importance due to music and studying being so closely paired up with today’s culture. This study hypothesized that between the music and no music group, the no music group would have a higher score on the number of correct words recalled. Therefore, it is predicted that the presence of music will affect short-term memory.

Method

Participants

This study consisted of 60 participants (36 females, 24 males), which were all Fresno State students. Their ages ranged from 18-25, where (M=20.75). Participants were recruited face-to-face in different settings such as on campus, at home, and in other public areas. Before the study, the students gave consent to participate in the study and were aware that their information would be kept confidential. They were also aware that there was no compensation for participating.

Design and Procedure

This study was conducted as a true experiment and used a between-subjects research design. There were two conditions, music and nonmusic condition. The music used was an excerpt of Beethoven’s song “Fur Elise” and was used as the independent variable. Participants were split into two groups. Between those groups, 30 were part of the music group and the other 30 were part of the nonmusic group. Both groups were instructed to memorize an array of black and white pictures of 8 animals, with music presence being the only difference. The pictures were arranged on a sheet of paper in a two-by-eight format. They were given 30 seconds to memorize the order as soon as the music started playing. They were then given instructed to stop looking at the pictures after 30 seconds and given a new piece of blank paper to write down the order in which they recalled the animals from left to right and top to bottom. Participants were marked wrong on the correct order if one was incorrect.

Results

In this study, all the responses that were collected were used, except one response. This response had to be excluded from the data because the researcher unintentionally gave the visual task to the participant allowing them to look at it before playing the music. This led to the participant having more time to memorize the list. This response would then distort the data based on what the initial instructions were, which is why it had to be excluded. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare memory in music and no music conditions. There was a significant difference in the scores for music (M=6.8, SD=1.37) and no music (M=5.77, SD=1.85) conditions, t(58)=2.45, p=.02. Cohen’s d further indicates that there is a strong relationship between the variables d=1.61.

Discussion

This study aimed to examine whether the presence of music affected short-term memory. The hypothesis was supported by the results, the no music and music condition was significant. Those who didn’t listen to music while recalling the arrangement of pictures scored better than those who listened to music while performing the task. The first hypothesis was supported by a study by Calderwood et al(2014). The study results indicated that students who spent less time multitasking were able to have higher homework motivation and self-efficiency to focus. Relating this to this current study, students who were in the music conditions scored lower than those who were in the no-music condition. This study shows practical importance because it proves that listening to music prevents students from fully focusing on the material that they are learning. Another study by Nguyen and Grahn (2017) that looked into the effects of music-induced mood and arousal across different memory tasks neither supported nor disproved the hypothesis of this study. Their results indicated that background music didn’t improve memory recollection. When relating this to this study's results, it is possible that participants in either the music or no music group could have solely been better at the task than the other. The current study was not supported by previous research conducted by Reaves, et al (2014), which looked at the effect of background music on visual associative memory through a face-name pair task. This study tested the effect of background music on associative memory in young and older adults. Their results indicated that young adults found music to be distracting however, memory was only impaired in older adults.

While conducting this study, there were a few limitations that came across. The first one being that one of the pictures in our visual task was a cheetah, which a handful of participants were mistaken as a cheetah or jaguar. The study would’ve been more reasonable if all animals could have been clearly identified and wouldn’t be mistaken for any other animal such as a pig or cow. Another limitation while conducting the study was the setting of where the experiment took place. The study was conducted in a variety of settings which could have been a factor in how well the participants did on the study. It also could have been a place of mist comfort or comfort between participants, which would also affect how well they did on the memory test. Some participants could have been feeling more social pressures than others.

After conducting this experiment, I found that the majority of the college students that participated do not actually listen to Beethoven while their studying. These implications were drawn after discussing the purpose of the study with them. Their responses revealed that many college students actually enjoy listening to more modern relaxing and soothing music while studying. Some also mentioned they can focus on music that includes lyrics. I would suggest for future research that similar studies be conducted with up-to-date music and even music conditions with lyrics.