Music has impacted several aspects of our lives for centuries, from the Renaissance to modern times. Its influence is even more prominent now, where people are arguably listening to music more than ever. Particularly in academics, many use music as background noise or a study tool to help with concentration. However, students and scholars alike raise several questions about the effectiveness of using music to study and whether or not it truly helps increase academic performance or concentration.
There is already a known connection between playing musical instruments and its effect on the brain. In a study, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) explained that participating in musical training helped foster cognitive development and enhanced various cognitive skills beyond music-specific domains. Other studies have stated that music activates different parts of the brain in musicians compared to non-musicians, which can prove beneficial. Although playing an instrument is guaranteed to impact the brain, is this different from an individual listening to music, especially while studying?
Thomas S. Wootton High School orchestra and assistant band director Carolyn Herman shares her input from a concrete musical perspective. “I find that when I listen to music, I’d rather listen to the music than study. I’ve had other people tell me that listening to classical music while they’re studying helps them focus, so I think it really depends on the individual. There was a study back in the ‘90s on what they called the ‘Mozart effect’ where they found that specifically listening to Mozart would produce better academics. I know lots of musicians who find it very distracting though,” Herman said.
Psychologists Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Catherine Ky investigated the publicized Mozart effect in 1993, where they studied how listening to Mozart’s pieces would increase spatial reasoning, which is the ability to understand and process visual scenes in the mind. Rauscher, Shaw and Ky instructed all participants to listen to three sounds: Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos, verbal relaxation directions and complete silence. Afterward, participants took a spatial reasoning standardized test. The psychologists found that spatial reasoning increased in participants when they listened to Mozart’s sonata, but only during the interval in which the test was taken (approximately 15 minutes). Rauscher explained, “There is no enhancement of general intelligence [because of the Mozart effect].” The study’s outcome was only limited to temporarily enhancing spatial ability.
Because the experiment was said to improve spatial reasoning, it was heavily popularized by the popular press, many alleging that listening to Mozart would lead to an increase in IQ. This assumption has led several outlets to claim that listening to Mozart could make an individual “smarter.” Overall, the experiment has its discrepancies and is hard to reproduce due to lack of evidence, but students see the benefits of listening to instrumental music as opposed to lyrical melodies when studying.
Wootton sophomore Veronica Chunikhin has been playing the flute for seven years and is an active member of the band program at Wootton. “If the music has words in it, it distracts me because I start listening to the words,” Chunikhin explained. “I know a lot of people who listen to music for studying. I think classical music or Lo-fi music is better for studying but it still distracts me personally.”
Wootton junior Jake Cheng agreed. “It’s probably not helpful to play a playlist with only your top bangers or vocally heavy songs because you could get too distracted from your studying by belting them out at home. So given that, I find that listening to instrumental or electronic instrumental songs stimulates my brain well, without begging me to sing along,” Cheng said.
Many students share the notion that classical music or Lo-fi-type beats are better for studying compared to other types of music. However, music does generally have both positive and negative effects on productivity. A Healthline article stated, “Listening to relaxing music makes a physical difference to the way people respond… under stress.” It can also provide motivation and enhance memorization. The article explained, “[Classical music] seemed to help older adults perform better on memory and processing tasks.” On the flip side, listening to music can also inevitably distract you. Healthline adds that music can even go as far as negatively impacting working memory, making it difficult to memorize steps for solving a math problem or items on a list.
There is no definite answer to whether or not listening to music truly helps studying, and it seems as though the answer is subjective to each individual. However, it is safe to say that despite the complicated relationship between music and studying and regardless of the scientific evidence to support certain beliefs, its impacts will continue to be prevalent in the academic world.
Article written by Pragna Pothakamuri of Thomas S. Wootton High School
Graphic courtesy 7pace