A study carried out by Berz (1995) looking at the functional ability of the central executive, suggests the existence of a music memory loop. Berz suggests that when listening to VM, phonetic information is processed through the phonological loop, suggesting that there would still be interference in memory recall tasks. Musical information however, is processed through the music memory loop, independent of working memory. This would imply that there would be no difference in recall when listening to non-vocal music than when carrying out the task in silence.
The findings of a study carried out by Crispin et al (2006) indicate that the central executive does not play a role within music processing; supporting Berz that music is processed through the music memory loop, separately from working memory.
This study partly replicates the research carried out by Salame and Baddeley (1989) in order to validate their findings, along with attempting to verify the suggestions of Berz (1995). This study aims to test whether music, both VM and IM, affects word recall. Due to conflicting research evidence, this leads to a two-tailed hypothesis that there will be a significant difference between the conditions.
Methodology
Design
The current experiment used an unrelated design, as not all participants were exposed to the same conditions. The independent variable was the music, which was manipulated so that participants were asked to listen to either vocal music, instrumental or no music. The dependant variable was the number of words recalled by the participants.
Participants
An opportunity sample of students and staff was used within university. There were a total of 45 participants; a ratio of 16 males-29 females. Participants were aged between 18 and 30 years.
Apparatus
Computers were used to display the word lists, (50 words). (See Appendix One for the word list). The music was played via headphones. The music played was ‘Breathe’ by Faith Hill, either with vocals or without. Paper and pens were used by participants to recall words, and a stopwatch was used to time the task.
Procedure
The procedure was carried out using standardised instructions. (See Appendix Two for standardised instructions).
Results
The results present the findings from the three conditions tested; Vocal Music, Instrumental Music and No Music. (See Appendix Three for the table of raw data; see Appendix Four for the SPSS printouts of results).
Table 1 presents the means and standard deviation of the results from the three conditions.
Table 1
The means table shows slight differences between the three conditions, in particular between VM and NM. To determine whether or not a significant difference existed across all three conditions a one way ANOVA was performed.
The one way ANOVA revealed a significant difference between the conditions f (2,42) = 6.640; p<0.05.
To explore where the differences across the three conditions lie, a Bonferroni post hoc test was carried out.
Table 2 shows the results of the Bonferroni post hoc test.
Table 2
The post hoc test revealed that similar recall scores occurred when participants listened to VM and IM and IM and NM and this shows that there no significant difference between these conditions. The post hoc test also showed that there is a significant difference between recall when listening to VM and NM. Inspection of the means indicates that word recall was better in the no music condition. This suggests that music with words affects recall.
Discussion
The results of the study show that there is no significant difference in recall between the NM and IM conditions, or the IM and VM, although the findings did indicate that instrumental music had a slight detrimental effect on word recall. Results indicate however that there was a significant difference in recall between the VM and NM conditions. This supports our hypothesis that there would be a significant difference between the conditions.
This therefore supports Salame and Baddeley (1989) that listening to VM while carrying out memory recall tasks leads to conflict within the phonological loop and impairs the success of such tasks. The findings also support Salame and Baddeley’s suggestion that instrumental music will have a slight detrimental effect on recall as musical information passes through the central executive.
However the findings question the suggestions of Berz (1995) that non-vocal music would have no effect on the working memory. The results indicate that IM had a slight detrimental effect on word recall, questioning the existence of a separate music memory loop. However, on the contrary, the difference in recall scores between the NM and IM conditions was not significant, therefore Berz may be accurate in his suggestion of a music memory loop.
Salame and Baddeley (1989) can be criticised however, as they did not consider how meaningful words in music are to participants. Jones, Miles and Page (1990, cited in Chammoro-Premuzic & Swami, 2009: 3) suggest that the more meaningful the words, the more they will interfere with memory recall tasks as participants may give the words more attention.
Support for Salame and Baddeley derives from Jones, Miles and Page, (1990, cited in Houghton, Jones & Pope, 2002: 10) who found that VM has a detrimental effect on memory recall regardless of how meaningful the words are. Their study suggests that music with words foreign to the participant, along with reversed speech, have an equally detrimental effect on memory recall.
The present study’s findings however, may not be accurate as there were certain limitations. Background noise may have affected the success of recall in the NM condition as the environment was not silent. Results may improve in future research where there is no background noise as there would be less distraction to the participants.
The small sample size of 45 participants casts doubts over the validity of the findings. Future research using a larger sample size may gain more accurate results. This may lead to significant differences being found between the other conditions, such as IM and VM possibly establishing the functions of the working memory, particularly the workings of the phonological loop more effectively.
Further limitations include the words being presented on a computer screen. Some participants may have felt more comfortable reading the words from paper. Results may improve in future research where participants have the choice to read the words from the computer or paper.
Future research may include investigating the suggestions of Jones, Miles and Page (1990, cited in Chammoro-Premuzic & Swami, 2009: 3) that how meaningful the words are to participants, the more likely they are to have a detrimental effect on word recall tasks. This may help to establish how the phonological loop responds to semantic input as opposed to information with which the participant feels no emotional attachment.
Considering the findings of the study, results indicate that VM has a detrimental effect on word recall, suggesting that the phonological loop works at its best when managing one phonetic task at a time. Simultaneously, due to the finding that IM had a slight effect on recall, the question remains as to the existence of a separate music memory loop. Due to limitations in the present study, future research avoiding these limitations may be carried out in order to improve the understanding of the effects on music on word recall.
References
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Baddeley, A. ‘The Fractionation of Working Memory’, The National Academy of Sciences, 93, 24, 1996.
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Baddeley, A. Garthercole, S. & Papagno, C. ‘The Phonological Loop as a Language Learning Device’, Psychology Review, 105, 1, 1998, pp 158-173.
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Berz, W.L. ‘Working Memory in Music: A Theoretical Model’, Music Perception, 12, 3, 1995, pp 353-364.
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Cardwell, M., Clark, L. & Meldrum, C. Psychology (Third Edition), London: Collins, 2003.
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Chammoro-Premuzic, T. & Swami, V., ‘The Effects of Background Auditory Interference and Extraversion on Creative and Cognitive Task Performance’, Internal Journal of Psychological Studies, 1, 2, 2009.
- Crispin, S., Lovbakke, J., Lowe, R., Scott, J. & Whitehead, H. ‘The effects of auditory stimuli on the central executive’, 2006.
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Gross, R. The Science of Mind and Behaviour (Third Edition), London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1999.
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Healy, A.F., Proctor, R.W., Schinka, J.A. & Weiner, I.B. Handbook of Psychology: Experimental Psychology (Fourth Edition), Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.
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Houghton, R.J., Jones, D.M. & Pope, D. ‘Possible Usefulness of Irrelevant Sound’, Cognitive Streaming, 1.2, 2009.
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Jones, D. M., Madden, C.A. & Miles, C. ‘Locus of the Irrelevant Speech Effect in Short-Term Memory’, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 17, 3, 1991, pp 578-584.
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Palmer, C. & Schnendel, Z.A. ‘Suppression effects on musical and verbal memory’, Memory & Cognition, 35, 4, 2007, pp 640-650.
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Pring, L. & Walker, J. ‘The effects of unvocalised music on short-term memory’, Current Psychology, 13, 2, 1994, pp 165-171.
Appendix One
Appendix Two
Standardised Instructions followed during the procedure of the study.
- Consent was gained from participants to take part in the study. The true nature of the study was not presented to participants as this may have affected the results.
- Participants were informed that they were participating in an experiment carried out by psychology students and were informed that no personal details would be collected and that the experiment remained anonymous and confidential.
- Participants were told that they were free to leave the experiment whenever they wished.
- Participants were asked to sit in front of a designated computer.
- Participants were told that they had one minute to read and memorise as many words from the list provided while either doing so in silence, or while listening to music. They were then told that they had thirty seconds to recall as many words as they could on paper.
- Where required, participants were asked to place on the headphones provided.
- Participants were then told that the task was about to begin. The music was then switched on and the stopwatch was started (or just the stopwatch was started if no music was required).
- After one minute, participants were asked to remove their headphones and stop reading (or just stop reading if no music had been played).
- The participants then had 30 seconds to recall as many words as they could from the list.
- On completing the recall task, participants were debriefed, explaining that they have participated in a distraction task which is aims to find out whether music has an effect on word recall. Participants were then told that they could leave the room.
- The number of words correctly recalled was then totalled up.
Appendix Three
Raw data of results
Appendix Four
SPSS printout of Homogeneity of Variances
SPSS printout of Bonferroni post hoc test
