Similarly, in another experiment conducted by Furnham and Bradley (1997) on The Differential Distraction of Background Music on the Cognitive Test Performance of Introverts and Extraverts it was found that performance of participants was marginally lowered in the presence of music. In this experiment, participants were given a pre-test questionnaire to complete, which consisted of personal details, and were asked about their level of fatigue. The participants were then given the tasks to do, one at a time. The memory test, reading comprehension and treatment and control conditions were all counter balanced, so that no effect of fatigue or residual distraction could confound the results. One task was performed in silence, while the other with the radio extract played at quiet volume on a personal stereo with in-built speakers. The extract was the same for each subject and was kept on until the subject had finished the task. When both tasks had been completed the participants were than given a post-test questionnaire enquiring about levels of motivation, and how distracting they found the radio, rated on a 7-point Likert scale. The results indicated that although the level of immediate recall is no different between the introverts and the extraverts, performance is marginally lowered in the presence of music. Hence, in this experiment it can be observed that music distracts the memory performance of the participants.
However, in 1993 a few researches found that music does help in memory performance. Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993), created the study that coined the term Mozart Effect. In the October 14, 1993, issue of "Nature" they published a short summary of the findings from their experiment. They assigned thirty six Cal-Irvine students to one of three groups, and offered the same "pretest" to each of the students. One group then listened to a selection by Mozart sonata (K.488). A second group listened to what was called a "relaxation tape," and the third group was subjected to ten minutes of silence. All of the students were given the same test, which was designed to measure spatial IQ. This test is described as mentally unfolding a piece of paper is that has been folded over several times and then cut. The object is to correctly select the final unfolded paper shape from five examples. The students who listened to the Mozart sonata scored an increase of 8 and 9 points in their spatial IQ as compared to the average of the students who had listened to the relaxation tape or who had experienced silence. The increase in IQ of the Mozart group was transitory, lasting only about the time it took to take the test which was from ten to fifteen minutes. This research showed that music played a role in memory as students who listened to Mozart showed an increase of 8 and 9 points in their spatial IQ.
Disappointingly, the research done by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky received critiques from many psychologist as they began to question whether their experiment really worked. Hence, many researches began to replicate the experiment done by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky. The latest research which replicated Rauscher, Shaw and Ky’s experiment was conducted by McKelvie and Low (2002) where they found that listening to Mozart does not improve the students spatial IQ. In their experiment first, the results of the experiment contrasted the spatial IQ scores of children who had listened to a Mozart sonata (K.448) with the scores of children who had listened to a piece of significant main effect of music and no significant difference between the pretest and post-test scores for both groups. However, due to the non-significant findings, a second experiment was carried out. They used a methodology that had previously replicated the Mozart effect. Again, the second experiment did not support the claim that Mozart’s music can enhance spatial performance. Groups performed similarly on the control test and the experimental test, irrespective of whether they listened to Mozart or to popular dance music. Since the two different designs produced similar findings, they concluded that the Mozart effect is very temporary that it is questionable as to whether any practical application will come from it. Hence, they concluded that Rauscher, Shaw and Ky experiment, The Mozart Effect did not improve the students spatial IQ. Therefore, here in this it is seen that music does not help in memory performance.
In the contrary, a research done by Davidson and Powell (1986) showed that participants gave a positive feedback in memory when associated with music. The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of background music on task – performance. Pupils in a fifth-grade science class were observed during 42 class sessions over a period of four months. There were 10 scores obtained for each subject during each observation. At the end of each observation, a percentage of time was calculated for the total class. The first 15 observation were conducted without background music while the second 15 observations were conducted while music classified as easy listening was played in the background and the last 12 observations were conducted in the absence of background music. The type of music used was easy-listening background music. At end of each lesson participants are required to do a task – performance by the teacher. Based on the experiment, the results indicted that the use of easy-listening background music was effective in increasing on task performance of children in an elementary science class room. In this experiment, music helped students performing better in their task performance when they were exposed to easy-listening background music than to no music at all.
Meanwhile, Smith and Morris (1997) did a study on the effects of music on anxiety, concentration, and performance. There were two different types of music that were studied. These two types were simulative and sedative. Before the participants took the test they were asked what type of music from these two groups they preferred. The participants were then given a set of numbers. They were assessed on how well they could repeat the digits backwards while listening to one of the types of music or no music at all. The results showed that the participants preferred type of music caused them to perform the worst on the test and that no music produced the best test results. The participants that were exposed to less stimulating music such as easy listening did better than those exposed to stimulating music, but worse than those exposed to no music at all. This was believed to be caused by the fact that stimulating music is more distracting and inhibits cognitive processing more than non-stimulating music. This experiment did show that less stimulating music did help participants to perform better than stimulating music.
As a conclusion, memory can be enhanced in many ways. Many argue that music can enhance memory performance. Davidson and Powell’s finding indicated that easy learning background music was able to help the fifth grade students to perform better in their task performance given. However, based on all the past researches we could also see that some researches concluded that music distracts our memory performance like the research done by Furnham and Bradley where it concluded that music distracts the task performance. The effect of music on memory is still a debate between many psychologists where they argue whether music enhances or distracts the memory performance. Based on the research, music can either distract or enhance ones memory performance. Therefore, some people feel that music helps in their memory while some feel the other way around, where they prefer silence in performing their task, either way it is for us to choose which way we can perform our task better, in silence or in music.
References
Ciccarelli, S.K. & Meyer, G.E. (2006). Memory. L. Jewell (Ed.). Psychology (pp.210-217). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Coon, D. (1997). Essentials of Psychology. New York: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Davidson, C.W. & Powell, L.A. (1986). Journal of Educational Research, 80, 20-33. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from PsycINFO database.
Furnham, A & Bradley, A. (1997). Music While you Work: The Differential Distraction of Background Music on the Cognitive Test Performance of Introverts and Extraverts. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11, 445-455. Retrieved March 16, 2008 from PsycINFO database.
McFarland, R.A, & Kennnison, R.F. (1988).Asymmetrical Effects of Music Upon Spatial-Sequential Learning. Journal of General Psychology, 155, 263-272. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from PsycINFO database.
McKelivie, P. & Low. J (2002). British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20, 241-248. Retrieved 16 March, 2008 from PsycINFO
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1993). Music and Spatial Task performance. Nature,365, 611.
Smith, C.A., & Morris, L. W. (1977). Differential effects of stimulative and sedative music on anxiety, concentration, and performance. Psychological Reports, 41, 1047-1053.