Examining the Effects of Music with Words on Long Term Memory Encoding

File(s)
Date
2019Author
Wannow, Abby
Kaur, Simran
Peronto, Sean
Singh, Karan
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Many students listen to music while studying without knowing the effects that this could cause.
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of listening to music with words while
studying on long term memory recall. It was hypothesized that listening to music with words
while studying would reduce the number of words remembered on a long term memory recall
test, as opposed to exposure to music without lyrics while studying. Fifty participants were
included in the study and were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. One
treatment group listened to music with words while attempting to memorize words and their
definitions then after listened to music without words while memorizing different words and
their definitions. The other treatment group was exposed in the opposite order. Physiological
data was collected before the first treatment, during the first treatment, between the treatments,
and during the second treatment. The physiological variables recorded were heart rate, galvanic
skin response, and breathing rate. The data was analyzed by running a t-test comparing each
treatment to their respective baseline. The t-test test comparing EDA values and respiratory
values showed no significant difference between variables; however, heart rate did show
statistically significant differences when listening to music without lyrics first. In addition, the
data showed that overall participants were able to recall more definitions when listening to
music without lyrics, though this was not statistically significant. More research needs to be
done to get a clearer idea of how music affects cognition during studying.
Subject
Breathing Rate
Electrodermal Activity
Heart Rate
Music
stress
Long Term Memory
Lyric
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/82006Type
Article
Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2019