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The Pros and Cons of Listening to Music While Studying

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The Pros and Cons of Listening to Music While Studying

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Music can be distracting but it can also motivate and relive stress. Playlists that are more consistent are more beneficial. Would a classical music playlist be the most beneficial?

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Music affects a large part of our cognitive ability and psychological state. It can impact our focus, how we retain information, and our stress levels. Whether or not students should listen to music while studying has been a topic of great debate for a long time and will continue to be one as our technological habits continuously evolve. There is plenty of evidence arguing on both sides, but here is a quick breakdown of some of the major points so that you can decide whether or not playing your favourite tracks in the background of a study session is hurting or helping your success.

You might've heard of something called the Mozart Effect; a term often used to argue that listening to music is hugely beneficial to your intellectual ability and therefore helps you study. However, the research behind the effect isn't as supportive of your favourite playlist as you might think. The study concluded that listening to Mozart ten minutes before taking a test led to a noticeable improvement in comprehending complex ideas, providing zero evidence that hearing to a modern artist while you read or recall information makes a difference in your favour. In fact, some studies show that pop music does the opposite. Since we are naturally social beings, our brains are drawn to speaking (or singing) voices which may distract us from the things we're trying to study. Playlists with songs of varying volume and tempo can be especially distracting. Plus, some have argued that while specific tracks may aid memorization during reading sessions, for any recall benefits to be put to use the student would have to listen to the same song during a test (which is usually impossible). While it may be beginning to sound like you definitely shouldn't listen to music while studying, don't be discouraged! The answer to the pro-music or anti-music debate isn't that simple because there are plenty of benefits to the practice too. Firstly, university life is full of stress, and a significant amount of that is educational - heightened to an extreme during exam season. Studies show that this strain can cause psychological distress and affect academic performance. Fortunately, music can help with this. It is widely known that music can improve our mood, due to a release of dopamine in our brains linked to feelings of euphoria, and it can also decrease our stress levels. This mood improvement carries over to our educational practices by enhancing memory formation, prolonging our endurance abilities, and providing motivation to keep us focused on the work ahead of us. Another benefit to listening to music while studying is its isolating power when you find yourself in an otherwise busy, loud, or distracting environment. Not everyone has the same access to a secluded space where they can find complete silence, even when that's what they would prefer. In this case, students tend to use background music to tune out all other noise. In a study comparing academic success in test environments where subjects were surrounded by background music or simply background noise, students with musical surroundings tested better. This effectiveness of using music to tune things out and focus on study material is probably why you see so many students wearing headphones in public study spaces. This topic has been - and will continue to be - highly debated, mainly because there isn't one right or wrong answer. It all depends on who you are and what you're doing. For example, one study argues that extraverts tend to be more successful with memory recall while listening to music than introverts. It is also argued that verbal reasoning tasks (comprehending concepts through words such as reading a passage of text) are better accompanied with music than abstract perceptual reasoning tasks (understanding concepts and logic on a general level such as relating a diagram to your coursework).

There isn't a definite conclusion to this debate because the practice's success is highly variable and personal. For example, I can listen to my favourite upbeat songs while taking notes, but I will sometimes have to turn to chill playlists in languages I can't understand so that my surroundings are tuned out, but my focus is clear (I highly recommend Café montréalais on Spotify). If listening to music doesn't work for you, maybe have a jam session before opening your notes to get some of the uplifting psychological effects. On the other hand, if the music is an essential part of a successful study session for you, happy listening!

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The Pros and Cons of Listening to Music While Studying

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Music affects a large part of our cognitive ability and psychological state. It can impact our focus, how we retain information, and our stress levels. Whether or not students should listen to music while studying has been a topic of great debate for a long time and will continue to be one as our technological habits continuously evolve.

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3 Reasons You Should Try Studying While Listening to Music-Colorado State University

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3 Reasons You Should Try Studying While Listening to Music-Colorado State University

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3 Reasons: Memory and Learning, Energy and Motivation, Stress Relief.
I especially looked at the energy and motivation section because it provided information about how music gives students more energy and motivation when writing papers. Do only certain kinds of music help with this? Classical?

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If you've ever cranked up the volume to kick start your weekend house cleaning, you know a bit about how music can change your mood, energy level and motivation. But do you know scientifically how music affects us? And did you know studying while listening to music comes with a host of benefits?

Abundant evidence suggests that music has a powerful impact on our physiological states, emotions, and thought processes. If you're a student, this is important to note. Music can truly be a lifesaver when it comes to getting through the emotional highs and lows, and the energy ebbs and flows that accompany educational pursuits.

So what's the best music to listen to while studying? There's not a simple answer, as not all music has the same effect. Think of it as a supplement; just as different vitamins serve different functions, different musical elements can help us in different ways. Here's a quick guide to how music can help you function effectively throughout your course of study.

Memory and Learning

Perhaps you've heard of what has popularly been coined the Mozart Effect-the idea that listening to Mozart or other classical music enhances mental function. This has been the subject of heavy debate, and the research surrounding it has been seriously misinterpreted in some cases. Nevertheless, there is something to it. While listening to Mozart won't make you an instant genius, there is evidence that listening to any music that is personally enjoyable-be it Mozart or Madonna-can aid memory performance and concentration while studying.

Energy and Motivation

Need a quick pick-me-up before a marathon writing session? A stimulating song or two can boost your drive to tackle the drudgery that awaits. How? Music engages the body's autonomic nervous system-which in basic terms means that at some level, music can control our physiological functions and emotions. The right music can serve as a fantastic stimulant that will quicken the pulse, accelerate breathing, draw away attention from fatigue and boredom, and pretty much pump you up for some serious intellectual heavy lifting.

Stress Relief

If there's one feeling that's universal among students of any subject, it's stress. Thankfully, music has been shown to be a substance-free way to diminish feelings of anxiety, anger and arousal that are the result of stressful tasks (i.e. everything students do). Style of music does matter if you wish to experience these benefits, but you still have some broad options from which to choose. Both classical music and "self-selected" relaxing music-in other words, any style that an individual considers personally soothing-have been shown to quickly calm the body and elicit more positive emotional states. So if Beethoven doesn't float your boat, you can always "Sail Away" with Enya, or just scour your library for something you deem to be the appropriate soundtrack for a half hour of vegetating on the couch.

Do you find studying while listening to music to be helpful? Anecdotally speaking, it can be more beneficial for some than others. But it's an idea worth exploring when you feel like you could use a little academic performance enhancement.

Tell us what you think, and share your favorite studying playlists with our readers!

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3 Reasons You Should Try Studying While Listening to Music

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If you've ever cranked up the volume to kick start your weekend house cleaning, you know a bit about how music can change your mood, energy level and motivation. But do you know scientifically how music affects us? And did you know studying while listening to music comes with a host of benefits?

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Use information in paragraphs 3-8 about how listening to music improves focus and information retention. Do only certain kinds of music help with this?

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Music has long been known to have profound effects on the brain. Listening to the right tunes can provide mood-altering effects, and can even create a better quality of life for those who use music to destress.

However, a growing pool of research shows music's effects on the brain go even deeper than mood, as it has been proven to increase cognitive abilities. For those who learn to play an instrument, music's benefits on the most important organ in the human body goes a step further by improving memory.

Believe it or not, listening to certain types of music can help you learn. Here's how.

Not only does music help learning abilities, but it increases focus in listeners, according to a Stanford University study. "In a concert setting, for example, different individuals listen to a piece of music with wandering attention," Vinod Menon, the study's senior author and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said in a press release. "But at the transition point between movements, their attention is arrested."

As listeners pick up the subtle differences found in music, their attention to the melody and their environment increases. "These transitions between musical movements offer an ideal setting to study the dynamically changing landscape of activity in the brain during this segmentation process," neuroscience graduate student Devarajan Sridharan further explained.

Stanford's results may also reveal how some people are able to overcome the "cocktail party problem," as co-author of the study Daniel Levitin coined it, "how it is that we are able to follow one conversation in a crowded room of many conversations."

Music can also help retain learned information, according to Johns Hopkins University. The esteemed college suggests incorporating music into a classroom environment to create a positive learning experience and improve memory while increasing attention.

"In active learning experiences [in which music is played while studying or learning a new concept] music creates a soundtrack for a learning activity," Chris Boyd Brewer explained in his book Music and Learning, an of which is published on the university's website. "The soundtrack increases interest and activates the information mentally, physically or emotionally. Music can also create a highly focused learning state in which vocabulary and reading material is absorbed at a great rate. When information is put to rhythm and rhyme these musical elements will provide a hook for recall."

Incorporating music even further into the learning experience helps focus and retention. Any former elementary school student can likely recall the various chants and hymns used to remember things like the ABCs. Songs like "The Wheels on the Bus" allow students to work on memory retention in the classroom, while unique raps or melodies can provide a way to remember information learned in a new, exciting way.

Whether it's playing some classical music while cramming for finals or trying out a new playlist while learning a new program or concept, try giving music a listen next time you want to learn. It could make for a harmonious studying session.

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associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences

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Can Music Help You Learn? The Brain Can Do Some Incredible Things While Listening to Music

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Music has long been known to have profound effects on the brain. Listening to the right tunes can provide mood-altering effects, and can even create a better quality of life for those who use music to destress. However, a growing pool of research shows music's effects on the brain go even deeper than mood, as it has been proven to increase cognitive abilities.

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Is Background Music a Boost or a Bummer? -Psychology Today 

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Is Background Music a Boost or a Bummer? -Psychology Today 

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Used information on when multitasking by listening to music is helpful. Multitasking decreases productivity on some tasks that are complicated, including reading comprehension.

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"Are you multitasking if you're listening to background music?" This is one of the first questions I usually get after making my conquer cyberoverload presentations. As research consistently shows, multitasking reduces the efficiency, accuracy, and quality of what you do. So whether or not music introduces a distracting second task is an important question.

It's not an easy question to answer because the more you look at the research, the more complicated the answer becomes. I've reviewed dozens of studies on the issue, and taken together they show that music can have three important effects: It can distract your attention from whatever else you're doing; it can affect your arousal level; and it can change your mood or affective state. The bottom line is, music can help or hinder your work depending on the nature of the task you're trying to perform and the nature of the music. So here are some general conclusions:

1. Music can improve productivity on repetitive tasks. Workers on assembly lines or quality-control operators need to stay focused on their work even though what they're doing is not necessarily inherently interesting, and attention typically fades over time. Upbeat music has been shown to improve efficiency and accuracy in these situations. Interestingly, this works best if the music is not played constantly, but if it's introduced periodically at intervals when normal attention is likely to wane. In these situations, music can make the task seem less boring, and it can also increase arousal and alertness. Studies supporting this conclusion have recommended that music without lyrics be used; or that if music with words is used, the words should either be familiar or boring! (1)

2. Music can give you a motivational jump-start before you start on both cognitive tasks and those requiring creativity. Up-tempo, pleasing music can boost your mood and be motivational. For example, in a cross-cultural study, Canadian undergraduates performed better on an IQ test after listening to an upbeat selection by Mozart than after a slow, minor-key piece by Albinoni. And Japanese children spent longer producing drawings and drew more creatively after listening to familiar children's songs that they liked than after listening to unfamiliar classical music.

3. Relaxing, repetitive, low-information-load, background music can enhance performance on some cognitive tasks. One study used a highly repetitive synthesizer piece with a narrow tonal range and compared it to a "dissonant, rhythmically varied and highly dynamic piece" (and to silence) as background while high school students were reading. Reading scores were significantly higher in the low-information-load music condition than in the other conditions (3). A similar study looked at the effect of Koan music, which consists of free-flowing, harmonious sounds, often used for meditation. Students performed significantly better on a series of intelligence-test items when Koan music was playing in the background than in silence (4). In both studies, the background music seems not to have interfered with processing of the information in the task, and may have aided relaxation and reduced stress.

4. Typical popular music usually interferes with complex tasks and reading comprehension. Particularly when the music has lyrics, most popular music introduces a multitasking situation that interferes with reading comprehension and information processing. Several studies have shown this (e.g., 5, 6, 7). One study did show, however, that playing quiet classical music during a recorded lecture improved learning from the lecture, perhaps because it made the learning situation more palatable or enjoyable or helped people retain focus without introducing distraction (8).

This area is a work-in-progress. There's still much more we need to know. But based on studies to date, here's the advice:

1. If you're doing a repetitive task requiring focus but not much cognitive processing, you can use upbeat music to boost your energy and attentiveness.

2. Even if your task necessitates cognitive processing or creativity, you can use motivational music beforehand and during breaks.

3. With high-information-processing tasks, monotonous, zen-like background music may sometimes promote better performance on cognitive tasks.

4. For problem-solving or highly cognitive, complex tasks, avoid typical popular music with lyrics as it will likely interfere with the quality of your work. Try rewarding yourself during breaks instead.

There are undoubtedly many individual differences in how people respond to music when they work. If you prefer silence and it works well for you, there's no need to change your habits. But if you find silence unnerving or unsettling, try music that adds the least in terms of cognitive load, but that boosts arousal or reduces tension (whichever you need) or simply makes you feel good.

(1) Fox, J. G., & Embry, E. D. (1972) Music-An aid to productivity. Applied Ergonomics, 3 (4), 202-205.

(2) Schellenberg, E. G., Nakata, T., Hunter, P. G., & Tamoto, S. (2007). Exposure to music and cognitive performance: Tests of children and adults. Psychology of Music, 35 (1), 5-19.

(3) Kiger, D. (1989). Effects of music information load on a reading comprehension task. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 69, 531-534.

(4) Cockerton, T., Moore, S., & Norman, D. (1997). Cognitive test performance and background music. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 1435-1438.

(5) Anderson, S. A., & Fuller, G. B. (2010). Effect of music on reading comprehension of junior high school students. School Psychology Quarterly, 25 (3), 178-187.

(6) Johansson, R., Homqvist, K., Mossberg, F., & Lindgren, M. (2011). Eye movements and reading comprehension while listening to preferred and non-preferred study music. Psychology of Music, 40 (3), 339-356.

(7) Avila, C., Furnham, A., & McClelland, A. (2011). The influence of distracting familiar vocal music on cognitive performance of introverts and extraverts. Psychology of Music, 40 (1), 84-93.

(8) Dosseville, F., Laborde, S., & Scelles, N. (2012). Music during lectures: Will students learn better? Learning and Individual Differences, 22, 258-262.

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Is Background Music a Boost or a Bummer?

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"Are you multitasking if you're listening to background music?" This is one of the first questions I usually get after making my conquer cyberoverload presentations. As research consistently shows, multitasking reduces the efficiency, accuracy, and quality of what you do. So whether or not music introduces a distracting second task is an important question.

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Music only helps you concentrate if you’re doing the right kind of task- The Conversation

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Music only helps you concentrate if you’re doing the right kind of task- The Conversation

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Used information on how music helps certain types of tasks, not necessarily reading and writing. Lyrical music harms ability to focus when reading and writing. Music can improve productivity with more repetitive tasks. Could classical music be more beneficial when reading and writing?

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Music and work don't always mix. wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

Many of us listen to music while we work, thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. And in fact, recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity. When it comes to other areas of performance, however, the impact of background music is more complicated.

The assumption that listening to music when working is beneficial to output likely has its roots in the so-called " Mozart effect", which gained wide media attention in the early 1990s. Put simply, this is the finding that spatial rotation performance (mentally rotating a 3D dimensional shape to determine whether it matches another or not) is increased immediately after listening to the music of Mozart, compared to relaxation instructions or no sound at all. Such was the attention that this finding garnered that the then US governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed giving free cassettes or CDs of Mozart's music to prospective parents.

Subsequent studies have cast doubt on the necessity of the music of Mozart to produce this effect - a " Schubert effect", a " Blur effect", and even a " Stephen King effect" (his audiobook rather than his singing) have all been observed. In addition, musicians could show the effect purely from imagining the music rather than actually listening to it.

So researchers then suggested that the "Mozart effect" was not due to his music as such, but rather to people's optimum levels of mood and arousal. And so it became the " mood and arousal effect ".

Unfortunately, the situations in which most mood and arousal effects are observed are slightly unrealistic. Do we really sit and listen to music, switch it off, and then engage in our work in silence? More likely is that we work with our favourite tunes playing in the background.

Pressmaster/Shutterstock

How sound affects performance has been the topic of laboratory research for over 40 years, and is observed through a phenomenon called the irrelevant sound effect. Basically, this effect means that performance is poorer when a task is undertaken in the presence of background sound (irrelevant sound that you are ignoring), in comparison to quiet.

To study irrelevant sound effect, participants are asked to complete a simple task which requires them to recall a series of numbers or letters in the exact order in which they saw them - similar to trying to memorise a telephone number when you have no means to write it down. In general, people achieve this by rehearsing the items either aloud or under their breath. The tricky thing is being able to do this while ignoring any background noise.

Two key characteristics of the irrelevant sound effect are required for its observation. First, the task must require the person to use their rehearsal abilities, and second, the sound must contain acoustical variation - for example, sounds such as "n, r, p" as opposed to "c, c, c". Where the sound does not vary much acoustically, then performance of the task is much closer to that observed in quiet conditions. Interestingly, it does not matter whether the person likes the sound or not. Performance is equally as poor whether the background sound is music the person likes or dislikes.

The irrelevant sound effect itself comes from attempting to process two sources of ordered information at the same time - one from the task and one from the sound. Unfortunately, only the former is required to successfully perform the serial recall task, and the effort expended in ensuring that irrelevant order information from the sound is not processed actually impedes this ability.

A similar conflict is also seen when reading while in the presence of lyrical music. In this situation, the two sources of words - from the task and the sound - are in conflict. The subsequent cost is poorer performance of the task in the presence of music with lyrics.

What this all means is that whether having music playing in the background helps or hinders performance depends on the task and on the type of music, and only understanding this relationship will help people maximise their productivity levels. If the task requires creativity or some element of mental rotation then listening to music one likes can increase performance. In contrast, if the task requires one to rehearse information in order then quiet is best, or, in the case of reading comprehension, quiet or instrumental music.

One promising area of the impact of music on cognitive abilities stems from actually learning to play a musical instrument. Studies show that children who are being musically trained show an improvement in intellectual abilities. However, the reasons behind this are, at present, unknown and likely to be complex. It may not be the music per se that produces this effect but more the activities associated with studying music, such as concentration, repeated practice, lessons and homework.

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Music only helps you concentrate if you're doing the right kind of task

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Many of us listen to music while we work, thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. And in fact, recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity. When it comes to other areas of performance, however, the impact of background music is more complicated.

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How music could help you to concentrate while studying-Independent 

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How music could help you to concentrate while studying-Independent 

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Paragraph 4: Information on how music is better for concentration than background noise.
Paragraph 5: Information on best type of music to listen too while studying/reading/writing/focusing
Paragraphs 6-7: information on how your personality determines whether or not listening to music helps some people based on their personalities

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It's fair to to say the majority of students prefer to study while listening to music. Whether frantically cramming some last-minute reading to Kanye, or finalising an essay to the sound of the Arctic Monkeys, go to any university or college library and the majority of students there will be listening to their music of choice.

Music is a very significant part of our daily lives; the image of the quietly-focused student isolating themselves into a personal study zone has led to interest into whether listening to music actually helps studies or not. Research into the field has proven fairly ambiguous, with many studies contradicting each other. However this does provide an useful insight for students who maybe looking into ways to use music to enhance their exam performance.

The most famous theory linking music and cognitive performance is the 'Mozart effect', the popular idea that listening to Mozart makes you smarter. The research itself was interested in the relation between Mozart and 'spatial-temporal reasoning', or knowing how to fit things into other things, basically. The idea that music - particularly classical - can improve exam results has endured, with websites such mozarteffect.com selling music supposedly designed to "charge the brain."

However, research has shown that performance in tasks involving memory and concentration was better in a silent environment, though, studying in place often disturbed by talkers, sneezers, or traffic, few students have access to a silent study space. Subjects tested in environments with background music were found to get better results than those tested against background noise. Therefore, taking along an iPod and a set of headphones may come in handy if you're looking to avoid being distracted by any ambient sounds.

The style, volume, rhythm and 'state' of the music a student listens to, as well as the personality of the student, can also be significant factors. Classical music is generally viewed as the best to listen to whilst studying, however there is no decisive research to back this. What has been proven is that listening to music which is constant in state, has a steady a repetitive pulse, and is not too loud is better for concentration than inconsistent musical styles, meaning you should probably avoid listening to anything labelled 'Mathcore' when trying to be productive. The same study also found evidence that people perform worse when listening to their preferred, rather than neutral, music.

Personality has also been shown to affect performance, with introverts more likely to test worse than extroverts. Similarly, people tested who are bad at multi-tasking have also been shown to test worse when listening to background music. For those who feel the pressure during exams, it has been observed that calming music, for example a Haydn string quartet, can help to reduce anxiety in an individual.

This highlights the main thing to consider when listening to music while studying: that how you do so really just depends on you. There is no decisive doctrine or absolute piece of research which tells you what to do, whether it's a Four Tet Boiler Room set or Cannibal Corpse you think helps you to study, do what you believe helps. Listening to music has been shown to cause the release of dopamine, meaning that it is a pleasurable, rewarding experience which can relax an individual.

On the whole, what a student can take from research is that using music to create an environment yourself is conducive towards the task you wish to complete.

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How music could help you to concentrate on work

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It's fair to to say the majority of students prefer to study while listening to music. Whether frantically cramming some last-minute reading to Kanye, or finalising an essay to the sound of the Arctic Monkeys, go to any university or college library and the majority of students there will be listening to their music of choice.

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Music Hinders Students While Reading and Writing 

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Music Hinders Students While Reading and Writing 

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Music Hinders Students While Reading and Writing 

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Music Hinders Students While Reading and Writing 

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Music Helps Kids Read-Scientific American

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Music Helps Kids Read-Scientific American

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Use information on how people how listen to music are better at keeping beat with speech and have more organized brainwaves. Would this still be helpful if the music had lyrics?

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Advertisement

She probably didn't realize it, but your preschool teacher very likely provided your first reading lesson when she cranked up "Yellow Submarine" and handed you a noisemaker. Today a symphony of research trumpets the many links among language, reading and music, including several that reveal a connection between rhythm and reading skills. Nina Kraus of Northwestern University has discovered a possible explanation: the brains of good beat keepers respond to speech more consistently than the brains of people whose toes do not tap in time. After testing 124 adolescents for beat-keeping ability, the researchers used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to eavesdrop on teen brains as the consonant sound "da" was played repeatedly. With every "da," the brains of beat keepers responded consistently, even when there was background noise or while they watched television. The brain waves of poor beat keepers, however, were all over the place.

The study helps to explain why music may hold a key to improved reading. Because reading ability, in general, relies on making a connection between the sounds of letters and symbols on a page, music provides another avenue into learning. "Through music, you learn to pay attention to important sounds," Kraus says. The inconsistent sound processing shown by the poor beat keepers makes that difficult. "If you have an auditory system that automatically is able to efficiently pull out sounds that are meaningful, it's going to be important not just for music but for speech.

This article was originally published with the title "Music Helps Kids Read" in SA Mind 25, 3, 16 (May 2014)

doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind0514-16a

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

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She probably didn't realize it, but your preschool teacher very likely provided your first reading lesson when she cranked up "Yellow Submarine" and handed you a noisemaker. Today a symphony of research trumpets the many links among language, reading and music, including several that reveal a connection between rhythm and reading skills.

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Drowned in sound: how listening to music hinders learning- The Guardian

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Drowned in sound: how listening to music hinders learning- The Guardian

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Used information on the study about listening to music while revising.  Music with lyrics vs music without lyrics.

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There is a wealth of psychology research that can help teachers to improve how they work with students, but academic studies of this kind aren't always easy to access or translate into the realities of classroom practice. This series seeks to redress that by taking a selection of studies and making sense of the important information for teachers, as we all seek to answer the question: how can we help our students do better at school? This time, we consider growth mindset.
Many students do their homework and revision while listening to music. Many of them will swear that listening to their favourite songs makes them study better. But does music help or hinder learning? And does it matter what type of music you listen to while revising?

Researchers from the applied psychology department of Cardiff Metropolitan University led a study to answer this question. The authors, Nick Perham and Harriet Currie, assigned students into one of four groups: the first revised in silence, the second revised while listening to music with lyrics they liked (which included songs from One Direction and Katy Perry), the third group revised to music with lyrics they did not like (which comprised of very heavy metal bands), and the fourth group revised listening to music without lyrics.

The participants then took a test on the passages they had been revising, rating how distracting their environment had been, as well as writing down their predictions for how well they thought they had done.

What are the main findings?

1. Students who revised in quiet environments performed more than 60% better in an exam than their peers who revised while listening to music that had lyrics.

2. Students who revised while listening to music without lyrics did better than those who had revised to music with lyrics.

3. It made no difference if students revised listening to songs they liked or disliked. Both led to a reduction in their test performance.

4. Students who revised in silence rated their environment as less distracting and accurately predicted that this would lead to better performances in subsequent tests.

Related research

There are some benefits to listening to music while performing certain tasks. It can be quite motivating and it can improve mood (listening to your favourite song tends to make people smile, for example). But it does not help people learn new or complex material.

The misconception that music does help us learn stems from a series of studies linked to the " Mozart effect ", which found that people performed better on a series of cognitive tasks after listening to 10 minutes of Mozart. Participants in these studies appeared to be getting smarter and performing better in tests.

However, further research has since revealed this is not the case. While listening to music before a task can make someone feel better, listening to it while trying to learn something new tends not to help. This is because music - especially tunes with lyrics - can take up processing space. This conflicts with the material you are trying to learn, effectively creating a bottleneck in your memory, as there is less space to process what you are revising.

What does this mean for the classroom?

It is important that students are made aware of the pitfalls of listening to music when revising. Perham and Currie's study found that students rated the quiet environment as less distracting and better for them, yet many students continue to listen to music during their homework. Why? Perhaps they're doing so out of habit, or they confuse what improves their mood with what leads to good revision, or it alleviates boredom. Perhaps it's simply because everyone else is doing it.

Students need to know how to revise well. There may well be a time and place to listen to music during the course of their revision, but not when they are learning new and complex material. After all, silence is golden.

Bradley Busch is a registered psychologist, director at InnerDrive and author of Release Your Inner Drive. Follow @Inner_Drive on Twitter, and get advice on improving memory and a visual summary of this research on his website
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Drowned in sound: how listening to music hinders learning

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There is a wealth of psychology research that can help teachers to improve how they work with students, but academic studies of this kind aren't always easy to access or translate into the realities of classroom practice.