THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC DURING APPREHENSION ON MEMORY PERFORMANCE
ANGELA M. ST. CLAIR
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Missouri Western State University
Sponsored by BRIAN CRONK(cronk@missouriwestern.edu)
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this experiment was to see if studying or testing with music affected scores on a memory test. There were four groups in this study. One group had music while studying and testing. Another had music while studying and no music while testing. The third group had no music while studying but music while testing, and the fourth group had no music during both. Each group consisted of approximately 30 freshman or sophomore level psychology students. The students were all given a memory test, which consisted of a list of 15 words and studied it for two minutes. The groups that had music while studying listened to the song "Sad Eyes" by Enrique Iglesias. After the two minutes were up, the word lists were collected. At the end of the class period, the test was administered. The group that tested with music listened to "Sad Eyes." A between subjects factorial ANOVA was calculated comparing the memory test scores for subjects who had music during recall or studying. No significant results were found. Several factors, such as the type of test given and the music type, may have contributed to these insignificant results.

INTRODUCTION
With the beginning of the 21st century, technology is increasing at an amazing rate. Everyone is trying to keep up and have cutting edge equipment, and this include school systems. With technology now being such a dominant factor in classrooms, teachers are doing all they can to incorporate technology into their teaching. This includes playing music during tests. Instructors see this as a way to relax students and reduce anxiety, thus helping their test performance.

There is research though, that states to get maximal scores on a test, studying should be done with the same cues present as during testing. According to the encoding specificity principle of memory, (Thompson & Tulving, 1970) the most effective retrieval cues at the time of recall are cues that contain information that was processed at the time the to-be-remembered material was studied. Therefore, for the music to help the student during testing, it should be played during studying also.

This brings up the issue of whether or not studying with music effects test performance. Many students feel that studying with music helps. Raushcher, Shay, and Ky (1993) discovered that performance on abstract/spatial reasoning tests improved after the participants listened to Mozart as opposed to a relaxation tape or silence.

McFarland and Kennison (1987) assume through their studies that the right hemisphere of the brain processes music. They found that participants require greater effort to successfully learn a task with the presence of music. Therefore, according to their study, music does more harm than good when studying. McFarland and Hanna (1990) found that music inhibited initial learning in a tactual-spatial task. Again showing that music while studying is more damaging than helpful on test performance.

Research seems to show that music during studying inhibits learning. Is this true even if there is music present during testing? This experiment will show if there is a relationship between music present during studying and test scores. It will also exhibit if there is a correlation between studying with environmental cues and having the same cues present during recall. It will show how the encoding specificity principle relates to music being present during studying.

Therefore, the purpose of this experiment is to determine if listening to music during learning has any effect on testing performance.

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS
The participants used for this study were freshman and sophomore level students from psychology courses at Missouri Western State College. They consisted of both males and females and the ages varied. There were approximately 30 participants in each of the four groups, resulting in a total of approximately 120 in the entire study.

MATERIALS
A word list memorization test was used in this study. The song “Sad Eyes” by Enrique Iglesias was the music listened to while studying and testing.

PROCEDURE
When conducting this experiment, I first explained the procedure to the participants. I then gave out the memorization word lists. To two groups, I played the song “Sad Eyes” while the participants were studying. The other two groups studied without any music playing. All four groups had the same lists and studied them for two minutes. After the given amount of time was up, I will collected the tests and left the classroom. I then came back into the classroom towards the end of the class period. I administered the test to see how many of the words were recalled. While testing, one of the groups who studied with music, took the test with the same song playing. The other group took the test without music playing. Out of the two groups who studied without music, one tested with music, and one tested without music. After the subjects were finished with the tests, I collected them.

RESULTS
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A 2 (recall) x 2 (study) between subjects factorial ANOVA was calculated comparing the memory test scores for subjects who had music during recall or studying. The main effect for studying with music was nott significant (F(1,122) = .219, p > .05). The main effect for recall with music was also not significant (F(1,122) = .587, p > .05). Finally, the interaction was also not significant (F(1,122) = 1.35, p > .05). Thus, it appears that neither studying nor recall with or without music has any effect on memory test scores.

DISCUSSION
While this study did not find any significant results, it did support the hypothesis. The results from the 2 x 2 between subjects factorial ANOVA test showed that there was no significant correlation between music during studying or testing and memory test scores. However, the numbers from the test, while not significant, did show that there could be a possible correlation. It was found that the group that did not study or test with music had the best scores on the memory test. The group that studied and tested with music had the next highest scores. Although, there were no significant results found, these findings are consistent with the hypothesis.

The results of this experiment varied from the findings of previous studies which showed that music does more harm than good when studying.

The limitations involved in this study could include the test that was given. Maybe if the test had been an actual test, the results would have been different. Also, the type of music played could have affected the results. The music played was slow music with words. When students study, a variety of music is listened to. Listening to classical music or any other type could result in different findings.

If this experiment was to be repeated, many alterations could be made. As stated before, the type of test could be changed. An actual test from the teacher could be used. The type of music could also be changed. Another alteration could be having one group study with music with words and another group study with music without words.

REFERENCES
McFarland, R.A., & Hanna, K. (1990). Music during learning of a tactual-spatial task affects later response generalization. Journal of General Psychology, 117, 411-424.

McFarland, R.A., & Kennison, R.F. (1987). Asymmetrical effects of music upon spatial-sequential learning. Journal of General Psychology, 115, 263-272.

Rausher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., & Ky, K.N (1993, October). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365, 611.

Thompson, D.M., & Tulving, E. (1970). Associative encoding and retrieval: Weak and strong cues. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 86, 255-262.

AUTHOR CONTACT INFORMATION: ams4808@mwsc.edu
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    Manuscript Submitted: 11/30/00 1:19:42 PM
    Manuscript Last Edited: 11/30/00 2:06:40 PM

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