Effects of Popular Music on Memorization Tasks

Location

CSU

Student's Major

Psychology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Edison Perdomo

Mentor's Department

Psychology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Second Mentor's Name

Rosemary Krawczyk

Second Mentor's Department

Psychology

Second Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

This study investigates the effects of popular music on memory performance. Studying and memory recall are adversely affected by the presence or absence of popular music. One hundred twenty introductory psychology students participated in the study. Subjects were given a list of fifty words to study in 61/2 minutes, with music either being present or absent. This was termed the learning stage. In this study, there were four conditions that were tested. In all four conditions, subjects were assigned to either a "music" pre-period or a "non-music" pre-period, and a "music" post-period or a "non-music" post-period. After they studied the words, they were again given 61/2 minutes to recall the words either with music or without. This period was called the recall stage. Findings from this study suggest that students who study while listening to popular music, as many students do, will do poorly on memory performance tasks.

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Effects of Popular Music on Memorization Tasks

CSU

This study investigates the effects of popular music on memory performance. Studying and memory recall are adversely affected by the presence or absence of popular music. One hundred twenty introductory psychology students participated in the study. Subjects were given a list of fifty words to study in 61/2 minutes, with music either being present or absent. This was termed the learning stage. In this study, there were four conditions that were tested. In all four conditions, subjects were assigned to either a "music" pre-period or a "non-music" pre-period, and a "music" post-period or a "non-music" post-period. After they studied the words, they were again given 61/2 minutes to recall the words either with music or without. This period was called the recall stage. Findings from this study suggest that students who study while listening to popular music, as many students do, will do poorly on memory performance tasks.