Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)
Publication Date
2023
College
Sciences and Mathematics, College of
Department
Psychological Science, Department of
BURS Faculty Advisor
Michael Oliver
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Music is present during a large portion of our day-to-day lives. Previous research has shown varying results on the effects of music on an array of cognitive-based task performance. Much of the previous literature has solely focused on the effects of one type of music or the effects of music on one specific task; furthermore, many of the tasks used to measure cognitive performance have been lab-based and unnatural from what would be encountered in the real world. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the effects of multiple types of music on multiple relevant, naturalistic cognitive tasks. Participants were randomly assigned to a lyrical music group, where they listened to an unfamiliar genre of music that had lyrics, or a non-lyrical music group, where they listened to non-lyrical classical music. Participants completed two cognitive tasks while listening to the music; one task measured reading comprehension accuracy and the other measured arithmetic accuracy. Results from this study are currently being analyzed; however, we expect participants who listened to non-lyrical, classical music to perform better on the given tasks compared to those who listened to lyrical music.
Recommended Citation
Wright, Hannah; Graham, Jillian; Smith, Cameron; and Megenta, Ephreme, "Must be music on the brain: the effects of music on performance accuracy" (2023). Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS). 215.
https://repository.belmont.edu/burs/215
