Lo-Fi Beats Or Lo-GPA? How Your Listening Habits Are Affecting Your Cognitive Performance
Picture this, you have your final exam for your hardest class tomorrow and you sit down at the library to study, what do you do next? Do you sit in silence and dive deep into your textbook, or do you put in your Airpods and pull up your favorite playlist. If you chose the second option, as I would, what playlist are you looking for? A playlist of instrumental classics or Kanye West’s newest rap album? If it were me, I tend to opt for the classics, but if it were my roommate, you’d be seeing her head nod to “Donda” from across the library.
Many people choose to listen to music while they’re studying or doing homework, especially college students like myself. What most people don’t realize though, is that, the type of music we listen to, how often we listen to it, other individual differences and the type of work we are doing all play an important role in whether or not that music is helping our GPA or hurting it. Researchers, Goltz and Sadakta attempted to assess the effects of music on cognitive performance by looking at five main tasks: reading comprehension, memory, reasoning, writing, and general attention, in their study on how individuals use music to optimize cognitive performance. Using the findings of their study, the researchers were able to explain how and what music impacts these critical cognitive functions so by the end of this, you’ll either be able to make the best study playlist, or you’ll rethink your homework habits altogether.
When it comes to reading, there are typically three main factors to consider when looking at the effects of background music on performance and these effects can differ based on the person performing the task. First, if an individual has a higher working memory capacity, meaning they are better able to access cognitive information, they are likely to be less negatively affected by the presence of background music. Furthermore, personality also plays a role in this interaction, as more extroverted individuals are not affected by background music while their introverted counterparts may be. Lastly, on a less personal note, the type of background music that is being played affects reading performance. For example, music with lyrics tends to be more distracting than instrumental music, and the louder and faster the music, like the rap music my roommate listens to, the more impairments it can cause. Although some general tendencies show that background music is detrimental to reading abilities, there is also research that concludes the opposite or shows no effects, so the verdict is still out.
Similarly, memory task performance and critical thinking and reasoning show mixed results throughout the research. Factors such as prefrontal cortex activity, which is associated with higher-level thinking, music listening habits, age, and type of music all contribute to the effects of background music on performance, and with these individual differences in mind, it is difficult to determine a pattern of effects. Writing is another task that seems to be lightly influenced by background music usage but again, the direction and the strength of the relationship are unclear. This ambiguity suggests that individual differences and the written language used can moderate the effects of background music.
Lastly, researchers analyzed attention, which is probably the task we are most familiar with when discussing our music listening habits. I’m sure we have all heard people argue about whether or not they use background music while studying, and they often explain themselves by claiming it either helps them focus or distracts their attention. Previous research has suggested that music preference has a strong influence on whether or not the background music is hindering focus, which would explain why my roommate can so easily do her homework to rap music, while I can’t even listen to that while I’m at the gym. Unfortunately, the research on attention and background music comes to the same conclusion as the other tasks measured, that there is no exact conclusion.
Due to all of this confusion regarding the relationship between background music and cognitive performance, Goltz and Sadakata (2021) attempted to further investigate this phenomenon and holistically present the findings, hoping to shed some light on this complex topic. They conducted an experiment in which they attempted to control for individual differences by having the same 140 participants fill out a questionnaire regarding their background music usage as well as other factors such as demographics, music proficiency, and extraversion. The main findings that were concluded by Goltz and Sadakata are three general tendencies:
- People will use less background music when engaged in difficult tasks
- People become less critical about the type of background music when the task is easier
- The younger you are the more likely you are to use background music when performing cognitive tasks
Upon completing their study, Goltz and Sadakata (2021) essentially said “to each their own” when it comes to listening to music while performing cognitive tasks, but of course with a few caveats explaining why this is the case. First is the confirmation bias that can play into the effectiveness of listening to music while studying. The researchers found that if individuals already had the belief that music positively influenced cognitive abilities, it was likely that they displayed that in the survey, despite whether or not it was true. Additionally, an individual’s cognitive capacity affects how well they can balance listening to music while also completing cognitive tasks, with the research suggesting that there is evidence both for and against this multitasking. Negatively, researchers typically found that by combining cognitive tasks with music, individuals generally did not show any improvement, but controversly, there are some instances in which, if the task is simple enough or the individual is well versed in the task, then background music can be beneficial.
So, does music really help or hurt one’s cognitive performance? Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Goltz and Sadakata, among other researchers were still not able to explain the complex relationship between background music and cognitive performance. With factors such as cognitive capacity, mood, attention, and arousal, it is difficult for researchers to come to either a positive or negative consensus regarding background music and its effects on cognitive performance.
Given the lack of strong support in either direction, my advice is simply to find what works for you and keep doing it. Personally, I love listening to music when reading and writing; in fact, I am listening to Spotify’s “Intense Studying” playlist right now, but if you asked me to start doing some high-level calculus, that would be a different story. So when it comes to background music, although there are some psychological theories that could contribute to why we do or do not choose to listen to certain things, in my mind, it all boils down to personal preference and how you think the music is affecting your performance.
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Goltz, F., & Sadakata, M. (2021, September 20). Do you listen to music while studying? A portrait of how people use music to optimize their cognitive performance. Acta Psychologica. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691821001670?via%3Dihub
Intense studying. Spotify. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX8NTLI2TtZa6?si=400a9bd8cfb74c32&nd=1
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