Effects of Three Different Musical Styles of Background Music on Coding by College-Age Students

Abstract

This study examined the effects of different styles of background music on task performances of college students. In addition, students' perceptions of the music and the effect these perceptions had on performance were investigated. 96 undergraduate nonmusic majors were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: task only, task and classical background music, task and jazz background music, and task and popular background music. The performance task consisted of 220 eye/hand coordination problems, and a questionnaire was subsequently administered to the task plus background music groups to assess perception of the background environment. Analysis indicated that the experimental conditions had no significant effect on task performance.

The influence of distracting familiar vocal music on cognitive performance of introverts and extraverts

“…Sogin (1988) found no significant effect of different styles of music but Freeburne and Fleischer (1952) found that those who listened to jazz music were significantly faster at reading. They claim that this is because extra effort has been put into the reading and to overcome this music as a distraction, based on its 'marked and regular rhythm'.…”

Effects of Stimulus Characteristics and Background Music on Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning and Forgetting

“…Beneficial effects of background music on the extraverts might have been canceled out partly by detrimental effects on the introverts. In addition to extraversion (and, ultimately, introverts' and extraverts' neurological thresholds of arousal), a number of other factors, such as music preference (Etauch & Michals, 1975), vocal versus nonvocal background music (Belsham & Harman, 1977), and musical styles (Sogin, 1988) might all interact with the role of background music in FL vocabulary learning (and learning in general). Because of its obvious pedagogical implications, a research program that systematically attempts to unravel the contribution of each of these variables is recommended.…”

Performance on driving-related tasks during music

“…Other studies have failed to ® nd any signi® cant eOE ect of music on cognitive ERGONOMICS, 1999, VOL . 42, N O (Etaugh and M ichals 1975, Geringer and Nelson 1979, Carstens et al 1995 or motor performance (Sogin 1988).…”