Music while you work: the differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

Abstract

The current study looked at the distracting effects of ‘pop music’ on introverts' and extraverts' performance on various cognitive tasks. It was predicted that there would be a main effect for music and an interaction effect with introverts performing less well in the presence of music than extraverts. Ten introverts and ten extraverts were given two tests (a memory test with immediate and delayed recall and a reading comprehension test), which were completed, either while being exposed to pop music, or in silence. The results showed that there was a detrimental effect on immediate recall on the memory test for both groups when music was played, and two of the three interactions were significant. After a 6‐minute interval the introverts who had memorized the objects in the presence of the pop music had a significantly lower recall than the extraverts in the same condition and the introverts who had observed them in silence. The introverts who completed a reading comprehension task when music was being played also performed significantly less well than these two groups. These findings have implications for the study habits of introverts when needing to retain or process complex information. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Boredom in the workplace: More than monotonous tasks

“…Therefore, in order to achieve an optimum level of arousal, extraverts need increased and varied stimulation (Eysenck 1967;Sharpless and Jasper 1956). In several studies, it has been shown that extraverts perform better than introverts on boring tasks (vigilance, reading comprehension) when the task situation was enriched by other stimuli (noise or music) (Belojevic et al 2003;Furnham and Bradley 1997;Furnham and Allass 1999). Therefore, it seems likely that extraverts need additional stimulation in order to prevent boredom.…”

Extraversion: The Unloved Variable in Applied Linguistic Research

“…Introverts reach their tolerance levels much faster when exposed to these stimuli: They will blink with their eyes sooner and turn the volume down sooner (M. W. Eysenck, 1981). Furnham and Bradley (1997) found that pop music had a stronger distracting effect on introverts' performance on various cognitive tasks than on extraverts' performance.…”

The effects of music on time perception and performance of a driving game

“…Drawing on the findings of Cassidy and MacDonald (2009) and the wider music and task performance literature (e.g., see for review Furnham & Bradley, 1997; North & Hargreaves, 2008), it is hypothesized that performance will be most efficient in self‐selected music, and most inaccurate in experimenter‐selected music. In terms of the tempo manipulation, it is hypothesized that rate of performance would be influenced in the direction of the accompanying music, that is faster in the faster (130 bpm) than slower (70 bpm) version (e.g., Brodsky, 2002; North & Hargreaves, 1999b).…”