Musical activity requires the use of most regions of your brain and almost every neural subsystem (Levities, 2006). Hoffman & Lame (1989) found that it is more helpful to learn with music and information is picked up more easily by the brain. Most times when background music is playing, people hear, but do not listen Ordain, 1997). It is also shown by Jacquard (1997) that while we hear with our brain stems, we listen with our cerebral cortex. When music is put in the background and we only hear it, the brain doesn’t meet or overcome new perceptual challenges, therefore nothing new is learned Ordain, 1997).
It has been proven through different forms of testing that the arts generate sustained motivation which provides a cognitive benefit or strengthening different networks in the brain (Cole, 2011). This change in the brain, which is also shown to improve the attention span, is created when students focus themselves and engage in practicing their music (Cole, 2011). Cole (2011) also showed that often time’s musicians have scored significantly higher than non-musicians on tasks that involve geometric properties. In most cases, people associate classical music as more psychological.
Music is only defined as classical if it possesses certain qualities such as proportion and balance in expression (Wright, 2004). Popular music is less likely to be associated with psychology because it does not usually contain multiple levels of musical activity, as a classical piece does, therefore the piece of music does not require or reward active listening (Wright, 2004). Attention spans vary greatly between each person. The amount of attention that can be used at one particular time is a limited amount (Peter & Mining, 2010). The amount of attention needed to perform a task depends on the level of arousal the ask produces (Peter et al. 2010). While trying to pay attention there can be two (Peter et al. , 2010). Capacity interference is when the amount of attention provided cannot meet the demand needed by the activity (Peter et al. , 2010). Structural interference is when two concurrent activities require the same amount of processing (Peter et al. , 2010). Research done by Lake and Goldstein (2011) supports the idea that listening to music activates the general attention span and areas of the brain that are used for memory. These parts of the brain are the bilateral temporal, parietal, and frontal regions (Lake et al. 2011).
Along with general health aspects and attention, music has been shown to be relieving in stressful situations. Morphogenesis, serotonin, endorphins, and cortical are all shown to be affected by music. Positive forms of musical stress management are guided imagery using music, progressive muscle relaxation to music, and simply just listening to music (Head, 2011). Morphogenesis, which regulates arousal levels, has been shown to have decreasing levels while slow music is playing (Head, 2011). Tests have shown that serotonin is increased by pleasant music and reduced by unpleasant music (Head, 2011).
Endorphins are raised with pleasant music pieces, like serotonin, but are decreased by some of the unpleasant sounds of techno music (Head, 2011). Cortical is the main stress hormone in the brain (Head, 2011). It is elevated during stressful situations to protect the body (Head, 2011). It has been supported that music exposure decreases cortical, resulting in decreasing stress (Head, 2011). However, Head (2011) presents that music written in major keys is shown to be more effective than music written in minor keys. Head (2011) also found that there is a positive relationship between relaxing music and immunological stress markers.
Music can increase or decrease heart rate and blood pressure, along with promoting relaxation (Head, 2011). Some studies on the musical correlation with psychology have concluded with results showing that music has a positive effect and others a negative effect. Other studies have shown that there is very little correlation, if there is any correlation at all. Culture, social status, and personality type can all play a part on which music a certain person finds calming or relaxing Ordain, 1997). In studies that concluded with positive results, there were common characteristics hat are claimed to have made the effect the way it was.
Sandy Bother (2003) claimed that “yin music” reduces stress and tension, calms the mind, relieves anxiety, and relaxes the body. Mining music” was classified as energize, motivating, and activating (Bother, 2003). It was also claimed that relaxing music contains a regular rhythm, a slow tempo, long articulation, simple harmonies, and a narrow, high pitched range of notes (Elliott et al. , 2011). All of these characteristics make a piece of music relaxing or pleasant. Some keywords that have been associated with relaxing USIA are “peaceful”, “serenity’, “sadness”, and “JOY’ (Elliott et al. , 2011). Elliott et al. 2011) also concluded that musical components of relaxation went in a specific descending order; tempo, melody, beat, harmony, rhythm, liking, complexity, key, scale, articulation, interval, melodic range, and familiarity. Elliott et al. (2011) suggested that tempo should be roughly 80-100 beats per minute, melody should be strong and secure, the beat should have a regular pulse and be constant, the harmonies triadic (popular in Western music), rhythm is simple, constant, and subtle, articulation is mostly long. In studies that concluded with more negative results, there were also common characteristics.
Music that had a negative effect was described with words such as “anticipation”, “interest”, “distraction”, “annoyance”, “JOY’, and “surprise” (Elliott et al. , 2011). Film soundtracks and commercial adverts were described as distracting, as well as most natural noises (Elliott et al. , 2011). Peter et al. (2010) used the words arousing, aggressive, and unpleasant to describe the negative effects of certain pieces of music. Music that had positive effects has a fairly wide range of genres and reasons Enid it having a positive effect. An music” was classified as New Age, baroque, and classical music (Bother, 2003).
Bother (2003) also stated that examples of Mining music” are Jazz, reggae, marches, and movie themes. Head (2011) said that responses to music could be based on a number of things such as familiarity with the music, preference, the person’s current mood, and the amount of music training the person has had. Perhaps and Whitney (2012) suggested that improvements in scores of tests tested with music were because the music was well liked and it caused an increase in mood and arousal. It was claimed by Perhaps et al. (2012) that preferable music was more enjoyable, less annoying, and less boring.
Also, while both fast and slow tempos showed increase, fast tempos were shown to be more effective than slow tempos (Perhaps et al. , 2012). Elliott et al. (2011) concluded that some genres of relaxing music are classical, new age, and chilled-pop. Music with positive effects and music with negative effects both have certain characteristics in common. Peter et al. (2010) claimed that hip-hop music provides a distracting environment. Levities (2006) found that rock music has been classified as anti-intellectual. It was decided by Lake et al. (2011) that music has its negative effects only when pertaining to certain types of activity.
Dibbed & Williamson (2007) declared that music can have a negative effect in the way that it possibly requires the listener to process sounds and words and, in some cases, tap and sing along or recall memories brought up by the music. Every psychological experiment could have multiple outcomes. In the case of music, some outcomes are positive, some are negative, and some have little to no effect. It is debated on what genre of music is most effective, if it even does have an effect. From reviewing the previous studies a question has formed; does popular music have the most psychological effect on test scores?
Procedure The goal of this experiment was to determine how different genres of music effect test scores. Specific materials were needed to conduct the experiment including; twelve high school students with various backgrounds and study habits, a Jazz song (Groove Merchant – That Jones & Mel Lewis), a pop song (Call Me Maybe – Carry Rae Jeep’s), a classical song (Symphony No. 40 – Mozart), a timer, and four math tests. Each of the math tests were similar in that they had addition, subtraction, and altercations problems which got increasingly harder.
Test A was taken in a setting with no music playing. Test B was taken in a setting with Jazz music. Test C was taken in a setting with pop music. Test D was taken in a setting with classical music. The data was collected by scoring each test and comparing the tests between each this experiment were the test taken in a setting with no music playing and the amount of time each student took each test. Because there are human test subjects, there are likely to be variables that affect the way the students score such as tiredness, mood, stress level, and dedication to the test.
Results The chart above shows the raw data from the experiment. Students 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 12 all had their highest scores on Test D, which was classical music. Students 4, 6, and 10 all had their highest scores on Test C, which was pop music. Students 2 and 8 had their highest scores on both Test C and Test D, which were pop music and classical music. Student 9 was different from all other students, having their highest scores on Test B and Test C, which were Jazz music and pop music. Discussion The average score for Test A was 9 out of 30 points and the standard deviation was 2. 701009912.
The average score for Test B was 12 out of 30 points and the standard deviation was 2. 968266508. The average score for Test C was 13 out of 30 points and the standard deviation was 3. 918680978. The average score for Test D was 14 out of 30 points and the standard deviation was 2. 906367096. The graph above shows the scores on each test for each student. In the third group of bars student 6 is an outlier in the data. This data point is the only noticeable outlier. This next graph shows the averages of each test with error bars. The error bars all overlap with each other at a point.
Considering this, there is no significant different in the data. According to the data, the hypothesis that popular music will have the most positive effect on test scores was not supported. While Test D, which was taken in a setting with classical music, had the highest average score, the error bars showed that there was no significant difference in the test scores. Also, according to averages, Test A, which was taken in a setting with no music, had the lowest scores. The averages of tests B and C fell between the averages of tests A and D. Acknowledgements Thank you to Mrs..
