Music and memory: effects of listening to music while studying in college students

Abstract

Thirty-nine college students participated in an experiment that tested their memory for a text that they studied while in one of the three different auditory settings. Participants were randomly assigned to study a text in silence or while listening to either popular music or classical music. Previous studies have shown mixed performance effects of listening to music while studying a text. The current experiment focused on how college students enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Stout performed on a test of memory after studying a text in varying auditory environments. The results demonstrated that college students recall more content after listening to pop music or silence during study when compared to classical music.