Should you listen to music while doing intellectual work? It depends -- Science of the Spirit -- Sott.net

People more prone to boredom performed better without background music

Given how many of us listen to music while studying or doing other cerebral work, you'd think psychology would have a set of clear answers as to whether the practice is likely to help or hinder performance. In fact, the research literature is rather a mess (not that that has deterred some enterprising individuals from making bold claims).

There's the largely discredited "Mozart Effect" - the idea that listening to classical music can boost subsequent IQ, except that when first documented in the 90s the effect was on spatial reasoning specifically, not general IQ. Also, since then the finding has not replicated, or it has proven weak and is probably explained as a simple effect of music on mood or arousal on performance. And anyway, that's about listening to music and then doing mental tasks, rather than both simultaneously. Other research on listening to music while we do mental work has suggested it can be distracting (known as the "irrelevant sound effect"), especially if we're doing mental arithmetic or anything that involves holding information in the correct order in short-term memory.

Now, in the hope of injecting more clarity and realism into the literature, Manuel Gonzalez and John Aiello have tested the common-sense idea that the effects of background music on mental task performance will depend on three things: the nature of the music, the nature of the task, and the personality of the person. "We hope that our findings encourage researchers to adopt a more holistic, interactionist approach to investigate the effects of music (and more broadly, distractions) on task performance," they write in their new paper in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

The researchers recruited 142 undergrads (75 per cent were women) and asked them to complete two mental tasks. The simpler task involved finding and crossing out all of the letter As in a sample of text. The more complex task involved studying lists of word pairs and then trying to recall the pairs when presented with just one word from each pair.

Each task was performed while listening to one of two versions of a piece of elevator-style instrumental music - composed for the research - or no music. One version of the music was more complex than the other, featuring additional bass and drum tracks (both versions are available via the Open Science Framework). Also, depending on the precise experimental condition, the music was either quiet or louder (62 or 78 decibels). The participants also completed part of the "boredom proneness scale" to establish whether they were the kind of person who likes plenty of external stimulation or not (as measured by their agreement with statements like "it takes a lot of change and variety to keep me really happy").

Participants' performance was explained by an interaction between the task, the music, and their preference for external stimulation. When performing the simpler task, participants not prone to boredom did better while listening to complex music than simple music or no music, whereas boredom prone participants showed the opposite pattern, performing better with no music at all or simple music. In terms of volume, the low boredom prone were better with quiet complex music, whereas the boredom prone did better with louder complex music.

The researchers' explanation is that for low boredom people who aren't so keen on external stimulation, the quieter, more complex music provided just enough distraction to stop them from mind wandering from the simple task, thus boosting their task focus and performance. In contrast, the more boredom prone participants who like external stimulation tuned in too much to the complex music and were overly distracted by it, thus performing worse than when working in silence.

For the more complex task, the precise nature of the music (its complexity and volume) made no difference to results. But people low in boredom proneness benefited from having any kind of music in the background (the researchers aren't sure why, but perhaps there were mood or arousal-based benefits not measured in this study), whereas once again the boredom prone folk with a preference for external stimulation again actually performed better with no music.

Though these findings may seem counterintuitive, the researchers' explanation is that, for boredom prone people, the complex task provided adequate stimulation and background music interfered with this productive engagement. Supporting this interpretation, the more boredom prone participants outperformed their less boredom prone peers at the task in the no-music condition (and at an earlier, baseline cognitive test), suggesting they engaged better with the tasks (the researchers additionally noted that this result challenges the way that boredom as an emotion is usually seen as a bad thing, suggesting "it can predict constructive outcomes, such as better complex task performance").

If you consider yourself as prone to boredom and craving of external stimulation, a tentative implication of these findings - bearing in mind they are preliminary - is that you might be better off studying or do other cerebral work without music in the background, at least not music that is too complex. On the other hand, if you are less craving of stimulation, then paradoxically some background music could boost your performance. As the researchers stated: "we offer evidence against the commonly held belief that distractions like music will always harm task performance." They added, "our findings suggest that the relationship between music and task performance is not 'one-size-fits-all'. In other words, music does not appear to impair or benefit performance equally for everyone."

Part of the problem with interpreting the results is in the ambiguity of the aspect of boredom proneness that the researchers looked at - "preference for external stimulation". Past research has generally considered boredom proneness to be associated with less desirable aspects of personality, such as having less self-control and being more impetuous, and this could fit with the idea that boredom prone participants in this research were more distracted by background music. However, as mentioned, the participants scoring higher on "preference for external stimulation" generally performed better at the tasks, thus raising questions about what aspect of personality and/or mental aptitude was really being tapped by this measure. It doesn't help matters that there was no direct measure of attentional control and focus in the study. (In terms of other relevant personality traits, prior research has found that introverts are more distracted than extraverts by highly arousing music).

Other obvious limitations include the question of how much the featured tasks resemble real-life challenges, and the fact that people often listen to music they know and like rather than unfamiliar, instrumental music.

Still, it's laudable that the current research attempted to consider how various factors interact in explaining the effect of music on mental performance. Gonzalez and John Aiello concluded, "we hope our research will serve as a starting point for more systematic investigation of music."

Reader Comments

lsjarvi · 2019-02-18T15:00:52Z

With me, it's more about the fact that I can never 'background' music. My attention is drawn to it. If it's simplistic and repetitive, with a 2/4 drumbeat, I'm pissed off and can't concentrate on anything else. I just want to get away from it. I'm always amazed at how often great care is taken to create a pleasing visual environment, and the auditory environment is pure crap. Most people are literally dead to their auditory environment.

If it's complex music, I'm drawn into the structure, instrumentation, dynamics, and mood, and I similarly can't concentrate on anything else.

I am obviously an oddball with regard to this, but my ability to focus on a task with background music has absolutely nothing to do with whether I'm bored or not. I simply can't do it.

Gcarlin · 2019-02-18T20:50:08Z

I'm the same way. The drumming music is one of my pet peeves and unfortunately it's very popular these days.

Ambient music and or nature sounds work well for me.

But yeah people are so numb to their auditory environment, probably because they get desensitized by the popular crap. Meanwhile, for us, we don't Gerry desensitized and it gets on our nerves.

Rowan Cocoan · 2019-03-05T23:39:51Z

lsjarvi No, you're not. Certainly, being a musician likewise doesn't help.

R.C.

Rowan Cocoan · 2019-02-21T17:21:16Z

Isjarvii & Gcarlin: Me too.

In particular, I cannot listen to music with lyrics (my brain sings with them) or even instrumental versions of any songs that I'm familiar with as my brain inserts the words and certainly doesn't help my already less than great level of multi--tasking skills.

Yes, I can listen to mellow classical music, (Schubert, etc.) but the Bach type stuff gets too 'busy.'

I'd never even try to work while a Rachmaninoff is playing.

R.C.

Dus7 · 2019-02-21T18:14:18Z

Interesting topic. Although using a very limited in age, socioeconomic level, interests, etc. study group and even more limited musical selection, this 'study' does raise good questions. Whether music of whatever kind helps or hinders whatever type of work one is doing is going to be an individual thing as noted.

I myself am not eclectic in my musical taste as is 'PC' these days (a lot of people have responded to my effort to chat about music with a standard, 'Oh, I like all kinds of music!'). That's not me. I stream polymer.fm [Link] or my own files of 'progressive house', 'deep house', and similar electronic music, and once in a while to my own files of 'classics', meaning old favorites from R&B, Pop/Rock, and even a couple of folk tunes. Cannot stand classical or country.

I listen to 'my' music 99% of the time when I'm on the puter. I think the electronic genres I prefer have a beat that's like my own heartbeat or something. Who knows why we like the music we like. If it gets in the way, just turn it down or off. But when you cannot turn it off, like the music in stores, it is often so bad (to me) that I have to finish shopping quickly and leave.

Mandatory Intellectomy · 2019-02-21T19:15:00Z

This is a complex issue, one that I've given a lot of thought to, since much of my life revolves around music. (Not many people have 12000 albums in their collection.)

" music does not appear to impair or benefit performance equally for everyone "

This much is clear, but I'm surprised the experiments ignored what's imo the single most important factor: whether you like the music or not. (Or rather whether you dislike it.)

There's a HUGE difference in listening to music of my own choice and listening to something that's forced upon me, like the radio at work.

I can listen to music of my choice along with doing just about anything, with effects ranging from clearly positive to neutral. But when I have to listen to retarded pop crap from the radio, I just want to shoot myself.

I get an obvious positive effect when listening to anything rhythmic while doing manual work. Listening to something like Fear Factory while carrying boxes around and stuff like that visibly increases my performance, mood, and enjoyment of the work.

But this article was about intellectual work. Here there aren't really any clearly positive effects, as far as I can tell. I simply have to focus on the work, so the music is (has to be) relegated to the background. So the issue here is the negative effect, mainly distraction from the work.

If it's any music of my choice, I don't have a problem focusing on the work and not letting the music distract me. (Though with stuff I really, really like, this can be a bit harder.) Ambient music is best for this, but basically, as long as the music doesn't bother me, it's fine.

If it's shitty music from the radio, I can't really focus on any kind of work. I'm just pissed off and trying hard not to commit suicide.

I don't mind silence when working (though at home, I pretty much listen to music 99% of the time), but apparently other humans cannot handle silence, so in every workplace I've ever been, a radio had to be on at all times. This gives me 2 options: mp3 player with earphones (if they allow it) or quitting.

But the negative effect isn't from a specific kind of music per se. It's just "the kind of music I don't like".

All those claims that classical music has some benefits in my opinion completely ignores the supremely important issue that any particular person may or may not enjoy classical music. If you, for whatever reason, don't like classical music, playing Mozart is not going to do anything good for you. It's just going to annoy you. On the other hand, if you like Black Metal, Noise, or whatever, chances are listening to it will have a positive effect, simply because you like it and thus enjoy any activity more while listening to your favourite music.

The idea that different types of music would have specific effects on all people, disregarding their taste, doesn't make any sense.

So if in an experiment they make people listen to music those people didn't choose, it's clear the effects will be different for everyone.

lsjarvi · 2019-02-25T21:50:01Z

It also depends on why the person listens to music. For many people, as Mandatory Intellectomy points out, it's to manage or improve their mood. I don't like having my mood managed by anything external to myself, so that's never why I will choose to listen to music. I will choose to listen because it's interesting and artistically expressive, creative and coherent. If the mood is also pleasing, that's just icing on the cake. Once I've thoroughly absorbed a piece of music, I'm rarely compelled to hear it again, just as once I've thoroughly taken in a movie or a painting or a book, I don't seek it out again. If it's complex enough, though, I might listen or watch a second or third time, until I've satisfied myself that I have absorbed everything that I can take from it.