Five studies on the effects of music on behaviour

7/29/2019 Five studies on the effects of music on behaviour

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The effects of background music on learning, performance and behaviour

Sue Hallam and Anastasia Kotsopoulou, Institute of Education, University of London

Introduction

The effect of music on the moods, emotions and behaviour of both individuals and groups has beennoted throughout history. A number of writers have discussed the functions of music (e.g. Merriam,1964; Gaston, 1968), while others have researched both the physiological and psychological effects(see Radocy & Boyle, 1988 for a review). As a result of this research music has come to be consideredas lying on a continuum from highly stimulating and invigorating to soothing or calming (Gaston,1968). There is certainly strong evidence from a variety of sources that people respond differently tostimulative and sedative music (Radocy and Boyle, 1988). However, within the field of education therehave been few studies investigating the non-contingent use of music in influencing the behaviour and

performance of children.

Hall (1952), exploring the possible uses of music in schools found that performance on reading

comprehension tests was significantly improved when background music was playing. 58% of the 2458th and 9th graders taking part in the study showed an increase in scores on the Nelson Silent ReadingTests. There were also settling down periods at the beginning of the morning and afternoon sessionsand a mid-afternoon fatigue period when music was of greatest assistance. Her study also suggestedthat the major portion of the aid given by background music was an increase in accuracy and that thosestudents who were below average in intelligence and achievement benefitted more from the presenceof background music than those above average, suggesting that this could be because these studentswere more in need of an aid to concentration.

In a smaller scale study of four hyperactive pupils, Scott (1970) found that the introduction ofbackground music into the classroom setting had a calming influence. Comparison of performance onan arithmetic task across four conditions, the normal classroom environment, the introduction of

background music into the normal classroom, children sitting in three sided booths and children sittingin the booths with background music revealed that the children were most productive when backgroundmusic was introduced into the normal classroom setting.

Recent research by Savan (1998) demonstrated improved behaviour and a greater concentration onschool work when background music was played during the science lessons of 10 children with learningand emotional and behavioural difficulties. Savan hypothesised that many of their problems stemmedfrom poor physical co-ordination and that stimulation of the brain with sounds of particular frequenciescould improve this. During each science lesson, the children, who attended a mainstream school, were

played music by Mozart as this was believed to have a high level of sounds of the appropriatefrequency. Savan hypothesised that this would stimulate the brain to produce a chemical, probably anendorphin, which would lower blood pressure. The effect of lowering blood pressure results in

decreasing amounts of chemicals such as adrenalin and corticosteroids in the blood. By decreasingthese chemicals, the whole body metabolism is lowered producing a calming effect. To assess theextent of physiological changes in the children measures of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulserate and temperature were made before, during and after the lessons when the music was being played.All showed a significant decrease when background music was played, lending support to Savanshypothesis.

These studies suggest that the use of music in the classroom may be beneficial to pupils performance.Giles (1991) also suggests that most pupils function very well with music in the background and theright music at the right time can make them less stressed, more relaxed, happier and more productive.She found that the most effective music for improving childrens performance was what they liked,

providing that it did not overly excite them.

The aims of the studies reported here are to explore whether background music affects learning,performance and behaviour.


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Study 1

The pupils

The pupils were a group of children aged between 9 and 10 (8 boys and 2 girls) attending a day schoolfor children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Most of the children were attending for 4 or 5days each week. One child was attending for only 3 days each week. Observation of the group revealeda high frequency of disruptive behaviour such as tantrums, crying, destructive behaviour, overt verbaland physical aggression and general over activity. None of the children had any diagnosis of braininjury and all were reported to have IQS within normal limits.

Materials

The music for the study was selected from that suggested by Giles (1991) as mood calming. Specificpieces were chosen by playing short excerpts (60-90 seconds) to a group of 26 pupils attending a dayschool for emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children. The pupils were asked to assess each pieceof music on three dimensions happy/sad, calming/exciting, and like/dislike. The criterion for inclusion

of any individual piece of music in the experiment was that it should be interpreted as calming by themajority of the respondents.

A standard Sony camcorder was mounted on a tripod in the corner of the classroom to record eachexperimental session. A booklet of arithmetic problems within the childs level of achievement was

prepared for each child. The music was played on a good quality cassette player.

DesignThe design of the study was counterbalanced with each pupil acting as his/her own control. The firstfour trials were completed without background music, followed by four trials with background music.After a gap of one week the procedure was repeated in reverse order for three trial under each condition

(See Table 1).

Table 1

Phase one Phase two

Without music With music With music Without music

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6

The trials took place at the same time each day immediately after lunch. To counteract the effects ofpractice and boredom with the task, the arithmetic task was changed for phase two. The new problemsremained within each childs level of competence.

Procedure

Before each session the pupils were requested to sit quietly and complete as many maths problemscorrectly as possible in a given time span. They were asked not to speak to the other children or movearound the room. If a teacher's help was required they were asked to raise their hand and wait until theywere asked to speak.

The pupils were reminded of the rules at regular intervals. If one of the pupils broke a rule they would

initially be given a reminder e.g. You are expected to sit quietly or You are expected to remain inyour seat. If the behaviour was so extreme or persistent that it gave the remainder of the group little


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realistic chance of settling to their tasks then the pupil would be told that they would be asked to leavethe room if they continued. If the pupil was removed from the room then their scores for that sessionwere omitted.

For each session two measures were recorded; the number of correctly completed maths problems andthe number of times rules were broken (10 second interval sampling).

Rule breaking behaviour consisted of:* addressing a teacher without first raising a hand and waiting to be spoken to* any comments to other children* leaving seat without first gaining permission* hitting or making threatening gestures* making excessive noise non-verbally (e.g banging something)

The explicit criteria as outlined above enabled observers to be trained easily and led to very high levelsof inter-rater reliability. The video sequences were analysed by three observers, all teachers at theschool. They were allocated pupils to observe for each session. In every second session a crossobservation was conducted as a simple running check of observer reliability.

Results

The mean score for mathematics performance with background music was 38.5 (SD 15.1) and withoutbackground music 21.5 (SD 8.91). A repeated measures t-test revealed that the differences weresignificant at the .002 level (t= -4.7, df = 8).

In relation to rule breaking the mean scores were 17.3 ( SD 6.07) for background music and 21.2 (SD6.09) without background music. This finding was not significantly different (t = 1.9, df = 8, p = .09).Examination of the data revealed that the initial session of the first trial was largely responsible for thelack of difference, this being the time when the pupils were adjusting to having background music. Withthis initial session taken out of the analysis a paired t-test revealed a significant difference between the

two conditions at the .001 level (t=4.89, df = 8), with significantly fewer instances of rule breakingwhen background music was present.

Correlations carried out between the number of completed maths problems and the number of rulebreaking incidents revealed a significant negative association, r = -.47, p = .036. This negativeassociation suggests that the improvement in mathematics performance, in part, was related to theimprovement in behaviour, which itself seemed to be related to the influence of the music.

Further analysis, comparing individual sessions in each trial, revealed that in 4 out of the 7 sessionsthere was a significant positive affect on mathematics performance when background music was used.Even where the differences were non-significant the effects of the music were always positive. The

background music at no time had a detrimental effect on performance. The differences in behaviour

were much less marked, although it was only in the very first session using music where there was anegative effect on behaviour over the whole group of children. In 3 out of 7 sessions there was animprovement in behaviour with background music and in 3 there was no significant difference. Thissuggests that, after the initial settling down session, there were no negative effects on either behaviouror performance with background music playing.

Overall, the findings suggest that the performance and behaviour of emotionally disturbed childrenwithin the special school classroom may be enhanced by the introduction of background music. On the

basis of these findings it was decided to undertake a similar study in a mainstream primary school toestablish if the effects could be replicated with children without Special Educational Needs.

Study 2

The pupils


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31 children took part in the study. They were aged 10 to 11 in year 6 in a junior school in the Londonarea. They were randomly allocated to two groups. The teacher reported that in maths lessons theywere normally quiet and industrious. They had also had some previous experience of working with

background music in creative subjects.

Equipment/materials

To ensure continuity with the previous study the same music was used. The class teacher selected thearithmetic problems to be undertaken to consolidate work already covered in the syllabus and to bewithin each pupils level of competence. The problems all concerned fractions.

Design

The mathematics sessions took place during the first lesson of each day on four consecutive days. Forthe first fifteen minutes of each period, Group B (no music) completed their arithmetic work in one areaof the room. This was followed by general mathematics work. During this time Group A worked ongeneral mathematics tasks. Later in the session, group A (music), completed their arithmetic work for15 minutes while group B continued with general mathematics. This pattern was repeated over the four

sessions with the order alternated so that no group had a practice advantage. The pupils were instructedto work independently on their arithmetic work without talking to other pupils and to sit quietly andcomplete correctly as many of the maths problems as possible in the fifteen minutes. If the pupilrequired teacher instruction to complete the work his/her score was discounted from the analysis. Ineach session, for each individual, the number of attempted maths problems, the number correctlycompleted and the accuracy rate was recorded.

Results

An examination of the mean number of problems completed during the 15 minute session revealed thatthe mean for those listening to the background music was 34.9 (SD 7.7) problems and without

background music 27.3 (SD 7.8). This difference was statistically significant (p = .02). When

performance was considered for each day separately this pattern was repeated (see Table 3)

Table 3

Mean Number of Problems Completed with and without Music

With music Without music

Mean Sd Mean SD Significance

Day 1 37.5 9.23 28 9.3 .007

Day 2 32.5 12.6 24.8 10.7 .05

Day 3 33.8 7.8 28.4 6.1 .026

Day 4 36.4 7.9 29 11.43 .03

When the number of correct problems was considered the overall mean with background music was27.8 (SD = 7.5) and without background music 23.5 (SD = 2.8). This was not statistically significant(p = 0.12). However there was some variability within the sessions (see Table 4).

Table 4

Mean number of problems solved correctly with and without music


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Mean SD Mean SD Significance

Day 1 28.8 10.2 19.7 8.1 .01

Day 2 22.7 12 19.9 10.3 NS

Day 3 26.6 11.4 25.8 6 NS

Day 4 29.3 7.2 24.4 11.5 NS

A percentage accuracy level was established by taking the number of correct responses and dividingthem by the number of attempted responses. The percentage accuracy rate with background music was84% and without background music 80%. This difference was not statistically significant (see Table 5).However, there was a significant difference in the variance of the two sets of scores. With backgroundmusic the standard deviation was 12.7, without background music it was 5.57 (p = .025). There wasconsiderable individual variation in the level of accuracy when music was being played.

Table 5

Percentage Accuracy Level with and without Music


Mean SD Mean SD Significance

Day 1 76.9 18.3 73.8 14 NS

Day 2 71.9 25.1 79 16.5 NS

Day 3 77.4 21.57 90 5.9 NS

Day 4 81.4 15.5 80.7 12.7 NS

This small study demonstrates that background music can enhance the speed of working onmathematics problems. As a result of this the students tend to get more problems correct but theiroverall accuracy level is not improved.

Study 3

The participants

The 42 participants were all post-graduate students studying on either an Advanced Diploma orMasters course in Educational Psychology.

Materials

The music used had been previously assessed by other adults as very exciting (Sabre Dance byKhachaturian) or very relaxing (Gymnopodies I and III by Satie)

The students were all well educated but had different levels of expertise in different domains. It wastherefore decided to provide a task which none would have had any experience in completing and whichwould be intellectually challenging. A logical reasoning test was devised. 20 reasoning problems were

provided. The students were provided with two examples at the start of the test, e.g. All these bonbons

are chocolate creams;All these bonbons are delicious.


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Chocolate creams are delicious. Right/Wrong

The correct answer is Some chocolate creams are delicious.

Design

An independent design was used. There were three conditions, a control group with no music, a groupwith fast, exciting music and a group with quiet, calming music. All the students completed the logicalreasoning task.

Procedure

The students were randomly assigned to the three groups. They were asked to complete the logicalreasoning questions. The starting time was noted and the time of completion of each student. Twomeasures were taken, number of correct answers and time taken.

Results

The means and standard deviations for each of the three groups are given in Table 6.

Table 6

Type ofmusic

Exciting Control - no music quiet and calm music

Mean SD Mean SD mean Sd

Logicalreasoningtask

13.15 3.33 11.5 2.8 11.86 2.28

Time takento completetask

10 2.4 9.78 2 04 10.21 3.94

Although the means for the group listening to the exciting music are higher than the other groups ananalysis of variance revealed no significant differences between the scores. There was also nosignificant difference in the time taken to complete the test. However, subjective reports from thestudents having completed the test showed that those with the arousing music found it very distractingand many had put their hands over their ears to try to avoid listening to it. They described it as awfuland described getting the test done quickly to get away from the music.This was in contrast to the group listening to the calming music who expressed pleasure at having

listened to it.

Study 4

The pupils

30 children from Greek schools in England were selected to take part. They were randomly allocated tothree groups; a control group; a group listening to quiet, calming music; a group listening to excitingaggressive music. There were 15 boys and 15 girls, 5 in each group. All the children were in year 6, age

11-12.


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Materials

Each student was provided with a booklet of 10 stimulus sentence cards and a booklet of 19 cued recallcards. The ten sentences were selected from those used in a study by Pressley et al. (1987) Thesentences contained arbitrary relations in which particular men performed actions. The target wordswere the adjectives which describe the men e.g. the ugly man bought some plastic

The booklet with the cued- recall cards consisted of the same sentences presented, one on each pagewith a gap in place of the target word, e.g. the ....... man bought some plastic

After piloting with children of the same age as those to take part int he main study two pieces of musicwere selected: Albinonis Adagio in G minor was selected as the pleasant, calming music;J. Coltranes Meditations The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost was selected as the unpleasantaggressive music.

Design

Three groups of children either acted as a control group listening to no music, or listened to the pleasant

calming music or the unpleasant aggressive music.

Procedure

The children were divided into three groups on a random basis. They were instructed as follows: Thepurpose of this study is to find out how well you can learn sentences. Please read the followingsentences and try to memorise them. You will have 10 seconds to read each sentence. Every ten secondsI will tell you to turn the page to the next sentence. Do you all understand? Are there any questions?

Every ten seconds the children were asked to turn to the next page. When the sentences had been readthe booklets were collected and the cued-recall booklets given out. The children were then instructedYou have to fill in the gaps with the missing word in every sentence. Spelling mistakes do not matter.

You will have 10 seconds to write the missing word in each sentence. Every ten seconds I will tell youto turn the page. Do you understand? Are there any questions?

There were no questions from the children at any point in the study. Where the background music wasused it was played during the whole procedure. Each piece was repeated until the completion of thestudy.

Results

The means and standard deviations for each group are given in Table 7.


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Table 7

Control (nomusic)

Unpleasant aggressivemusic

Pleasant, calming music

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SDWholesample

4.9 1.37 3.3 1.49 6.9 1.52

Boys 5 1.87 3.2 1.9 7.2 1.3

Girls 4.8 .84 3.4 1.14 6.6 1.8

An analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences between the three groups (F= 15.17, df,2,27, p=.0001).

Study 5

The pupils

30 children from Greek schools in England were selected to take part. They were randomly allocated tothree groups; a control group; a group listening to quiet, calming music; a group listening to excitingaggressive music. There were 15 boys and 15 girls, 5 in each group. All the children were in year 6, age11-12.

Materials

Each participant was presented with a booklet containing ten stories and a choice of response to them.

After piloting with children of the same age as those to take part int he main study two pieces of musicwere selected: Albinonis Adagio in G minor was selected as the pleasant, calming music;J. Coltranes Meditations The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost was selected as the unpleasantaggressive music.

Design

Three groups of children either acted as a control group listening to no music, or listened to the pleasantcalming music or the unpleasant aggressive music.

Procedure

The children were given the booklet with the stories. They were told, Please read the stories in thebooklet and tick the answers that describe what the individuals in the story will do in the situation theyare in. If you need more explanation please raise your hand. Example stories are given below:

Tom and Nick are classmates. Tom is good at maths while Nick is weak. Their teacher told them thateveryone who finishes their maths exercises can go out to play. Tom has almost finished hiesexercises when Nick asks him for help. What do you think Tom is going to do?

A. Tom will stay and help Nick

B. Tom will tell Nick that he does not know the answers so that he can to out to play

Peter and Angela are going to the cinema to watch a film and they are in a hurry because they are late.At the traffic lights a blind woman is standing next to them and asks them if they can take her to the


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chemist, which is in the opposite direction to the cinema. What do you think they are going to do:

A. They will refuse saying that they are in a hurry

B. They are going to help her knowing that they will miss the first 10 minutes of the beginning of thefilm.

Results

The means and standard deviations for the three groups are given in the table below.

Table 8

Control (nomusic)

Unpleasant, aggressive music Quiet, calming music

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

Wholesample

6.4 2.08 4.2 1.39 7.6 1.57

Boys 5.6 1.5 3.4 1.1 6.8 1.64

Girls 7.2 1.6 5 1.22 8.4 1.1

An analysis of variance revealed that the differences between the groups were found to be highlysignificant (F=12.09, df=2,27, p=.0002).

Discussion

The studies above suggest that having particular kinds of music playing in the background can have aneffect on performance on a variety of cognitive tasks. These effects seem to be particularly marked in

primary school children and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Whether there are anyeffects n the performance of adults is still very much an open question.

There were also differences in the responses of children to questions about helping behaviour whenthey listened to what had previously been evaluated as pleasant calming music and unpleasantaggressive music. Whether these effects would extent to actual helping behaviour remains an openquestion.

There are clearly a great many questions to be raised in relation to this line of research. The research isclearly important in that music plays an important role in the lives of many people and particularly the

young who are often involved in studying and who often listen to music while doing so. There arehowever many methodological problems. These include:

* Measuring the music - can we find ways of measuring music which will be reliably interpreted bylisteners as depicting particular moods or evoking particular approaches to studying?

* Is it possible or desirable to break down the elements of the music to explore the ways that the musicis having its overall effect?

* How can we generalise findings when the situations are often artificial?

* How can we measure arousal?

* How can we meaningfully categorise tasks so that we can generalise about the effects of listening to


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background music on them?

* How can we assess learning outcomes?

* How can we assess the effects of music on learning in real life situations?

* How do we measure behaviour?

* How can we measure behaviour outcomes in real life?

It is unlikely that there are any simple solutions to these problems. Research will need to explore theeffects of music on learning, performance and behaviour using a range of methodologies. This presentsa challenge for us all in the future.

References

Fried, R & Berkowitz, L. (1979) Music hath charms....... and can influence helpfulness. Journal ofApplied Social Science, 9, 199-208.

Gaston, E.T. (Ed) (1968)Music in Therapy. New York: MacMillan

Giles, M. (1991) A little background music, please. Special Children, 51.

Hall, J. (1952) The effect of background music on the reading comprehension of 278 eighth and ninthgrade students. Journal of Educational Research, 45, 451-458.Merriam, A.P. (1964) The Anthropology of Music. Northwestern University Press.

Oaksford, M., Morris, F., Grainger, B. & Williams, J.M.G. (1996) Mood reasoning and centralexecutive processes, Journal of experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition, 22(2),477-493.

Radocy, R.E. & Boyle, J.D. (1988) Psychological Foundations of Musical Behaviour Springfield,Illinois: Charles Thomas

Savan, A. (1998) A study of the effect of background music on the behaviour and physiologicalresponses of children with special educational needs. British Psychological Society Education SectionReview

Scott, T. (1970) The use of music to reduce hyperactivity in children, American Journal ofOrthopsychiatry, 4, 677-680.

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Five studies on the effects of music on behaviour

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