![]() ![]() In other words, far better to listen to music and get some work done, than to end up doing no work at all. If it’s a choice between studying while listening to music and working at 80% of your maximum efficiency, vs not studying at all (i.e., 0% efficiency), I know which I’d choose. What’s the alternative?įinally, music can help motivate you to work in the first place, by lifting your mood and your energy levels. If anything, listening to music may actually help because the task would otherwise be boring and your mind would wander off. If music is problematic because it takes up some of your focus / attention, well, maybe there are times when study tasks are relatively simple, and you have “mental bandwidth” to spare. I think we’d all agree that different sorts of study tasks need different levels of concentration. Music that makes you happy is also more likely to give you a boost to motivation, and the music that makes you happy is a highly personal thing. Maybe there are some people very familiar with Death Angel, who are far less distracted by it than I would be. If something is very familiar to you, it’s likely to be less distracting because your brain knows what’s coming next. What’s significantly distracting to one person might be a great backdrop for a different person. I wonder what would have happened if they’d tested me with some of my favourite study music – my guess is there would have been a far smaller difference between test results with and without music if the tracks had been less distracting. ![]() ![]() There’s no way I personally could get much work done to this soundtrack. If any music was going to be significantly distracting, it would be tracks like these! The music the researchers chose for the study was “heavy / thrash metal… Death Angel’s Seemingly Endless Time and The Ultra Violence”. Here’s why I don’t think it’s good evidence that “music while studying = bad”: The researchers chose super-distracting music When you dig into this research – and its interpretation – there are some pretty serious flaws. Many advisors will point to the 2014 research by Cardiff-based psychologists Perham and Currie ( ref), which showed a 60% improvement in exam score if you learn in silence vs if you have music with lyrics in the background.īased on this study, students often get told that it’s best not to listen to music while studying. So is my habit of studying with music backed up by the research? I’m a trained psychologist, and I care about the science. I’m also a big fan of evidence-based advice about how to study effectively. ![]() Last year, Spotify tells me I racked up 757 hours of listening time – that’s equivalent to 31 continuous days of 24-hours-a-day music! What most study experts say about studying with music I still do most of my desk work as a memory psychologist / exam success coach to a backdrop of music to this day. I’ll even give you some advanced tips on how to match the music to the study task you’re working on, for maximum productivity.īut first, I need to get a confession out of the way… I’m a HUGE fan of listening to music while studyingĪs a student, I listened to music pretty well all the time while writing or reading. I’m going to explain the science behind listening to music while studying, then break down exactly what it means for YOU when you’re choosing whether to study with music or not. I think it IS okay to listen to music BUT you’ve got to be very careful about the music you choose for certain tasks. When I’m doing talks in schools, there’s one question I get asked more than any other: “can I listen to music when I’m studying”? Does music help you study, or is it just going to distract you? ![]()
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