Nowadays, it is a common thing in colleges to see many students going to the library with their headphones and earphones. It is a frequent situation to see students studying while listening to music. In the past, this was unheard of. The library was a tranquil place where things like radios were not allowed.
Nowadays students go as far as saying that they cannot study without music. They say that it helps them concentrate. Some students even say that they cannot study without music because it becomes “too quiet” and becomes hard for them to focus. Which may seem very weird, right?
During the early 1990s, a study was conducted by Dr. Gordon Shaw on the brain’s capacity for spatial reasoning. He dubbed his research “The Mozart Effect,” and it claimed that music, especially classical music, made people smarter. Dr. Shaw, together with his partner, a student named Xiodang Leng, developed a research procedure where musical notes were used to represent brain activities.
Some college students were handpicked to participate in this study. These students were required to listen to classical music and perform tasks like solving mazes. At the end of the research, Dr shaw came up with the conclusion that the test subjects had increased their IQs by as many as nine points because of listening to “Sonata for two pianos in D major,” a classical song by Mozart. However, this research and its conclusion was found to be misleading because the test subject only tested on one type of intelligence (spatial reasoning) alone. 40 years after this study, another group of researchers revised the results of the same students in the study, reviewed it and found no evidence of any increase in IQ. That is according to content from https://www.studyinternational.com/news/does-listening-to-music-while-studying-make-you-a-better-student/
More modern studies have shown that the brain operates in two parts when it comes to paying attention and concentration. One of these parts is the conscious system. This part allows as to concentrate on a particular activity willingly. It also enables us to direct all our attention to this specific activity in that specific moment. The second part is the unconscious attention system. Under this system, the brain is allowed to react to stimuli in our surrounding environment, which makes us shift our attention and concentration from the task that we were doing and focus it on the distraction.
This action happens unconsciously which means we do not actively direct our brains to do this. It is important to note that the unconscious part is usually very potent and faster than the conscious system. This means that we are easily distracted as a species and therefore need a way of blocking off distraction to fully concentrate on a particular activity for as long as we want. As an essay writer who wants to create excellent articles, one way of doing this is by using music to create some background noise. This helps block most of the surrounding environment distraction, hence helping you concentrate better.
Benefits of Using Music to Study
Although it is quite clear that music does not in any way increase a student’s IQ, it has some advantages that help a student study better. It is also essential to remember that the choice of music to listen to greatly depends on the individual. What I may like might not suit you. Subsequently, if you use music you do not want, you will be significantly demoralized and will not concentrate. Some of the benefits of using the music of your choice to study include;
- Reduces stress- music has been scientifically proven to reduce stress as it reduces your cortisol level. This means that it will help you study better because it relaxes you. This then enables you to pay more attention and absorb more. This can come in handy especially where you are having a hectic semester and have got a lot of tasks to attend to.
- Helps students memorize better- studies have shown that students can increase their ability to memorize the information that they are studying if they listen to music when studying.
Adverse Effects of Using Music to Study
However, the use of music while studying does have adverse effects of its own. These include;
- Studies show that if a student is attending to tasks like reading or writing and listens to music while performing these tasks, they are likely to absorb less information than those that did not listen to music while doing the same assignments.
- Loud music usually disrupts concentration and puts you in a lousy mood; therefore, making it hard for you to grasp whatever you are reading.
Remember the type of music you listen to also matters a lot. Studies have shown that listening to music that has lyrics distracts you while you read and write. Refer to https://www.fnu.edu/benefits-studying-music/