Music Effects on Memory
Faculty Mentor(s) Name(s)
Dr. Eric Rindal
Abstract
Music Effects on Memory Music's impact on memory and cognition has long been discussed. Echaide and colleagues (2019) found neither a benefit nor decreased recall for verbal information when background music was present. Participants in their study listened to music while memorizing a word list. Their words were shown for four seconds at a time, and the participants were given a two-second interval between each word. An immediate free recall test took place after they memorized the word lists. Echaide claims that while his results reveal that music does not affect memory, a wide variety of results still claim that it would otherwise prove harmful or beneficial to the listener’s memory. The present study seeks to explore lyrical music's impact relative to music without lyrics and to observe recall when music is no longer playing. Participants in this study were given lists of twenty words to memorize while a sound condition was being played. Each list contained 15 concrete non-related words, and each word was presented on the screen for five seconds before moving on to the next word in the list. The music conditions were Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker, Wagon Wheel (without lyrics), Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train (without lyrics), brown noise, Bagatelle No. 25 by Beethoven, and Silence. After being presented with the word list, the participants completed a matching game to activate a delayed recall. The music was paused for participants to complete a free-recall test. This was repeated seven times, with each condition having a separate word list and sound played. We hypothesize that participants’ verbal memory will be better with music that does not have lyrics. We further hypothesize that participants of non-lyrical versions of songs will perform better than the same set of lyrical songs.
Start Date
27-3-2024 10:00 AM
End Date
27-3-2024 10:50 AM
Location
Magnolia Ballroom
Music Effects on Memory
Magnolia Ballroom
Music Effects on Memory Music's impact on memory and cognition has long been discussed. Echaide and colleagues (2019) found neither a benefit nor decreased recall for verbal information when background music was present. Participants in their study listened to music while memorizing a word list. Their words were shown for four seconds at a time, and the participants were given a two-second interval between each word. An immediate free recall test took place after they memorized the word lists. Echaide claims that while his results reveal that music does not affect memory, a wide variety of results still claim that it would otherwise prove harmful or beneficial to the listener’s memory. The present study seeks to explore lyrical music's impact relative to music without lyrics and to observe recall when music is no longer playing. Participants in this study were given lists of twenty words to memorize while a sound condition was being played. Each list contained 15 concrete non-related words, and each word was presented on the screen for five seconds before moving on to the next word in the list. The music conditions were Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker, Wagon Wheel (without lyrics), Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train (without lyrics), brown noise, Bagatelle No. 25 by Beethoven, and Silence. After being presented with the word list, the participants completed a matching game to activate a delayed recall. The music was paused for participants to complete a free-recall test. This was repeated seven times, with each condition having a separate word list and sound played. We hypothesize that participants’ verbal memory will be better with music that does not have lyrics. We further hypothesize that participants of non-lyrical versions of songs will perform better than the same set of lyrical songs.