Does music effect your knowledge?

Question

I am in the 8th grade and I am proving whether or not music affects your knowledge. I am going to sit a person from my class in a room and put a 20 question test in front of them and turn on either classic, rap,country, and no music...I will do this four times so the person does it with ecah different usic and no music...I will do this with four different people. Please help me i can't find any information on this :(

Answer 1

No. The music is what psychologists would call an "extraneous variable". All that would do is distract the people taking your test.

For a good study on music go to this website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1408434.stm

This was a study to see whether cows would produce more milk listening to a certain type of music :)

Might I suggest attempting to prove something else...

Answer 2

Manda, this sounds cool to me, too. But I'm a little confused.

You use the phrase "affects your knowledge." Your knowlege is, by definition, what you already know. Will your subjects know the questions you're going to ask? And will you ask the same questions each time with different music? (In a different order, perhaps?)

I ask because, if you CHANGE the test QUESTIONS with each music, then you're changing TWO VARIABLES per try, and you Don't wanna do that. The music should be the only changing variable

Soooo, another way of doing it might be a kind of eye/hand coordination test instead of a "knowledge" test. Say, print out a sentence of 20 or so words. Then print it out again, but sissor-cut this paper into 20 separate words and mix them up. Give your subjects both the pieces and the complete sentence (their Goal.) Then TIME them to see how long it takes to rearrange the pieces back into the sentence, each time using the different musics. You can use the same sentence for each try because only the mixing will be different each time.

This way, since the subjects already know "the answer," you're timing how FOCUSED and CONCENTRATED they are in arriving AT the answer, and how much of a distraction is the music.

Jembaloo's "extraneous variable" point that all [the music] would do is distract the people taking your test, seems to me to be the POINT OF your test. The cows liked it !!:-) Heck, why not us !!

And one more thing... I'd suggest you look to find Only INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC... no lyrics. Don't let the Words of one song have more "distracting force" than just the instruments of another kind of music. (Hmmm, now, having said that, Rap without words... ok, That's gonna be kinda hard to find now, isn't it. LoL) (Ok, well then how about ALL lyric songs?)

Ok, I'll shut up now. :-))

Peace. Rick


PS... Wow, Manda, I just read everyone else's answers after I posted mine. You've got a LOT of ideas and data to work with here. Have Fun !

Answer 3

First off you will not PROVE anything the scientific method is concerned with evidence and support, but not proof.

There are two questions that you may be asking: 1. Does the ability to concentrate (assumption of retaining information) vary depending on the type of music being played, or 2. Do people who are exposed to music repeatedly retain more information than those who do not?

Here are some suggestions for your method. Do not expose participants to multiple kinds of music since the effect (result you are hoping to examine) may be reduced by overexposure (fatigue). Alternatively, it may be confused by some mixture of they types of music which will make an effect more difficult to explain if you find one. Also, you may want to consider using one music type per person with music types with which they are unfamiliar. Be sure to include your 'control group' of participants who receive no music.

There are a few links below to get you started.

Have fun and welcome to science!

Answer 4

In my opinion, music will not affect knowledge itself (one either has learned the answer to a question at some point or hasn't), but --some-- music certainly has the potential to possibly stimulate one's ability to recall information learned.

Good luck on your experiment. Interesting for you to post your findings.

Answer 5

I’m not sure whether music affects ‘knowledge’ as you put it, but Mozart in particular has certainty been alleged to aid concentration (some say intelligence), which in turn aids the recall of ‘knowledge’: It is known as the Mozart effect.

Answer 6

When I was in school, I studied with classical music in the background. It apparently helps you to concentrate and retain information. Good luck, sounds like a cool project!

Answer 7

Jembaloo is correct and there is no scientific proof that music affects your knowledge.

Answer 8

TO ME I THINK THAT SOME TIMES IT DO. FOR INSTANCE YOUNG KIDS THESE DAYS ARE PICKING UP THE LYRICS OF HOOD *****. AND THEY KNOW IT BUT WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO THE SCHOOL WORK THEY DONT KNOW A DAMN THING. BUT IT'S NOT THEIR FAUGHT BECAUSE THEY PARENTS LET THEM LISTEN TO THAT TYPE OF MUSIC AT THAT AGE. YES I DO KNOW EVERY SONG OR VIDEO THAT COMES ON BET OR THE RAIDO.

Answer 9

I have heard that composer called Bach is great when you study math..his music is supposed o be very helpful.....for math...don't know why though...hope I helped :3

Answer 10

no