The Effects of Classic Music on Calculating Ability Aoran Wang

Abstract

This study examined the effects of classic music listening on the accuracy of doing mathematic operation. Primary school students under age 10-13 (N-134) are tested on two math tasks with the same difficult level under two separate conditions: in silence, or with classic music.We predicted that the classic music will impair their ability on mathematic calculation, and imposes significant negative impact on the test results.  According to our pre-research  (volunteering sample of 283 participants), over 54% of the  participants responded that listening music will not ruin their calculating . Mayfield and Moss (1989) revealed that background music with a quick tempo improved the subjects' cognitive performance in a task involving the calculation of stock market price changes. (Mayfield, C. and Moss, S. 1989. Effect of music tempo on task performance. Psychological Reports, 65: 1283-1290.)However, the hypothesis test that we constructed reveals that the difference of accuracy under two conditions is significant, suggesting that listening music significantly impair the calculating ability.The Effects of Classic Music on Calculating Ability

 Music is a ubiquitous component of contemporary society. Empowered by the advanced technology, people can listen to music anywhere simply by clicking up the iTunes on their iPhones. According to our survey among 283 volunteers(most of them are students), 73.14% of the respondents confessed that they have the habits of listening to music (mostly classic music) while study. However, could classic music be associated with academic performance? Could people perform better on study with classic background music? Or, will it impair people's academic performance?