Music has the capabilities of changing actions, thinking patterns, and responses in the body. With the capacity to reduce stress, enhance IQ, and alter physical bodily properties, music has become a focal point in modern psychological research. However, these studies offer contradicting conclusions, particularly in the realm of music’s effects on concentration in different academic categories.

Negative Effects on Reading Comprehension Tasks

Studies have exemplified that background music has an overall negative effect on concentration levels during reading tests for both introverts and extraverts. While introverts’ cognition is more disrupted by noise than extraverts’, both still express harmful effects on focus when the surroundings are filled with music rather than in silence (A. Furnham & L, Strbac, 2002). This corresponds with the Eysenckian hypothesis, which states,

Introverts and extroverts differ in the amount of externally derived stimulation that

they require to create the optimum level of arousal. Introverts experience greater

arousal in response to lower-intensity stimulation (because of their lower

exhibit an active aversion to those conditions (A. Furnham & K. Allass, 1999, p.

The contradiction between the former and latter conclusions is evident. While one states that music hinders performance on complex tasks, the other supports its helpfulness in aiding to be productive.

inhibition of excitation once arousal exceeds their optimal level, an therefore

A. Motluk (1997) suggests that there are specific neural connections in the brain between spatial-temporal reasoning skills needed for music and other types of thinking that are crucial to science and mathematics. Listening to music increases the number of neural connections within the brain, therefore enhancing mathematical and analytical performance. This proves why music aids in mathematical performance. There is a chemical/electrical connection in the brain, which improves these skills. As A. Furnham and K. Allass (1999) concluded, only in a logic test did music increase performance.

Linton, M. (1999). The Mozart Effect. First Things, 91, 10-13.

Another aspect considered is the personality type of the surgeons in the latter experiment. Since all the subjects attested to listening to music in the operating room, it can be assumed that they are all extraverts. Introverts would not engage in such behavior for music would serve as too much of a distraction. If all of the surgeons are extraverts, and they support the theory that music does not serve as a interruption rather as a arousal mechanism, then the results of the experiment would have shown the same data regardless of the type of laboratory testing they were subjected to. In other words, K. Allen and J. Blascovich’s (1994) experiment contradicted previous studies because the surgeons being tested were all extraverts who previously testified that music helped them concentrate in the operating room.

Some topics in this essay:
Furnham Strbac, Furnham Allass, Allen Blascovich, Furnham Stanley, Daoussis McKelvie, Conclusions Resolution, Allen Blascovich’s, Functioning Music, Tasks Studies, Fox Embrey, reading comprehension, introverts extraverts, background music, allass 1999, furnham allass, strbac 2002, furnham strbac 2002, furnham allass 1999, furnham strbac, performance introverts, performance introverts extraverts, music’s effects, complex mathematical, furnham stanley 2003, reading comprehension tests,