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a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 July 2010
Received in revised form 7 October 2011
Accepted 21 October 2011
Keywords:
Academic performance
Affective states
Learning environment
Multiple choice questionnaire
a b s t r a c t
We investigated the inuence of music during learning on the academic performance of undergraduate students, and more particularly the inuence of affects induced by music. Altogether 249 students were involved
in the study, divided into a control group and an experimental group. Both groups attended the same videotaped lecture, with the addition of classical music for the experimental group. Just after the lecture, both
groups had to ll out a multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) aimed to assess their learning during the lecture.
The MCQ score of the experimental group was signicantly higher than that of the control group. Affect just
before the exam predicted signicantly the MCQ-score, however music accounted for an additional part of
variance. The effect of music on academic performance is not only about affects, and further research should
investigate the underlying mechanisms resulting from a change in the perception of the learning
environment.
2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Professors, readers, and lecturers hope that the lessons they teach
will help students prepare for future jobs by developing their competencies. While several new educational methods have been introduced to improve students' academic performance, such as clickers,
e-lectures, and podcasts (Evans, 2008; Mayer et al., 2009;
Stephenson, Brown, & Grifn, 2008), traditional and PowerPoint lectures are still an important and common approach to teaching students in higher education (see Savoy, Proctor, & Salvendy, 2009).
Despite lacking interactivity between teacher and students, requiring
the continuous attention of students (Bloom, 1953; Smith, 2001), and
being unpopular among students and educational advisers, lectures
are still used in university courses because they bear some advantages over other methods (see Charlton, 2006). We assumed that
changing the learning context or environment during lectures
would be a way to improve students' academic performance. In this
study, we sought to change the learning environment through
music, suggested to elicit affective states, in order to improve learning
outcomes.
1.1. Learning environment
Learning environments can be conceptualized in terms of observable characteristics, such as school buildings, the layout of a classroom, or the materials used for instruction, or in terms of observed
Corresponding author at: Universit de Caen Basse-Normandie, EA 4260, 2, boulevard du Marchal Juin, F14032 Caen, France.
E-mail address: fabrice.dosseville@unicaen.fr (F. Dosseville).
1041-6080/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2011.10.004
259
2. Method
2.3. Procedure
2.1. Participants
Table 1
Descriptive statistics.
Table 3
Hierarchical regression analyses with MCQ-score as dependent variable.
Control group
M
MCQ score
PA T1
PA T2
NA T1
NA T2
PA T1 T2
NA T1 T2
12.42
2.71
2.28
1.58
1.32
0.44
0.27
Experimental
group
Predictor
variable
SD
SD
3.68
0.53
0.63
0.46
0.36
0.55
0.34
0.73
0.69
0.78
0.73
14.46
2.67
2.59
1.48
1.25
0.08
0.24
4.04
0.48
0.47
0.45
0.33
0.26
0.37
0.76
0.72
0.75
0.71
Standard
error
Standardized
beta
t-Value
0.22
0.18
3.55
2.85
0.20
3.10
0.09
0.00
Adjusted
R2 change
0.27
0.06
0.33
0.10
0.09
0.00
0.26
0.05
1.39
0.02
3.89
0.26
dependent variable the MCQ-score. In the rst hierarchical regression, we entered as predictors at step 1 PA and NA at T2, and at step
2 the experimental condition, coded 1 for the control condition, and
2 for the music condition. In the second hierarchical regression analysis, we entered as predictors at step 1 PA and NA change between T1
and T2. The change values were calculated according to the following
formula: PAT1 T2 = PAT1 PAT2; and NAT1 T2 = NAT1 NAT2. At
step 2 we entered the experimental condition.
3. Results
Descriptive statistics are shown in Table 1. Correlations between
full study variables are shown in Table 2. Results are now presented
according to affect induction, MCQ score, and predictive power of affect for academic outcome.
3.1. Affect induction
The baseline affect of the two groups did not differ, neither for PA
(t = 0.705, p > 0.05) nor for NA (t = 1.724, p > 0.05). The 2 2 repeated measures MANOVA revealed a main effect of assessment
time on PA and NA: they both decreased between T1 and T2; for PA,
F(1, 247) = 90.783, p b 0.001, p = 0.27 and for NA, F(1, 247) =
125.421, p b 0.001, p = 0.34. Further, we found a signicant interaction effect between assessment time and condition for PA, F(1, 247) =
42.630, p b 0.001, p = 0.15, where PA decreased more in the control
group than in the experimental group; no such effect was found for
NA.
4. Discussion
We sought to examine the inuence of affect elicitation through
music during a lecture on academic performance. We now discuss
the ndings as they relate to the literature.
4.1. Affect induction
Attending a lecture is not a particularly enjoyable task for students, and in this study, we observed that a decrease in PA was
much more signicant in the control group than in the experimental
group. We believe that music played a role in maintaining PA during
the lecture (Juslin, Lijestrom, Vastfjall, Barradas, & Silva, 2008; Juslin
& Vastfjall, 2008) and because the musical pieces were specically selected to elicit PA in people (Eich et al., 2007). However, no other
sound condition was included in the design, such as preferred
0.26
0.15
0.12
0.20
0.16
0.09
0.00
Exp. cond.
PAT1
0.05
0.11
0.27
0.13
0.64
0.10
0.38
0.04
0.10
0.30
0.06
NAT1
PAT2
NAT2
PA change
NA change
0.11
0.64
0.00
0.67
0.10
0.54
0.05
0.00
0.14
0.00
PA = positive affect; NA = negative affect; T1 = Time 1 (before lecture); T2 = Time 2 (after lecture). Exp. cond.: experimental condition; PA change: PAT1 PAT2; and NA change:
NAT1 NAT2.
p b 0.05.
p b 0.01.
261
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