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Music Effect on Short-Term Memory

Maritza Bruner
AP Psychology Period 3
January 5, 2017
Mrs. Melissa Jakubowski

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Abstract
The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of different types of
music on short-term memory. The total group was ten people but the experiment was
done with two at a time. Each group of two was given a list of 20 words and was asked to
remember as many as they could while music was playing in the background. The
amount of words they wrote down and how many were correct was recorded. This
experiment is testing the strength of the brains ability to rehearse words and recall them
after a certain time period. Their brains go through a process where their brains encode
what they see, store the information, and then retrieve it when needed. The music playing
in the background can help or hurt the memory of the participants. The data showed that
the group without music did remarkably better than the other groups. The ability of the
short-term memory to recall more words is vastly affected by background music.

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Introduction
There are three stages to memory, sensory, short-term, and long-term. Sensory is
the immediate, initial recording of data that enters through senses. With that there are two
ways to record data, iconic and echoic. That means through sight and hearing. Short-term
memory or what is also called, working memory, is the part of the brains memory that
can remember things for a little time period. The ability to remember the phone number
that someone just said comes from the short-term memory. In order to remember
information for longer rehearsal is needed. Without rehearsal the short-term memory
begins to fail rapidly. Long-term memory is a stage of memory capable of large and
relatively permanent storage. There is no cap on how many memories the long-term can
keep. When given a list of words and asked to repeat them, short-term memory is
working to keep them and recall the certain words.
Alec Baddeley conducted one study in Cambridge, U.K. that draws near to music
or noise affecting short-term memory. The point of the experiment was to see how
different music would affect the short-term memory. There were three groups, the control
group that didnt have any noise or music, the vocal music group, and the instrumental
music group. Each group was asked to recall nine digits while ignoring the background
music. The result of the test was the quiet group had a less error percentage than the
music groups. This proves that short-term memory is affected when music or other noise
is played while trying to rehearse information (Baddeley, 1989).
Another study that consists of short-term memory experimentation was done by
CDENLINGER. This experiment was designed to prove that, listening to music both
during memorization and recall period will have a greater effect on the individuals

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memory, allowing them to remember and recall more items on a short-term memory
recall task. The participants were asked to memorize as many items they saw on the tray
as possible as music is playing in the background. They then were asked to recall as many
of the items as they could while listening to the same song. The next group was asked to
do the same but when asked to recall the items a different song was being played. The
result was the participants that listened to the same song recalled more items than the
participants who listened to a different song. This experiment proves that short-term
memory is highly affected by the type of music that is being played while trying to recall
memories (CDENLINGER, 2012).
The purpose of this study is to determine how well short-term memory is able to
recall certain words that have been rehearsed while listening to different types of songs.
The recently mentioned studies suggested that music have a positive or negative affect on
recalling information. This study was intended to determine if different types of music
had an effect on short-term memory. It has been argued that music can hurt short-term
memory, making it difficult to recall certain information. The hypothesis that is used in
this experiment is that the louder more vigorous music, the worse the short-term memory
will be.

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Methods
Participants
The participants of this study were a diverse group in regards to age (17-45 Years
old) and consisted of half female and half male participants. The purpose of this
experiment is to find the correlation between short-term memory and the types of music
being listened to. Since it was testing the short-term memory and that slowly decays, as
the person gets older, the variety of ages and equal genders were perfect.

Procedure
The procedure of this test was made to be easy for the participants and at the same
time getting accurate data. Once the participants knew the reason for this experiment, this
was read to every group:
I am going to hand you a list of 20 words. During the first 30 seconds
you will be trying to memorize these words. After the 30 seconds the
list will be taken away and you will have another 30 seconds to
rehearse the words. After that, write down all of the words that you can
remember without talking to each other. Do you understand?
The script that was read off to them must be the same, making it consistent for
each test. Two participants were asked to study a list of 20 words while music was
playing. After 30 seconds the list was taken away and they were asked to rehearse the
words while the music continued. The last 30 seconds they were given a pen and paper to
write down as many words as they could remember. Throughout it all, music was being
played loudly. The list of words that were being used were Tree, Oyster, Palm, Bed,

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Child, Cup, Door, House, Ring, Foot, Pie, Snow, Bag, Basket, Chair, Corn, Shirt,
Football, Water, Sleep. Once the first two 30 seconds were over, they were asked to
write down as many words as they could remember. Once the participant wrote down all
that they could remember, the amount of words they recalled were recorded and they
were dismissed. This procedure was repeated four more times. Each of the participants
was randomly assigned to a different group with different music.

Scoring
The scoring of the participants results was based off of how many words they
wrote down and how many of those words were correct. Their short-term memory
strength was determined through how many they recalled correctly.

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Results
Number

Age

Gender

Number
of Right
10

Song Type

Method

Female

Number of
Words
10

45

Control

22

Male

Control

15

Female

Screamo

45

Male

Screamo

20

Male

Pop

23

Female

Pop

17

Female

10

Jazz

17

Male

Jazz

20

Female

Piano

10

17

Male

Piano

Put two
words
together.
Created a
story
Created a
storyrelated to
them.
Repeating
the first
couple
words.
Read a
ton of
times.
Repeated
.
Created a
story.
Repeated
.
Repeated
the ones
they most
remembe
r.
remembe
r the first
letters

Females
Piano
Jazz
Type of Music

Pop
Screamo
Control

Males
Piano
Jazz
Type of Music

Pop
Screamo
Control

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Discussion
The results of this experiment proved that the louder and more agitating music
made it more difficult to recall information. The data showed that when participants were
listening to screamo type songs or pop songs, their ability to recall the words decreased.
The participant who had the most recollection was the control group. They didnt have
any song or noise in the background letting them solely concentrate on remembering the
words. As seen in the graph recently shown, the females of each group did significantly
better than the males. As the hypothesis states, short-term memory is notably affected by
the noise or music that is occurring in the background. This is because the brain is trying

to rehearse and recall words while slightly focusing on the background music causing
them to focus less on the list of words.
The process of rehearsing each word was different for each participant. Once the
experiment was completed they were asked how they rehearsed the words during the 30
seconds without the list. Some of they ways that they would rehearse the words were
creating a story, remembering the first letters, repeating, and putting two words together.
A few of those rehearsal approaches worked really well for them. The participant who
was in the control group put two words together. For example, palm-tree or child-cup.
The participant who completed the experiment while listening to pop tried to repeat the
words over and over. Different ways help others and certain ones work better than others.
Some errors that could have affected the data were the outside noises, the
temperature, and the little time difference. The controlled environment can only be
controlled for so long. The participants were in a quiet room that kept the noise in the
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room for the most part. While others in the building were talking the noise could have
came in through the cracks and distracted the participants making them not recall as
many words. The temperature was the same in the room and it was a little warm. For
some participants it might have been too warm for them to focus causing them to not do
as well. The little time difference was human error. The timer for each 30 seconds had to
be controlled and the times might have been a little different than before. Even though it
was just milliseconds, it could have effected how the participants performed.

Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to observe how music has an effect on short-term
memory and the ability to recall information. In the end, the control group that had no
music recalled the most words. The female in that group did significantly better than the
male. Participants who listened to the louder and commotion filled songs seemed to not
recall as many words because their brains were trying to focus on rehearsing along with
listening to the background music.
To continue this study many different things could be studied. One example
would be to see if the process of how the participants rehearsed the words has a great
affect on their recollection. Another study that could be done would be to see if the one
gender could multitask better than the other. By doing this it can better show how our
brains work and people work and rehearse differently.

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Work Cited

Baddeley, A. (1989). Effects of Background Music on Phonological


Short-term Memory. The Quarterly Journal Of Experimental
Psychology .
CDENLINGER. (2012, December 7). The Effects of Music (Song) on
Short-Term Memory Recall. Retrieved from Music and Speech:
http://musicandspeech.voices.wooster.edu/title-the-effects-of-musicsong-on-short-term-memory-recall/#comments

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