The Effect of Music on Cognitive Tasks Among College Students: A Factorial Experiment

Abstract

Music has been around since time immemorial, and it has both positive and negative effects. This study aimed to investigate the effect of different music presentations on the different cognitive tasks among college students. This study utilized an experimental within-subject 4x3 factorial design. The participants are twenty-one (21) college students. They undergo three memory tasks: memory, verbal, and arithmetic tasks while exposed to four (4) different music conditions: no music, instrumental music, English lyric music, and foreign lyric music. The researchers performed a two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures. Results showed no significant treatment main effect for music, F(3, 60) = 1.649, p < .188, ŋp²=.076 but has a significant treatment main effect for cognitive tasks, F(2,40) = 118.448, p < .000, ŋp²= .86, and significant interaction effect between music and cognitive tasks F(5.35,105) = 2.629, p < .036, ŋp²=.12. The significant interaction showed increased scores across different types of music in memory and verbal tasks but decreased scores in arithmetic tasks except with English lyric music and the no music conditions. Furthermore, simple main effects show that English lyric and foreign lyric music are best for memory and verbal task, respectively.

Keywords: music, cognitive tasks, instrumental, English lyrics, foreign lyrics