The Truth About Focus Music
A man listens to music with headphones
Getty Images
Does music help you learn? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO, Brainscape, on Quora:
When I was younger, I used to sleep with the radio on. I found it comforting… but in retrospect it was literally disturbing my sleep because every time one of my favorite tunes came on, my brain would wake me up from a deep sleep to listen to it. (This was before iTunes; in the good old days when you relied on the radio or had to buy an expensive CD to listen to your favorite songs.)
I had to stop. My brain just wasn’t designed to let a good song play in the background without paying attention to it. And since this was the case for sleeping, I could FORGET about getting concentration-intensive tasks, like work or studying, done while listening to music.
So then why do SO MANY people swear by listening to certain types of music while working or studying? Can Lo-Fi, classical music, or the general hubbub of a coffee shop improve your productivity? Or are you hurting your concentration and focus when you listen to music?
The answer, unfortunately, according to this study, is that listening to music while attempting to learn (by memorizing information in particular) may actually hinder your efforts.
The study found that subjects who listened to music—more specifically, what they referred to as “changing-state conditions”—while attempting to memorize a list weren’t able to recall as much as those who studied in complete silence, or while exposed to a single word repeated monotonously.
The authors speculated that “music may impair cognitive abilities in these scenarios because if you’re trying to memorize things in order, you may get thrown off by the changing words and notes in your chosen song.”
This could be a disaster for students trying to prepare for important exams.
The good news is: you have to study in silence. Since changing-state conditions (like music) impair recall, we can assume that quiet, repetitive music is not as harmful to recall as more complex music. Quiet, repetitive instrumental music seems to be the safest option (and I have to admit: Lo-Fi is the one genre of music I can listen to without derailing my concentration).
One other safe option for auditory stimulation is binaural beats, which are said to increase focus and concentration, lower stress, and promote creativity, among other benefits.
So, to answer the question—does music help you learn?—the answer would be: “mostly no” but it depends on what you’re listening to and the kind of learning task you’re engaged in. (Sorry, science rarely gives clear-cut answers!)
If you’re trying to ingrain knowledge (i.e. memorize what you’re learning so you can take an exam on it later), you should stick with silence or tranquil, homogenous sounds like binaural beats and white noise; or simple, repetitive, lyric-free music to ensure you’re getting maximum value from the time invested.
However, if the work you’re doing doesn’t demand deep memorization or recall, music may indeed offer some creative benefits.
One final thought is this: use music as a reward rather than a study aid.
After 30 minutes of studying, allow yourself a couple of listens to your favorite music. Those songs might even sound better than usual, knowing that you just knocked out some extremely efficient studying. Call it a victory song.
This question originally appeared on Quora – the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
