Background Classical Music Has a Positive Effect on Visual Memory

Berke Bayender, Damla Arda, Melih Talha Aydın, Hesna Cansu Toker, Ece Okutan

ABSTRACT

The effects of listening to classical music on memory was controversial, especially regarding

visual memory. We predict that background classical music would have positive effects on individual’s

visual memory. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether there is any connection between listening

classical music and visual memory. 30 undergraduate students which are randomly selected at

Yeditepe University participated the study. The memory test was conducted with playing card

matching game in two situations: with classical background music and without any music. Subjects

completed the test in a silent room and their completion times were noted by the tester. After the first

part, they were taken to another room where there was classical music in the background. We also look

at the demographic information which was gathered before the test and revealed the connections

between listening to classical music, gender and playing any instruments to our test results. Our results

confirmed our hypothesis: Classical music has an important positive impact on visual memory. All

findings were compatible with our anticipations. Yet, our subject group was as small as 30 people.

Thus, further research needs to be done with bigger groups to test this hypothesis better.

Introduction

The effects of classical music on our body and mind cannot be ignored. Searching for benefits

of listening to classical music is avocatory, given that it was reported to have positive effects on the

human body, such as lowering blood pressure, improving sleep quality and reducing stress (Bekiroğlu,

2013). Moreover, many researches prove the positive effects of listening classical music on spatial-

task and academic performance. For instance, Shellenberg (2004) investigated the idea that music has

positive effects on intelligence. He tested the hypothesis that music lessons enhance IQ, on a sample

(N=144) of 6 yearS old children. Participants were randomly assigned to four conditions: music lesson

group with keyboard, music lesson group with Kodaly singing, drama lesson group and no lesson

group. Before and after the 36-week treatment period, he tested General IQ scores by WISC-III, the

most commonly used IQ test. The effect he obtained was small but it generalized across subtests of the

WISC-III test, index scores and most importantly to the standardized measure of academic

achievement. Surprisingly, children who received drama lessons showed improvements in adaptive

social behavior. This effect was not obtained for music lesson groups. This line of study regarding the

positive effects of classical music on learning and other cognitive skills was named as “The Mozart

Effect” and was investigated by number of studies. For instance, Wilson & Brown (2010) have

investigated effects of classical music on other cognitive tasks. They assigned 22 participants to three

listening conditions: a piano concerto by Mozart, repetitive relaxation music, and silence. The task

was solving mazes which varied in complexity of size and solution. However, they failed to obtain

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Background Classical Music Has a Positive Effect on Visual Memory

Berke Bayender, Damla Arda, Melih Talha Aydın, Hesna Cansu Toker, Ece Okutan

ABSTRACT

The effects of listening to classical music on memory was controversial, especially regarding

visual memory. We predict that background classical music would have positive effects on individual’s

visual memory. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether there is any connection between listening

classical music and visual memory. 30 undergraduate students which are randomly selected at

Yeditepe University participated the study. The memory test was conducted with playing card

matching game in two situations: with classical background music and without any music. Subjects

completed the test in a silent room and their completion times were noted by the tester. After the first

part, they were taken to another room where there was classical music in the background. We also look

at the demographic information which was gathered before the test and revealed the connections

between listening to classical music, gender and playing any instruments to our test results. Our results

confirmed our hypothesis: Classical music has an important positive impact on visual memory. All

findings were compatible with our anticipations. Yet, our subject group was as small as 30 people.

Thus, further research needs to be done with bigger groups to test this hypothesis better.

Introduction

The effects of classical music on our body and mind cannot be ignored. Searching for benefits

of listening to classical music is avocatory, given that it was reported to have positive effects on the

human body, such as lowering blood pressure, improving sleep quality and reducing stress (Bekiroğlu,

2013). Moreover, many researches prove the positive effects of listening classical music on spatial-

task and academic performance. For instance, Shellenberg (2004) investigated the idea that music has

positive effects on intelligence. He tested the hypothesis that music lessons enhance IQ, on a sample

(N=144) of 6 yearS old children. Participants were randomly assigned to four conditions: music lesson

group with keyboard, music lesson group with Kodaly singing, drama lesson group and no lesson

group. Before and after the 36-week treatment period, he tested General IQ scores by WISC-III, the

most commonly used IQ test. The effect he obtained was small but it generalized across subtests of the

WISC-III test, index scores and most importantly to the standardized measure of academic

achievement. Surprisingly, children who received drama lessons showed improvements in adaptive

social behavior. This effect was not obtained for music lesson groups. This line of study regarding the

positive effects of classical music on learning and other cognitive skills was named as “The Mozart

Effect” and was investigated by number of studies. For instance, Wilson & Brown (2010) have

investigated effects of classical music on other cognitive tasks. They assigned 22 participants to three

listening conditions: a piano concerto by Mozart, repetitive relaxation music, and silence. The task

was solving mazes which varied in complexity of size and solution. However, they failed to obtain

support for previously revealed enhancement effects of listening to classical music and called for

future research on the topic. Cabanac et al. (2013) explored whether listening to pleasant music has

positive effects on academic achievements. They have concluded studying music, rather than studying

while listening to music has facilitating effects on learning in general, leading to enhanced academic

achievements.

Zhu et al (2008) have investigated the effects of Mozart's sonata K.448 on voluntary and

involuntary attention in an ERP study. In a visual oddball task, they analyzed the ERP measures of P3a

and P3b, which reflect involuntary and voluntary attention, respectively. The study supported the

Mozart effect on voluntary attention, given that P3b latency was influenced by Mozart's sonata K.448.

Using an ERP paradigm, Proverbio & De Benedetto (2018) have investigated the effects of

background music on learning and memory. ERP measures obtained in their study showed that

listening to music while studying facilitated encoding of faces. These results indicate that listening to

music enhances memory.

The positive effects of classical music on learning and other cognitive skills were investigated

also in longitudinal studies. For instance, Moreno et al (2008) have investigated functional differences

32 non-musician children. They have found that musical training rather than painting training

facilitated the reading skills of the children as well as pitch discrimination abilities in speech. Results

of their study suggest transfer effects from music to other domains, demonstrating brain plasticity.

Studies investigating the positive effects of classical music have focused on these effects on

cognitive tasks such as problem solving or memory, or on intelligence in general. Little attention has

been given to the facilitating effects of classical music on the visual domain, and specifically, on visual

memory. This gap in the field constitutes the motivation for the current study.

We predict that background classical music would have positive effects on individual’s visual

memory. To test this prediction and hypothesis we created a simple card game. We applied this game

to the participants with two settings, one of them is quiet and the other one has a classical music on

background.

METHOD

Subjects

35 undergraduate students at Yeditepe University participated in the experiment. They are randomly

selected from the university and asked to participate in a memory experiment done by students of the

psychology department. They differed in their majors, age and gender but they are all members of

Yeditepe University. In the demographic form, it was asked if the participants were playing any

musical instrument. It is a likelihood that there will be confounding effects if the participants have

familiarity with the music pieces in the experiment. We were cautious about this when we recruited the

participants and saved this data in order to use it afterward.

start matching the ones. There is no time limit but try to focus and finish as soon as possible.

Remember, you can only flip one card at a time. You can start now.

After the instructions explained, primarily subjects were given the practice demo game with a

smaller card group in order to be sure that they understand the game. Then the actual game started,

subjects completed the test in a silent room and their completion times were noted by the tester. After

the first part, they were taken to another room where there was classical music in the background.