Testing for the effects of Music on Reading Comprehension Skills under Different Music Environments

Referencesthe task in silence.
Boyle, R., & Coltheart, V. (1996). Effects ofIt is also predicted that the music which is playing in
irrelevant sounds on phonological coding in readingthe subject’s ear, whether it is their choice of
             comprehension and short-termmusic or ours will interfere with their comprehension
memory. The Quarterly Journal ofand delay their understating of materials within the
    Psychology. 49A(2), 398-416. Retrievedcontext of the passage.
September 09, 2008.For example, the subjects might need to read the
                   10.1080same sentence(s) more than once in order to
027249896392702comprehend the full meaning of the author.
Collins, M. W., & Levy, B. A. (2008). DevelopingBy confirming this hypothesis, one can decide on the
fluent text processing withstudy skills he or she might want to get used to.
practice:                            Once we reach our conclusion in this study, it will
Memorial influences on fluency and comprehension.implicate the very fact that music is good but only to
The Canadian Psychologist.a certain degree such as driving. However it is an
49(2),                     133-139.unnecessary tool for students to use while they
Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037study. If the comprehension levels are lower when
0708-5591.49.2.133the individual is listening to music, it will set the ground
Furnham, A., & Allass, K. (1999). The influence offor major studies to follow and possibly making this
musical distraction of varyingan epidemic. This study is a very small step in
complexity                   on thesummarizing and concluding this issue, and there
cognitive performance of extroverts and introverts.hasn’t been a significant amount of evidence
European Journalbased on the research done. However, we wish to
of                            confirm our hypothesis as far as the effects of
Personality. 13(1), 27- 38. Retrieved September 09,music on reading comprehension.
2008. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-    0984(199901/02)Although the majority of research show a strong
Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). Music whilecorrelation between music and cognitive tasks, and
you work: The differential distraction ofeven succeeding and doing better in special education
           background music on the cognitivestudents, they fail to control for music the is the
test performance of introverts andchoice of the subject.
      Applied Cognitive Psychology. 11(5), 445-455.This study was designed to investigate the
Retrieved September 09, 2008.correlation between individuals who listen to music
doi:             10.1002/(SICI)1099-while reading a passage and compare their
            0720(199710)comprehension levels to the subjects who read their
Klauda, S., & Guthrie, J. (2008). Relationships ofpassages in silence and compare those levels with
three components of reading fluencysubjects who read passages while listening to the
to                         readingmusic they have chosen as their favorite music which
comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology.in many cases is a type of music that will motivate
100(2),them. 
     Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037Method
0022-0663.100.2.310Participants
Oron-Gilad, T., Ronen, A., & Shinar, D. (2008).We will be using 60 participants for our study. We will
Alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) whiledriving.use 20 participants for each of the three conditions.
Accident Analysis and Prevention. 40(3), 851-860.The participants will be assigned to the randomly
Retrieved September 09,          2008. doi:assigned conditions in sets of 5.  We will have a total
10.1016/j.aap.2007.09.026     of 12 sets of participants, 4 sets per condition. We
Registrar, D., Darrow, A., Standley, J., &will randomly assign the conditions by writing each
Swedberg, O. (2007). The use of music tocondition on pieces of paper, placing them in a bag,
enhance                    reading skills inand drawing them out one by one.  Our selection
second grade students and students with readingprocedure is based on the qualification of being able
disabilities. Journal of                Musicto read English fluently and participants must be a
Therapy. 44(1), 23-37. Retrieved September 09,Psychology 150 and/or 250 students whom will be
2008.notified by the school’s research management
Savolainen, H., Ahonen, T., Aro., M., Tolvanen, A.,website also known as “Sona System” once
& Holopainen, L. (2008). Reading     our research methods are approved by the board.
           comprehension, word reading andThe participants will get credit for their participation.
spelling as predictors of school achievementThe credit authorization will be filled out by us, the
and             choice of secondary education.researcher, and we will also list their credits on the
Learning and Instruction. 18(2), 201-210. RetrievedSona System.
                September 09, 2008. doi:Materials
10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.09.017The participants will be given a 5 page booklet, a
Smith, A. (2005). Aircraft and road traffic noise andpencil and a stop watch for their timing purposes. We
children's cognition. The Lancet,will also be using a desktop PC if available in the
 336(9487), 715-716. Retrieved September 09, 2008.research rooms or we will provide a laptop for the
doi: 10.1016/S0140- 6736(05)67174-7purposes of playing a CD and accessing the World
Yao, S., Kuo-En, C., & Jung, Huang (2008).Wide Web to find the participant’s music of
Improving children’s reading comprehension andchoice. The participants in the conditions with music
    use of strategies through computer-basedwill be advised to bring their own headphones, and if
strategy training. Computers in Human     for any reason they forget to bring their own, they
Behavior. 24(4), 1552-1571. Retrieved September 09,will be given a headphone which they can keep at
2008. doi:        10.1016/j.chb.2007.05.009the end of the research session.
 Procedures
 Our research is measuring the level of reading
 comprehension of the participants based on three
 different conditions.  Condition one involves no
 music, condition two involves listeningto music that
 has been chosen by the researcher and condition
Testing the Effects of Music on Readingthree involves the participants listening to the music
Comprehension Skills under Different Musicof their choice. All conditions will require the
Environmentsparticipant to read the passage that is being provided
The influence of background music on workingto them. The participants will be given an introduction
cognitive memory has been a debate and hasto what they will be doing.
become a subject that has gotten manyThis introduction will take just under one minute.
psychological researches involved. At the same time,They will be told about the booklet and the 10
thanks to the advancement of technology, we nowquestions which they will have to answer following
can listen to music almost wherever we may end upreading the passage. We will tell the participants that
going. Background music while studying has becomethey can go back to the passage whenever they
an almost every day task for students. Manyfeel necessary, since this is NOT a memory research.
students listen to music while they study. Do weThey will be informed that they can use any way
want our students listening to music while theythey are most comfortable with, whether it be
study?search and destroy method, in which the participant
School achievement clearly predicts future educationalcan read the questions first one by one then going
attainment (Savolainen, Ahonen, Aro, Tolvanen andthrough the passage to look for answers or they can
Hlopainen, 2008).  As we see on a daily basis, thisread the passage then start to answer the questions
habit is well accepted in most institutions and there isand go back if they needed to.
nothing that is being done to ban it, not to mentionIn all three conditions, the participants will be given a
the fact there is no research with data that wouldtotal of 8 minutes to complete reading the passage
back such arguments whether it’s for this habitand answering the questions. They will also be
of against it. (Darrow, Standley and Swedberg, 2007,informed that they may NOT guess on any
p. 25) state in their study that according to (Tucker,questions. If they can’t find it, they will have to
1981) “it is widely believed that music learning,move on or if they don’t have enough time to
music reading and/or, music participation enhancefinish, they will have to leave the questions blank.
academic achievement, especially reading andThe researcher will ask the participant to place his
math.”her pencil on the table and STOP after the 8 minutes
Other researchers have measured the influence ofhas lapsed.  For the participants in which the
background music on cognitive performancecondition requires listening to music we will provide
(Furnham and Allass, 1999), however that isear phones which are either connected to a PC in the
considered as background noise which is playing fromresearch rooms or a laptopwhich will be able to play a
a stereo possibly located somewhere around theCD.  For all participants we have decided to use
subject. Our research is measuring theirClassical Jazz by Sade and the song is called “The
comprehension abilities while the subject is listening toSweetest Taboo”.
music with their headphones on.The participants will be given 1 minute to come up
To understand the affects of background music onwith the 5 songs of their choice in the condition in
reading comprehension we must be able to measurewhich the participant uses the music of their choice.
their comprehension and then control theWe will then take an extraminute to find one of their
environment with music.songs on the World Wide Web. They will then also
The affects of music on concentration while drivingbe given the headphones along with their favorite
has also been looked at to see if music could possiblymusic playing ON REPLAY for the duration of the 8
have an effect on fatigue in which some drives mightminutes.
experience. (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007).The total duration for the experiment will take no
It is important to look further into the details of thismore than 15 minutes. Once the participants are done
habit that is little by little taking over most collegewith the passage, they will get debriefed and credit
students. Why would anyone not like listening to theirwill be given to them for their class participation
favorite music while studying? However, will thispurposes.
practice hurt the individuals at the end of their study 
sessions by interfering with their comprehension skills 
while they read?Results
Though a number of studies have researched similarWithin all the groups, the total number of participants
ideas, such as memory recall while listening to music,was 56. There were 46 females and 10 males. 
reading comprehension measurements while listeningThere were 82% females and 18% males.  The
to music and while in complete silence, theymean of their ages was 20. The median of their ages
haven’t so far tested for music in which thewas 19 and the mode of their ages stood at 18. The
individual might find motivating to study in.standard deviation of the ages was calculated to be
Reading in many ways is like driving, and includes4.692. The minimum age was of the participants was
many tasks that the individual must complete to18 and the maximum age was 50. The variance age
comprehend the material well. Music could in a senseof the groups was 22.015. 
make you more alert just like it does to drives whoFor Condition #1 in which we had No Music, we had
listen to music when they drive.20 participants, which equaled to 35.7% of the total
Over a relatively short period of time, a readerparticipants.  For Condition #2 in which the
progresses from laborious word by word decoding toparticipants listened to Jazz Music, we had 18
quickly and accurately understanding the constructingparticipants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total
meaning contained in sentences, paragraphs, andparticipants.  For Condition #3 in which the
entire passages (Collins and Levy, 2008). According toparticipants chose their Own Music, we had 18
(Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007), psychological fatigue,participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total
on the contrary, is a subjective experience ofparticipants. 
disinclination to continue performing the task at hand.Over 75% of the scores were above the 50%tile
Therefore if music takes away the individuals focusrank and 27% of the scores were perfect. Also, 5%
away from the fatigue, it might actually do less harmgot zero questions right. The mean score was 6.59.
than originally thought.The median score was 6 and the mode score was
Once we take this important issue in account, we10. The standard deviation of the scores was
can then draw a closer line to the conclusion andcalculated to be 2.84.
expand our understanding of this habit and what itThe minimum score was 0 and the maximum score
can and can’t do for the students.was 10. The scores ranged from 0 to 10. The
This research will be similar to current researches invariance of the scores was 8.065.
many ways, yet will have other ways to measuringBetween all of our participants 53.36% were
for accuracy. It is our goal to only look at thefreshman totaling 31 students, and 23.21% were
short-term effects of music on readingsophomores, totaling 13 students.  Also, 19.64%
comprehension. There are studies out in which thewere juniors, totaling 11 student and 1.79% seniors
researchers have measured cognition betweentotaling 1 student. From the whole participant pool,
children who were raised in areas where the traffic46.43% of our subjects normally listened to music
noise and aircraft noise was high vs. children whowhile studying which equals to 26 students.
lived in quite areas (Stanfeld, 2005). We are alsoA one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
staying away from measuring memory by makingcalculated on participants' ratings of reading
the passage available for the subjects to go back tocomprehension scores. The independent variable was
whenever they might need to.the music conditions in which the participants read the
“Measuring for phonological codes in readingarticle under. The dependent variable was the
comprehension has been the subject of investigationmeasurement of reading comprehension based on
for many years” (Boyle and Coltheart, 1996). Astheir scores. The higher the score the higher the
stated by this very article the answers toparticipant’s reading comprehension level. The
component which are essential for short-termanalysis was significant, F(2, 55) = 35.98, p < 0.05.
memory has still remained unanswered. A post-hoc analysis showed that the participants in
Throughout this study, it is predicted for thethe No Music condition outperformed both the
individuals who listen to music to have a lowerparticipants in the Jazz Music condition and Their Own
reading comprehension level than the other twoMusic condition; also there was a significant difference
controls. The second group in which the individualsbetween the participants in Their Own Music
get to listen to their own favorite music is predictedcondition and the Jazz Music Condition where the
to do better than the last group in which we chooseparticipants in Their Own Music condition
the music, however worst than the group who dooutperformed the participants in Our Music Condition.