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This study investigates the effect of music and speech as distractors on mathematical abilities. Results show distraction affects time, not score, with speech being most distracting for time. Music was not found to be distracting. The study discusses implications, relates to literature, and notes limitations for future research.
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The effects of musical and vocal distraction on quantitative skills Amy Aitken Carolyn Birnie
Topic: • music and speech as distractors on quantitative skills • Research Question: • effect of combination of music and speech • distraction on mathematical abilities
Independent variable type of distraction: lyrical music non-lyrical music speech silence (control) Dependent variable scores on test time to write test Variables...
Hypotheses... • distraction from lyrical music will result in lower mean test scores on a math test than will non-lyrical music or speech • distraction from speech will result in lower mean test scores than non-lyrical music • distraction from lyrical music will result in higher mean test times for a math test than will non-lyrical music or speech • distraction from speech will result in higher mean test times than non-lyrical music.
Design multivariate between-subjects method Measure 12 questions from GRE Scores test score test time Analysis 2 One-Way ANOVAs t-tests Testing the hypotheses...
Our results... • ANOVAs • Score not significant • F(3,39)=.795, p>.05 • Time significant • F(3,39)=3.733, p<.05 • T-tests • Significant: Speech and Silence • t(18)=-2.977, p<.05
What our results mean... • Distraction affected quantitative skills • affected time, not score • Speech most distracting for time • Results in right direction: didn’t achieve significance • lyrical most distracting for score • Implications and Importance of our results • distraction affects how long, but not how well • music not found to be distracting
How our results relate to literature... • Uhrbrock (1961): Youth prefer working to music • Freeburne & Fleisher (1952): Music can affect speed • Henderson, Crews & Barlow (1945): Used to radio or not • Kirkpatrick (1943): Music affects complex tasks • Beentjes & van der Voort (1997): Must process words
Limitations... • participants used to working with music, not speech • spoken words different from sung words • human error - recorded times • participants could have been cheating • no motivation - test didn’t count for anything • convenient sample - friends have similar abilities
Future Study... • Different age groups, more diverse participants • will music be more distracting in adults than college students? • Vary content of speech • will speech still be distracting if nonsense?