Introduction

Short-term memory is our ability to remember new information for a brief period of time. I am testing the effect that different types of music have on a person's short term memory. There have been studies that say that music, classical music especially, aids in memory because it reduces stress. Studies have shown that classical music brings people to a greater emotional state, therefore they become more receptive to new information. Students who listened to classical music while studying on average scored higher grades than kids who listened to other types of music or no music at all.

This is a very important experiment because it addresses the problem of when parents tell their kids to not listen to music while studying. When the parents yell at their kids, the kids can say that this music helps them focus and study. Classical music has been proved to bring kids to a greater state of relaxation which can help kids focus on studying for their big tests. A study published by Learning and Individual Difference found that students scored higher on a quiz while classical music was playing in the background than students who took the same quiz, but listened to no music.

Listening to classical music can also lessen any anxiety that students have for their big tests. It has been proven that listening to music activates a large part of your brain, and also that classical music relaxes people while studying. Listening to music activates three areas of the brain (the prefrontal, temporal, and precuneus regions) that affect your spatial reasoning. Studies have shown that classical music aids in the storage of information in your brain, therefore it will help you remember information while studying.

Psychology and biology are two areas of science that are inseparable. Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions. Much of psychology is studying the affects that different tests have on your brain or parts of your brain. Many modern scanning systems of psychology have given us a greater image of the brain and how it works. Psychology is general termed as the study of brain and behavior which is what a lot of biology has to deal with also.

Hypothesis

Although some people believe that you need to have an appreciation for the music for it to affect your memory, I believe that classical music will affect a person's short term memory the best regardless of the appreciation or not

Variables

Independent variable - different types of music

Dependent variable - best score on memorization test

Materials

Songs

Rap - Lose Yourself by Eminem, X Gon' Give It to Ya by DMX

Country - Dirt by Florida Georgia Line, Small Town USA by Justin Moore

Classical - Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven, Serenade No. 13 in G Major by Mozart

Heavy Metal - Face Everything and Rise by Papa Roach, Wrecking Ball by Five Finger Death Punch

20 people to perform the test

Headphones

Excel for graphs and data

Methods

Person goes to, http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/memory, to take the memory test

He/she listens to lose yourself by Eminem before taking the memory test

He/she listens to X Gon' Give It to Ya by DMX while taking the memory test

He/she records score on the memory test, while he/she was listening to rap music

He/she listens to Dirt by Florida Georgia Line before taking the memory test

He/she listens to Small Town USA by Justin Moore while taking the memory test

He/she records score on the memory test, while he/she was listening to country music

He/she listens to Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven before taking the memory test

He/she listens to Serenade No. 13 by Mozart while taking the memory test

He/she records score on memory test, while he/she was listening to classical music

He/she listens to Hallowed be Thy Name by Iron Maiden before taking the memory test

He/she listens to Enter Sandman by Metallica while taking the memory test

He/she records score on memory test, while he/she was listening to heavy metal music

He/she takes the memory test without listening to any type of music

He/she records score on memory test, while he/she was no listening to music

Put all the scores in a chart

Repeat until all subjects have finished

Once all subjects have finished average all the scores and put it in a chart

Results

The results from my experiment showed that the highest average score a person score on the test was while they listened to classical music. The worst average score a person scored on the test was while they were listening to rap music. The average scores while listening to country and no music were very similar.

Analysis

My results showed me that if students want to listen to music while studying for a test that they should be listening to classical music. My results also showed me that if a student wants to listen to music while studying that they shouldn't be listening to rap or heavy metal. If students want to listen to music while studying, but don't want to listen to classical music, the next best type of music to study with is country music.

Conclusion

My hypothesis of classical music affecting a person's memory the best regardless of the appreciation of music was correct. The highest average score on the test was while the person was listening to classical music. Many people also scored high while they were listening to country music. People did the worst while listening to rap music.

Some scientists believe that a person need to have an appreciation for the music for it to affect them at all. The person who scored the highest score on the test, Liam, said that the classical music bored him even though he still scored the highest score. This shows that people don't need to have an appreciation for music for it to affect their memory in a positive fashion. Also, many people liked the rap songs better than the classical songs, but they still scored significantly worse.

I learned that classical music brings you to a great state of relaxation which helps you remember things better also. Also, I learned that people scored so low on rap music because the curses in the song. These curses brought a bad influence to the people, and it agitated their brains. Therefore, they didn't remember the pattern of the squares as well as they did with classical music. I think for my next experiment I can test how fast mice go through a maze while listening to different types of music.

Graphs