Can Preference for Background Music Mediate the Irrelevant Sound Effect?

Applied Cognitive Psychology, Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 625–631 (2011)
Published online 21 July 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.1731

Can Preference for Background Music Mediate the Irrelevant Sound Effect?
NICK PERHAM* and JOANNE VIZARD
School of Psychology, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Cardiff, UK
Summary: Research suggests that listening to background music prior to task performance increases cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, through the mechanism of increasing arousal and positive mood. However, music preference has not been explored with regard to a more common and realistic scenario of concurrent music and cognition, namely the ‘irrelevant sound effect’ (ISE). To examine this, serial recall was tested under quiet, liked and disliked music sound conditions as well as steady-state (repetition of ‘3’) and changing-state speech (random digits 1–9). Results revealed performance to be poorer for both music conditions and the changing-state speech compared to quiet and steady-state speech conditions. The lack of difference between both music conditions suggests that preference does not affect serial recall performance. These findings are discussed within the music and cognition and auditory distraction literatures. Copyright # 2010 JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.

Listening to music is a well-loved pastime for many people but recent research suggests that it provides both health and psychological benefits as well. Not only has it been shown to assist language acquisition in learning impaired children, enhance students’ academic performance in exams and alleviate anxiety and depression (Cassileth, Vickers, &
Magill, 2003; Rickard, Toukhsati, & Field, 2005; Siedlecki
& Good, 2006) but its mere presence improves cognitive functioning. Several studies reveal increases in levels of attention, memory, mental arithmetic and learning (Hallam,
¨ ¨ ¨
Price, & Katsarou, 2002; Sarkamo et al.,

References: Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Banbury, S., & Berry, D. C. (1998). Disruption of office-related tasks by speech and office noise Beaman, C. P., & Holt, N. J. (2007). Reverberant auditory environments: The effect of multiple echoes on distraction by ‘‘irrelevant’’ speech Cognitive Psychology, 21, 1077–1090. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1315 Beaman, C Beaman, C. P., & Jones, D. M. (1998). Irrelevant sound disrupts order information in free as in serial recall Cassidy, G. G., & MacDonald, R. A. R. (2007). The effect of background music and background noise on the task performance of introverts and Cassidy, G. G., & MacDonald, R. A. R. (2009). The effects of music choice on task performance: A study of the impact of self-selected and experimenter-selected music on driving game performance and experience. Cassileth, B. R., Vickers, A. J., & Magill, L. A. (2003). Music therapy for mood disturbance during hospitalization for autogolous stem cell transplantation: a randomized controlled trial L. A., et al. (1999). Prelude or requiem for the ‘Mozart effect’? Nature, 400, 826–828. and Performance, 24, 1406–1414. Fox, E. (2008). Emotion Science: Cognitive and neuroscientific approaches to understanding human emotions Furnham, A., & Allass, K. (1999). The influence of musical distraction of varying complexity on the cognitive performance of extroverts and Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). Music while you work: The differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 25: 625–631 (2011) Background Music Preference on Serial Recall Furnham, A., & Strbac, L. (2002). Music is as distracting as noise: The differential distraction of background music and noise on the cognitive Gupta, P., & MacWhinney, B. (1997). Vocabulary acquisition and verbal short-term memory: Computational and neural bases Hallam, S., Price, J., & Katsarou, G. (2002). The effects of background music on primary school pupils’ task performance Jones, D. M. (1999). The cognitive psychology of auditory distraction: The (1997) BPS Broadbent Lecture (2000). Interference from degraded auditory stimuli: Linear effects of changing state in the irrelevant sequence Society of America, 108, 1082–1088. Jones, D. M., Hughes, R. W., & Macken, W. J. (2006). Perceptual organization masquerading as phonological storage. Journal of Memory and Language, 54, 265–2281 Jones, D. M., & Macken, W. J. (1993). Irrelevant tones produce an irrelevant speech effect: Implications for phonological coding in working memory. Jones, D. M., & Macken, W. J. (1995). Auditory babble and cognitive efficiency: Role of number of voices and their location Jones, D. M., Macken, W. J., & Mosdell, N. (1997). The role of habituation in the disruption of recall performance by irrelevant sound Kantner, J. (2009). Studying with music: is the irrelevant speech effect relevant? In Kelley M Marsh, J. E., Hughes, R. W., & Jones, D. M., (2008). Auditory distraction in semantic memory: A process-based approach Martin, N., & Saffran, E. M. (1997). Language and auditory-verbal shortterm memory impairments: Evidence for common underlying processes. Nantais, K. M., & Schellenberg, E. G. (1999). The Mozart effect: An artefact of preference Neath, I. (2000). Modelling the effects of irrelevant speech on memory. Perham, N., & Banbury, S. P. (2008). You cannot ignore it: Attention to ‘irrelevant’ sound during a habituation period does not produce habituation Perham, N., Banbury, S. P., & Jones, D. M. (2005). Auditory distraction impairs analytical reasoning performance