Music May Harm Your Studying - Literature review Example

like to study in quiet place (essay) Effective reading is a skill that should be mastered with precision. Reading is atask that requires a lot of attention so as to understand the information that is been read. As a result of that, the full concentration of the reader needs to be on the material that is been read as opposed to other secondary factors that may affect the reading habit of the reader. The secondary factors may include noise, contributing to a conversation or trying to carry out another task while reading. A reader so as to understand the information been read has to put full concentration on the information that is been read. From a research done, it is clear that most of the young people prefer reading when there is some music on. The elderly people usually advise the young to be reading when there is no music that is playing in the background. The elderly are considered to be correct because a research was conducted that proved that music usually lowers the speed of writing of a person. That is true because the listening of music and reading or writing will mean that the person doing that is trying to multi task. A multi tasking effort will not be as productive as compared to an event been carried out at a particular time and another at a different time. The efficiency in which an activity is carried can be affected by the multi tasking attempting. The issue of listening to music in the background while reading may be perceived to be a great idea, however, if a person is try to memorize elements available in the periodic table , numbers or facts, the issue of listening to music may not be a great suggestion. According to a research done by university of Wales, it tried to investigate the ability of a person to recall information that may have been learnt in the prescience of sounds that are of a different nature. The research involved 25 people who were between the ages of 30 and 18. The research tried to investigate their ability to memorize information then later on try to remember the information. The participants were tried on conditions of listening that ranged from a musical environment that the participants enjoyed and a quiet environment and a musical environment from music that they said they did not enjoy. There was also an environment that repeated random numbers. The research found out that the participants were worst performers when listening to music regardless of the music liked. They also performed badly when listening to the repetition of random numbers. The participants were at their best when the environment was quiet and when there was repetition of digit three only. That proves that music has the ability to disrupt the abilities that are cognitive in such scenario because they attempted to memorize items that were listed in an order. The memorization process becomes thrown off by word that are changing and the listening of mc that was been speculated by the authors (Vizard, and Perham, 2010). However, there are some studies that have found some benefits that were found in listening to music while performing a particular task. The author’s o the article found out that the research that was new was more realistic since listening to music and doing the task that is expected at the same time. According to a common norm in the 90’s, the listening of music by Mozart was thought by people to have the ability to increase abilities that were spatial. However, research that followed did not show the same effect. There is another research that tends to favor the fact that music is helpful especially to people who enjoy music by Schubert. That research can be explained by the fact that the listening to music that is liked by a person usually increase the level of arousal or it changes the mood that a person has and that would help in changing the performance level of the individual in a positive manner. The research that states that music is harmful does not really try to contradict the various prior studies; however, it tries to indicate that there are some limitations that are involved in the benefits of music listening while memorizing a number of items. It is also the case that the listening to music before the performance of a task usually helps on abilities that are cognitive. The research also proposes that it would be much helpful for a student that is studying for an exam to study in an environment that is quiet or the student should listen to music before starting to study. According to the article by Chapman, it states that the issue of combining music and study has been an issue of contention between children and adults. The adults try to insist that silence is a golden thing while studying. The young people usually state that sounds that form part of their favorite music are helpful in concentration. There is a study that shows that the adults are correct pertaining the silence issue. There were a couple of psychologists from Florida that tried to test a number of students who were given a challenge of writing an essay while listening to music and when in an environment that is quiet. The study indicated that sounds had the ability to slow down the pace of a person by approximately 60 words every hour. That shows that it is hard for a person to understand or do tasks properly while listening to music in a simultaneous manner. The study by Chapman also concluded that the fact that listening to music that is instrumental is not much distracting was just but a myth. He stated that all music’s are of the same effect. He stated that the fluency of a person when writing was most probable to be affected by both instrumental and vocal music at the same level. However, he states that the effect of music on those people that have training on music tends to be less although it also had some effect on them that was negative. That study showed that the idea of music enhancing the rate of study was wrong and it should not be applied among students. He stated that the issue of essay writing was a task that is cognitive and it usually involves retrieving of information and also sequencing the same information. The study found out that there is a worrying emerging trend that shows that most of the teenagers usually study with the view of a television. A research on that shows that families that live near noisy places or busy road are usually affected by the noise in a manner that is disrupting and irritating. There was a study that was carried out in Australia on the different levels of noise. That involved an area that had low and high levels of noise. The scientists made use of 115 children. The children were then divided into children from an area that had high noise levels and those from low noise levels. The levels of noise were 50 and 60 decibels. The children that were from nosier area tend to have problems of high blood pressure, high level of hormonal stress and high heart rates. That research shows that other than concentration, noise also affects other factors that allow a person to develop well. That implies that noises should be totally avoided so as to ensure a good growth and good concentration levels (Chapman, 2012). Conclusion From the above research articles, it is clear that noise is not at all beneficial to the students. It causes more harm than good especially when studying. That should therefore make the parents and guardians to ensure that their children do not involve themselves in bad reading habits. Bad reading habits may be viewed clearly and evidently main from the performance of children on an academic level. Those who study in quiet places tend to be better performers than those that study in areas that are comprised of high noise levels. In conclusion, noise is not helpful for studying and silence should be implemented. References Chapman, J. (2012). Silence is golden. Daily mail. Vizard, J. and Perham, N. (2010). Music may harm your studying, study says. Applied clinical psychology. Read More