The results showed that there was a significant effect of music on math. Participants who listened to music performed better than participants who completed the tasks without music. One possible explanation of these results is that participants who performed the tasks with music first felt the overall task was too long. As the participants started to inch towards the end, their attention began to dwindle. However, participants who listened to the music last felt a boost of energy once the music started playing towards the end. According to Dobbs, Furnham, & McClelland (2011), there were consistent positive effects of music found for simple math problems, similar problems that were used in this study. Results showed there was a no significant interaction between gender and music. These results could be could be due to participants who do and don’t listen to music when they complete schoolwork. Some of the participants reported their habitual routine of listening to music while completing school related tasks. Other participants reported the tasks were difficult to complete with the music. Therefore the results varied, causing no interaction. Studies show that it is not the gender that is an important factor, but it is the individual, and the nature of the distraction. In a study of work performance, the psychologist noted that some personality types maybe more susceptible to the mood enhancing effects of music that others (Dobbs et al., 2011). Based on the study, there was no effect of gender on math problems. These results could be due to the time of day I completed the results. According to literature, men tend to outperform females on math problems. However, when the study was conducted, both male and female participants were asked to complete the task while they were in the middle of studying or doing homework. Some of the participants could have already been distracted, as they thought about the tasks they needed to finish. According to literature, standardized tests indicate that girls now score just as well as boys in math during elementary school and the first years of junior high school. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, surveys show that 7 countries present no gender differences (Martinot, Bagès, & Désert, 2012). The results showed that there was a main effect of gender on reading. Male participants performed better than female participants. This could be due to the topics the readings highlighted. Each passage highlighted topics about history in which the female participants expressed that it was boring and long-winded. These results do not align with published literature. Past research from 2000 to 2009 surveys consistently show that girls outperform boys in reading in every participating country, male and female perform equally the same (Martinot, et al., 2012). According to the study there was no significant interaction between gender and music.
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These results could have occurred because participants not only thought the music was a distraction while reading the passage, but because they weren’t interested in the passage, their errors were much higher than the math or recall tasks. According to literature, background noise could occupy some of the available working-memory resources so that the person can no longer fully attend to the reading process. Instead of looking at gender in a broad spectrum, it is better to look at the individual differences (Johansson, Holmqvist, Mossberg and Lindgren, 2012). Results showed that there was no significant effect of listening to music and reading. This result could have occurred because most of the female participants didn’t listen to music while completing educational tasks and most of the male participants expressed that the tasks were hard when they first started to read the text, with the music playing, but later they tuned the music out. However, this technique was not the case for most of the participants. According to the results, it suggests that there is no significant effect of distraction and gender on attention and memory. Literature shows that studies have yielded different and conflicting findings, directing that reading and listening to music is a complex topic to study. According to Johansson et al. (2012), individuals who usually studied without background music scored higher on reading test compared to those who studied with music. According to the research, results showed
These results could have occurred because participants not only thought the music was a distraction while reading the passage, but because they weren’t interested in the passage, their errors were much higher than the math or recall tasks. According to literature, background noise could occupy some of the available working-memory resources so that the person can no longer fully attend to the reading process. Instead of looking at gender in a broad spectrum, it is better to look at the individual differences (Johansson, Holmqvist, Mossberg and Lindgren, 2012). Results showed that there was no significant effect of listening to music and reading. This result could have occurred because most of the female participants didn’t listen to music while completing educational tasks and most of the male participants expressed that the tasks were hard when they first started to read the text, with the music playing, but later they tuned the music out. However, this technique was not the case for most of the participants. According to the results, it suggests that there is no significant effect of distraction and gender on attention and memory. Literature shows that studies have yielded different and conflicting findings, directing that reading and listening to music is a complex topic to study. According to Johansson et al. (2012), individuals who usually studied without background music scored higher on reading test compared to those who studied with music. According to the research, results showed