Effects of Three Different Musical Styles of Background Music on Coding by College-Age Students

Abstract

This study examined the effects of different styles of background music on task performances of college students. In addition, students' perceptions of the music and the effect these perceptions had on performance were investigated. 96 undergraduate nonmusic majors were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: task only, task and classical background music, task and jazz background music, and task and popular background music. The performance task consisted of 220 eye/hand coordination problems, and a questionnaire was subsequently administered to the task plus background music groups to assess perception of the background environment. Analysis indicated that the experimental conditions had no significant effect on task performance.