1. Goltz, F., & Sadakata, M. (2021, September 20). Do you listen to music while studying? A portrait of how people use music to optimize their cognitive performance. . Acta Psychologica. Retrieved October 10, 2021

Background: This study covers the effects of background music on performance of our daily tasks, and explores specific tasks such as reading, memory, writing, and more. Individuals that contain a higher working memory capacity are less likely to be negatively affected by background music when doing tasks. This is connected to the fact of personality influence, with extraversion allowing people to have pop music playing when they are reading and it will barely bother them. 

How I Used It: I used this to show the effect of how access to music affects how much students use it to study and how it is easy for them to study with music because of the access being so simple. I also used it to explain how personality affects if specific music helps you or not when studying.

2.  A., Ashmita Mohan & Elizabeth Thomas, (2019, November 29). Effect of background music and the cultural preference to music on adolescents’ task performance.. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved October 12, 2021 

Background: It is shown in this study that playing music in a classroom setting can be helpful for adolescents. While in your adolescence, your brain is still growing and changing, adapting to things it is taught. Music helps to create a more welcoming and friendly environment, making the class seem more fun than it might actually be. While helping students focus, music also helps with behavioral issues, making the space safe for the kids. Music creates a higher level of arousal and mood, which “results in more material being processed by the learner and consecutively enhances their performance.” 

How I Used It: I used this source to get me into how music affects adolescents’ and have a deep dive into how their brains work with it. I kept these ideas in the back of my mind when writing my papers to give me the extra boost of knowledge on the topic. 

3. Gianna Cassidy, R. A. R. M. D. (2007). The effect of background music and background noise on the task performance of introverts and extraverts . SAGE Journals. Retrieved October 12, 2021

Background: Many requirements of music play into how effective it can be, such as form, genre, tempo, complexity, etc. One study showed music with a “low information load” was shown to improve performance in reading comprehension, while “high information load” did the opposite. Another study said that they saw no difference in the performance involving different music. Genre is such a big factor in whether or not music will help you improve your focus. Introverts will experience a great arousal with music of lower intensity, while extraverts may not. Introverts are more likely to not perform well when there is any music at all, especially if it is pop music or lyrical music.

How I Used It: I used the argument of different personality types being affected by background music when studying, and built off of this idea from other sources when writing. This introduced me to the ideas of extraversion and introversion playing into how music when studying can affect a person differently. 

4. White, K. N. (2007). The effects of background music in the classroom on the productivity, motivation, and behavior of fourth grade students.. DEDICATION. Retrieved October 12, 2021

Background: Music has been shown to play “an important role in culture and is a strong influence on today’s youth,” so focusing on implementing music to promote student learning in classrooms is a big thing for the younger generations. Research shows using background music during teaching and independent learning has many benefits relating to productivity, motivation and behavior within students. Although music classes are not required for school, it is becoming much more widespread because of how well it affects students. Getting younger students to stay focused can be hard, but educators are slowly realizing that background music heavily influences students’ performances in a positive way.

How I Used It: I used this source to give me more knowledge and information on how background music affects elementary age students. This source showed me how opening a child’s mind to this music playing when working can later contribute to if the individual responds well to music when studying too. 

5. Bonnet, M. H., & Arand, D. L. (2001, February 27). The impact of music upon sleep tendency as measured by the multiple sleep latency test and maintenance of wakefulness test. . Physiology & Behavior. Retrieved October 12, 2021

Background: There have been 2 studies showing that “loud, white noise helped to maintain performance during a 30-min vigilance task during sleep deprivation.” Music provides arousal through sound intensity and by providing an interest component, as it is used in a study for attending to wakefulness as well as using it to fall asleep. Subjects had no instructions for whether or not to use the music to stay awake or fall asleep, giving them freedom to choose what they liked. Sleep latencies were reduced by the same amount on the recovery day (after sleep deprivation) whether music was present or not. Music seemed to have increased arousal levels, but nothing showed that music could have a different impact on falling asleep or staying awake.

How I Used It: This source was an early source that I found that was not really used but still provided good insight to music and the brain. I used it to see how music affected a brain trying to sleep and compared it with the sources telling me how it affected a brain trying to be focused. 

6. Rentfrow, P. J. (2012, May 2). The role of music in everyday life: Current directions in the social psychology of Music.. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved October 20, 2021

Background: This article explores how music also affects an individual’s emotion, behaviour and cognition, and explores other research of how music affects people in their everyday lives. Through the exploration of personality, it reveals our understanding of music and how that is relevant in the real world.

How I Used It: I used this to support my argument of music having more than one definition. In my definition essay,  I used this article to focus on how music is crucial and important in everyday life for many people.

7. Roy , W. G., & Dowd, T. J. (2010). What is sociological about music?. Annual Reviews. Retrieved October 20, 2021

Background: This article talks about what music is sociologically and what that even means. It focuses on the questions of music involving people, the creative process, and how it all relates to a broader level. It explains the relevance of music, and how that has changed over time, digging into the real definition of what music is and can be.

How I Used It: I used the arguments from this article to strengthen my definition essay, showing that music has a flexible definition. I used the ideas of music being the performance, creation, people, etc. to keep my ideas moving forward.

8. Amano, S. (2015). Silence is Golden: The Bad Effect of Music While Studying.. Google Docs. Retrieved November 18, 2021

Background: This source explains how silence is the best thing to have when studying. It conducts a small research project through google forms using university freshman students as the subjects. It analyzes the results and goes into how most people prefer to listen to music when studying, but research shows that silence is much better.  

How I Used It: I used this source as the article I would rebuttal against. I used it;s ideas of how music is the worst thing for you while studying and how the research performed was confusing and not as accurate as it could be. 

9. Mensink, M. C., & Dodge, L. (2014, April 1). Music and memory: Effects of listening to music while studying in college students..  MINDS@UW Home. Retrieved November 18, 2021

Background: This article goes into a research project conducted to test the memory of several students when presented with one of three different auditory settings. It focuses on college students and their results of whether silence, pop, or classical works the best when trying to stay focused.

How I Used It: I used the ideas and results from this article to show that pop music has the same effects as silence on the average student. This source gave me knowledge on how the auditory settings were taken in,and gave me statistics to follow.

10. Aljanaki, A., Wiering, F., & Veltkamp, R. C. (2015, April 21). Studying emotion induced by music through a crowdsourcing game. Information Processing & Management. Retrieved November 18, 2021

Background: This article looks into how music is attracted to emotions for individuals. Data was collected about the model Geneva Emotional Music Scale, and analyzes said data of participants in different categories. It explores different music genres that induce emotions to see how this is effective. 

How I Used It: This source was purely used for background information and knowledge of music and emotions. It was a source I looked through and took mental notes for but was not used in my final products.