The effects of three different background music on verbal and spatial task performance in learning

The objective of this preliminary experimental study is to investigate the effects of three different backgrounds of music: instrumental, vocal and silence on verbal and spatial task performance in learning. The study samples were from postgraduate students of a public research university in Malaysia which consisted of 36 students. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistics in which independent sample t-tests and two-way analysis variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The t-tests show that there are significance differences between instrumental condition (t = 2.06, p = 0.018), vocal condition (t = 1.101, p = 0.172) and silent condition (t = 2.712, p = 0.022) on the verbal and spatial task performance. Two-way ANOVA music within group Greenhouse-Geisser was reported in the significant level (p