A microcontroller-facilitated complex span task for examining the effects of background music on working memory capacity

Participants memorized sequences of colors while listening to background music varying in likeability, type of lyrics, and degree of stimulation. The sequences were randomized and transmitted using a microcontroller with LEDs. It was found that songs that are liked achieved the lowest average serial recall percent accuracy (57.9% ± 6), and songs that participants disliked achieved a higher average (64.4% ± 9) than did those toward which they were apathetic (62.1% ± 11). For three pop songs, a song with English lyrics produced the worst results (57.5% ± 20) while music with no lyrics produced the best (64.6% ± 10). A song in Mandarin achieved intermediate results of 62.7% ± 11. While listening to stimulating music, people achieved an only 59.8% ± 5 in comparison to 65.7% ± 7 for relaxing music. Ongoing efforts to increase the sample size from 14 are expected to improve statistical significance