The Effects of Music on WeBWorK Productivity

Noticing that many students study with headphones on, we were curious to know if it makes a difference what they listen to. One past study found no statistically significant difference in mean scores on tests taken with various types of background music compared to no background music [4], while another found that quality-of-work was lowest with no music, while time-on-task was longest when music was removed [2]. Past literature suggests contradictory findings, so we decided to investigate how listening to music, specifically, different genres of music, impacts students’ abilities to complete homework assignments. We distributed Google Form surveys to students enrolled in calculus courses at the University of Rochester (MTH 140 & 160 series), asking them about their experiences when completing WeBWorK problem sets. We evaluated productivity based on completion times, number of attempts, perceived difficulty, and level of focus, and hypothesized that listening to music, especially classical music, would correlate most with improved effectiveness in WeBWorK set completion. The categorical qualitative data we obtained were coded on a 1-5 scale, with higher productivity scores assigned for faster completion times, fewer attempts, lower perceived difficulty, and lower levels of distraction. We found average productivity scores to be slightly higher for students who listen to music, compared to those who did not, but the results were not statistically significant (p=0.148). Comparisons of productivity scores among students who listen to various genres of music, compared to no music, also yielded findings that were not statistically significant, though highest scores appeared among students who listen to alternative rock (3.350) and classical music (3.325). Our findings rejected our hypothesis that listening to music would improve effectiveness on WeBWorK set completion, and aligned with Manthei and Kelly’s findings that there was no statistically significant difference. However, listening to music still may be encouraged by peer educators and advisors -- and certainly by us at study group leaders and tutors! -- as it may improve students’ moods and there is no evidence suggesting that listening to music would be a distraction when compared to working in silence. Potential sources of error in our study include that the sample size was quite small and survey answers could be biased because students were asked to rate perceived difficulty of WeBWorK assignments for different levels of calculus classes. Areas of future improvement could include using a larger sample size, comparing scores for students in various levels of calculus against one another, having students specificity which “other” genres of music they listen to, and replacing perceived difficulty and level of distraction measures with more objective measures, including WeBWorK statistics on number of attempts per question. Literature Search: [1] Vaughn, Kathryn. “Music and Mathematics: Modest Support for the Oft-Claimed Relationship.” Journal of Aesthetic Education , Col. 34. (2000) pp. 149–66 JSTOR . www.jstor.org/stable/3333641 . [2] Lesiuk, Teresa. “The effect of music listening on work performance.” Psychology of Music , Vol. 33:2 (2005) pp. 173–91. doi:10.1177/0305735605050650. [3] Bottiroli, Sara et al. “The Cognitive Effects of Listening to Background Music on Older Adults: Processing Speed Improves with Upbeat Music, While Memory Seems to Benefit from Both Upbeat and Downbeat Music.” Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 6 (2014): 284. PMC . [4] Manthei, Mike & Kelly, Steven N. “Effects of Popular and Classical Background Music on the Math Test Scores of Undergraduate Student” http://music.arts.usf.edu/rpme/effects.htm