The effect of commercial background music in engineering graphics classes

Purpose of research.-The research was designed to determine whether background music would have any motivational effect on the learning achievement of university students in engineering graphics classes. Measurement of ambient classroom noise was also made to learn whether music would cause a change in the amount of noise generated by students in the classes. Procedure of research.-Commercial background music was supplied for one engineering graphics drafting laboratory by Muzak, A Division of Wrather Corporation, New York. This program was available at all times, but could be turned on or off by the teacher. An electronic noise sensor was devised which could detect and count the incidents of noise exceeding sixty decibels in either the with-music experimental group, or the without-music control group. The elapsed time, which exceeded 200 hours for each group, was tabulated. Six sections of freshmen engineering graphics classes (course designated E.G. 105) provided 222 student subjects. These sections were equated on the basis of initial drafting achievement and divided into three control sections and three experimental sections. Each of the three teachers taught one control and one experimental section. Evaluation of the learning achievement was made by pooled t -tests on students' grades in the categories of weekly quiz scores, daily assignment scores, number of layouts completed, and final semester scores. Paired differences of students' scores on a drafting comprehension pretest and retest were evaluated. The average number of incidents of noise per hour of experimental time was tabulated at the end of each week for the with-music and the without-music groups of students.