The Effect of Background Music on Task Performance

Jones and Estell (2006) conducted two studies based on the preliminary findings of the Mozart effect. They first hypothesized that the participants' at the college age level would temporarily increase spatial ability on an test from the Standford Binet Intelligence Scale, while listening to Mozart music, compared to students placed in the silence condition. The results from this study were significant in finding that the students' spatial ability did improve temporarily after exposure to 15 minutes of Mozart music. Twenty subjects were equally divided based on sex into either the Mozart Music group, or the popular culture music group. Participants were required to listen to the music from the group they were randomly placed in, while completing the Stoop Task. Analyses were computed using a 2x2 between-subjects ANOVA design and a post-hoc independent samples t-test