Effects of Background Music on Episodic Memory in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Many regularly listen to music while doing a variety of tasks, including studying. Some research suggests background music may provide a supportive learning environment to aid memory. However, the literature is mixed, as these effects differ depending on the music type and type of memory being assessed. For example, emotions can be manipulated depending on the type of music playing, indirectly influencing a person’s cognitive performance. Recent research found episodic memory benefitted from listening to stimulating background music in a sample of college students. What remains to be seen is if this benefit is unique to certain ages or populations. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders and is associated with episodic memory deficits. Music has regularly shown therapeutic benefits in ASD for a variety of tasks, but to our knowledge, no study has evaluated background music\u27s effects on episodic memory in ASD. We propose that background music could stimulate cognitive functioning in ASD and ultimately lead to an increase in episodic memory retention. In this study, we test these ideas by evaluating episodic memory performance in the presence of background music (stimulating, relaxing, noise) in an online sample of adults with and without ASD