Psychology Research: The Effect of Rhythm on Math and Language Test Performance

While a student at Wilfrid Laurier University, I approached Dr. Judy Eaton, PhD, to inquire about gaining experience as a researcher. I'm grateful for the opportunity Dr. Eaton gave me. Under her supervision, I was given a grant to examine the effects of tempo or rhythm on testing performance. Together with Dr. Stephane Burgoyne, we conducted the following research:

Methodology

Participants: We recruited 136 undergraduate students Design: We used a 3 (rhythm: regular, irregular, none) x 2 (test: math, language) experimental design Procedure: We had participants take either a math or language test while listening to a regular beat, irregular beat, or no sound.

Key Findings

Math test performance:

We found that participants performed significantly better with a regular rhythm compared to an irregular rhythm. There was no significant difference between regular rhythm and no sound.

Language test performance:

We observed no significant effect of rhythm on performance.

Distraction:

Our results showed that participants reported more distraction with any background sound (regular or irregular) compared to no sound. Interestingly, this distraction didn't negatively impact math performance in the regular rhythm condition.

Anxiety and mood:

We found no significant effects of rhythm or test type on anxiety or mood.

Implications

Based on our findings, we concluded that:

The type of background sound (regular vs. irregular rhythm) can affect math performance. Language tasks appear less affected by background sounds. Educators and parents may need to consider the type of music and type of learning task when deciding whether to allow background music during study.

Relevance to My Current UX/UI Design Studies

• Design and conduct experimental research
• Analyze complex data and draw meaningful conclusions
• Consider multiple variables in human performance and experience
• Investigate how environmental factors (like sound) can impact cognitive tasks

Read the Manuscript

You can read the manuscript here