SRIG 24-76: The Influence of Background Music on Academic Performance in the Classroom

What was the issue being addressed?

The issue being addressed was exploring how the learning environment may be enhanced for university students. KPU is known for its superior quality of education and strategic utilization of various educational approaches and considering that many teachers have left traditional learning methods, I believe that incorporating learning and music, often a preferred aspect of students’ lives, may become one such tool that educators can use. Additionally, most existing research has looked at how elementary and high school students can use different tools to ameliorate their learning. This current study aimed to examine the potential role of music (alpha music) in improving student concentration and mood; thus, ameliorating their cognition; specifically, academic performance.

Provide a brief, lay description of the work undertaken/initiative.

This research project explored the influence of background music; specifically alpha music (a playlist of different alpha brain frequencies which appear as a song) on academic performance and whether this relationship could be explained and mediated through one’s level of concentration and mood. In this study, I recruited three classrooms where students participated in both a music and no music condition. The students either heard the background music for the first half or second half of the class during the lecture. In other words, students would actively listen to their professor present the lecture while they heard the background music. At each half way mark of the lecture, students completed a mood and concentration survey and a quiz on the half of the lecture material. It was found that background music did influence academic performance but there was no mediation. After my thesis defense, I fortunate to present this research at Connecting Minds 2025.

What is the expected impact this project will have on the community?

This study provides significant insight into the field of educational psychology and give educators one potential tool to improve their classrooms across universities. The findings of this study indicate that background music improves learning; specifically, academic performance among undergraduate students attending a lecture in the classroom context. Existing research had not looked at alpha music in the classroom; however, this study contributes to this area of research by suggesting the potential use of alpha music in the classroom to improve students’ academic performance. Additionally, the design implemented in this study highlights the importance of classroom research. As in many fields, experimental results do not always translate to the classroom setting; therefore, this study allows one to observe how laboratory-oriented studies revolving around music and cognition research come to play in an educational context. Overall these results may help educators enhance learning.