Nary a study cited indicating that music benefits concentration. I wonder why? The research by and large shows silence is golden when it comes to staying focused and on task.
So what we name silence? Good ambiance or absence of sound?
Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration
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Re: Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration
#12The article is predictably coy about the fact that music is, well, bad for concentration. Studies tend to find that people work better in a quiet environment. [0] The article is rather scattershot, with much of it having nothing to do with music. [0] https://www.gwern.net/docs/music-distraction/2012-shih.pdf
Thanks for good paper! As far as I can tell, the paper says about compare two groups: first was listening music with lyrics and second was listening music without lyrics?
Sorry, my bad! Two groups also had performance score without background music.
Re: Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration
#13Can we change the title to "App for Music for Concentration Tells Us Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration"?
Yeah, it would be honest. But I would like to see any researches saying it does not working
I linked to such research in my earlier comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24629729
Re: Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration
#14The article is predictably coy about the fact that music is, well, bad for concentration. Studies tend to find that people work better in a quiet environment. [0] The article is rather scattershot, with much of it having nothing to do with music. [0] https://www.gwern.net/docs/music-distraction/2012-shih.pdf
The music distraction literature is really scattershot and heterogeneous, so you can pull out whatever subset you like. The best meta-analysis I know of is "The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis" https://www.gwern.net/docs/music-distraction/2011-kampfe.pdf , Kampfe et al 2011.
Re: Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration
#15Nary a study cited indicating that music benefits concentration. I wonder why? The research by and large shows silence is golden when it comes to staying focused and on task.
Most people cannot get silence. There will be some ambient noise, such as traffic, HVAC systems, computer fans, the sound of their own breathing or pulse, animals, creaking furniture, and such.
The choice then for most is not between music and silence. It's between music and all those ambient sounds.
A lot of those ambient sounds can be very distracting because they are unpredictable and intermittent.
If you can listen to music that is just loud enough to mask the ambient noise but not so loud that you have to pay attention to it, it can be less distracting than the ambient noise because music is predictable (at least if you are listening to something you know).
Re: Why Music Is Helpful for Concentration
#16The article is predictably coy about the fact that music is, well, bad for concentration. Studies tend to find that people work better in a quiet environment. [0] The article is rather scattershot, with much of it having nothing to do with music. [0] https://www.gwern.net/docs/music-distraction/2012-shih.pdf
The music distraction literature is really scattershot and heterogeneous, so you can pull out whatever subset you like. The best meta-analysis I know of is "The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis" https://www.gwern.net/docs/music-distraction/2011-kampfe.pdf , Kampfe et al 2011.
Interesting, thanks for that.