If you’re planning to make your coaching session groovier with some background music, think again, suggests an article in The Guardian arguing that listening to music hinders learning.
The article cites research from Cardiff Metropolitan University showing students who revised in quiet environments performed more than 60% better in an exam than peers who revised while listening to music that had lyrics and that those who revised while listening to music without lyrics did better than those who’d revised to music with lyrics.
Listening to music won’t help you or clients learn new or complex material, says the article. And the so-called ‘Mozart effect’, where people improved cognitive performance after listening to Mozart, has apparently been disproven, according to research from the University of Vienna cited in the article.
Those of us with offspring studying for exams may have to work hard at reigning ourselves in. Teenagers aren’t very receptive when given ‘advice’, and being smug and saying, ‘I told you so’ in the event of poor results is a recipe for disaster. However, it’s useful to know for other contexts.