Examining Correlation Between the Genre of Music Present & Increased Academic Performance Through Beta Wave Measurement

Authors

  • Daksha Tesla STEM High School
  • Daniel Tesla STEM High School

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v9i2.1187

Keywords:

EEG, music, Academic Performance, beta waves, brainwaves, OpenBCI

Abstract

In a world saturated with media at every turn – especially music, and many different genres of music for everyone to enjoy, the critical question is often asked: does music positively impact the work produced whilst listening to it? This experiment seeks to answer that question using a 3D printed EEG to measure beta waves in the brain, thus providing more concrete results. It was hypothesized that listening to a genre of music such as classical would boost performance on a math exam. This experiment explores the correlation between the presence of music whilst taking a math exam and the score on said exam. In the experiment, each participant was first given a math exam to complete with no music whilst undergoing an EEG examination to establish a baseline, then were given a different form of the exam to complete whilst listening to a specific genre of music that was randomly assigned prior. Afterwards, we determined that slight improvement was observed with an average increase in score of 0.45 points, however with an r-squared value of only 0.091. The EEG analysis did provide an r-squared value of 0.370 when experimental error was removed, giving a moderately strong relationship that music does not have an impact on beta wave amplitude. We concluded that although music increased math scores slightly, it was not statistically significant using an alpha level of 0.05. However, since almost 20% of the trials had error resulting in unreliable data, further refinement/re-testing of the methodology must be conducted.

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Author Biography

Daksha , Tesla STEM High School

Daksha Magesh is currently a high school senior at Tesla STEM High School, soon to graduate at the end of the 2021 school year. She has a strong passion for mental health, public policy, and enjoys learning about neuroscience. She went on to collaborate on the Democratic Senate Campaigns in 2016 and 2018. She interned for Sen. Manka Dhingra for a couple of years, and also was a Legislative page for her in Olympia in 2017. Since then, Daksha has worked with the National Alliance on Mental Illness on many important events and projects. Last year, Daksha and her partner entered in the Central Sound Regional Science and Engineering Fair with a behavioral science/neuroscience research project in which she used an EEG she had hand-wired to record the effect of music on academic performance, earning her team first place in her category. In her free time, she enjoys teaching and practicing Bollywood dance, spending time with kids and hanging out with her friends.

References or Bibliography

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Arnaud Cabanac, et al. (2013, August 21). Music and academic performance. - PubMed - NCBI. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23973386

Cheung, Mei-Chun & Chan, Agnes & Han, Yvonne & Sze, Sophia. (2014). Brain Activity During Resting State in Relation to Academic Performance. Journal of Psychophysiology. 28. 47-53. 10.1027/0269-8803/a000107.

Hsu CC, et al. (2017, January 12). Analyze the beta waves of electroencephalogram signals from young musicians and non-musicians in major scale working memory task. - PubMed - NCBI. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28088577

Huang, Rong-Hwa, and Yi-Nuo Shih. “Effects of Background Music on Concentration of Workers.” Work (Reading, Mass.), U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011

Kesan, C., Özkalkan, Z., İriç, H., & Kaya, D. (2012). THE EFFECT OF MUSIC ON THE TEST SCORES OF THE STUDENTS IN LIMITS AND DERIVATIVES SUBJECT IN THE MATHEMATICS EXAMS DONE WITH MUSIC.

Published

11-20-2020

How to Cite

Magesh, D., & Yan, D. (2020). Examining Correlation Between the Genre of Music Present & Increased Academic Performance Through Beta Wave Measurement. Journal of Student Research, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v9i2.1187

Issue

Section

HS Research Articles