Facilitation and Interference by Background Music
L. K. Miller, M. Schyb · Journal of Music Therapy · 1989
Undergraduates performed a variety of standard cognitive tasks: spatial, numerical, and verbal reasoning and reading, either with no background music or with various types of music during performance. Performance on nonverbal tasks was facilitated by background music, especially for females. Slight interference appeared on the verbal tasks under some conditions for females. Processes possibly mediating these effects are discussed.