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Does Listening To Music Improve Memory

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Music Helps You Recall Faces

Increase Brain Power, Focus Music, Improve Memory, Binaural and Isochronic Beats, Concentration

Another way music affects your memory is it improves your memory of peoples faces.

A 2015 study out of Italy found a link between listening to emotionally charged music and enhanced memory. The researchers studied 54 non-musicians who listened to joyful or emotionally touching music, rain sounds or silence while studying hundreds of faces.

The people who listened to emotionally touching music experienced deeper memory encoding, followed by those who did the exercise in silence.

What does this mean in practical terms?

Thats not to say, you should carry around a playlist any time you meet someone new or want to recognize a face.

But it is worth noting that a certain kind of music activates a part of your brain related to deeper memory and emotions.

And if your cognition becomes impaired later on in life, this tactic could be useful for recognizing the faces of your support system.

Not to mention, it could be useful for memorizing or studying something visual, which brings us to our next topic of using music while learning.

Does Music Improve Memory

Music is an example of a mnemonic or memory device. The frontal cortex and hippocampus take in a large amount of information every minute, and they are associated with memory. Retrieving information, however, is not easy. Music helps by providing a rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration, which helps retrieve that piece of information with cues. The melody, the images that the lyrics evoke, and the structure of the song helps us remember.

Repetition is important when we want to recall something. The brain encodes information into electrical impulses, which trigger chemicals that convey information from one brain cell to another. These connections are known as synapses. We cant recall some information because the brain was not able to encode it. Repetition creates more synapses, which helps form the memory deeply in the brain.

Experience or information that involves different senses creates various chemical and electrical triggers in the brain. The more brain triggers created, the stronger our immediate perception will be. That experience or information will become a short-term memory. This is one of the reasons why it is easier to recall song lyrics than to deliver a poem. Its also easier to recall song lyrics if you hear the music playing because the brain is retrieving various sensory signals.

Musics Affect On The Mind

The benefits of music have long gotten used in improving psychological issues. Listening to music elicits an emotional response in the brain.

This makes it a powerful tool in affecting human thinking and behavioral patterns. Music can create feelings that allow our bodies and minds to perform better. This is why people listen to music when working out, taking tests, or doing creative projects.

Music also offers a different medium of expression than other forms of communication. When listening to music, it can encourage people to think, feel, and act a certain way.

Many wonder how does music affects memory? Music helps to activate the section of the brain responsible for memory retention. This means that music can help people trigger happy memories of past experiences.

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First Steps With Movement

To explore this hypothesis, in the early 1990s we began to extract and study shared mechanisms between musical and non-musical functions in motor control. One of the most important shared mechanisms is rhythm and timing.

Timing is key to proficient motor learning and skilled motor activities without it, a person cannot execute movement appropriately and skillfully. Rhythm and timing are also important elements in music. Rhythm timing adds an anticipation component to movement timing. The necessary harness for all elements of musical sound architecture, rhythm is also important in learning the appropriate motor control in order to play music.

We hypothesized that by using musical rhythms as timing signals we might improve a persons motor control during non-musical movement. To test this idea, we used rhythmic auditory cues to give people an external sensory timer with which they could try to synchronize their walking.

These improvements held up over long-term training and also proved to be superior in comparison with other standard physical therapy interventions.8 We then applied the same concepts to arm therapy, with similar success. Since then, other studies have confirmed and extended our research. The therapy created from it, rhythmic auditory stimulation, now is considered part of the state-of-the-art repertoire in motor therapies.

Can Music Boost Memory

Does Listening To Classical Music Improve Memory?

Memory is an all too fleeting thing as we age. It usually starts out simply as simple as where did I leave my keys? We will all experience some memory issues as we age, to what degree has a lot to do with our brains and how we process not all of which is completely understood by science.

Recent studies have shown that musical activity can help with cognitive abilities in all stages of life. In older adults, music can be a useful intervention to promote and enhance memory. There are multiple reasons why music helps our memory from eliciting emotions that can help compensate for deficits to activating a part of brain that is less affected by common memory issues.

The simple answer to can music boost memory is YES! And it might not take much. Some studies suggest that listening to music for two to three weeks can have benefits to your memory. The key seems to be in continuous use. You reap the benefits when you listen, but you have to keep listening regularly and keep listening!

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Music Can Boost Productivity At Work

Dr. Teresa Lesiuk, an assistant professor in the music therapy program at the University of Miami, studied how listening to music affects work performance. Dr. Lesiuks research, conducted over a span of five weeks with 50+ developers from four Canadian software companies, shows that folks who listened to music had better ideas and completed their tasks more quickly.

Researchers studying how background music affects performance on repetitive tasks found it boosted efficiency. The study was focused on productivity in factories, but the findings are universally applicable. Working on repetitive and boring stuff? Listen to upbeat music to stay alert and motivated.

Listening to music can improve our mood, boost cognitive and physical performance, and keep us motivated for longerbut it all depends on the kind of music you listen to.

Introduction And Theoretical Background

Music has become much more readily available to the public in the past decades. One influencing factor was the increasing availability of music: whilst in the past one was in need of CDs or tapes and an according player, nowadays music can be played digitally on many different devices such as computers, mobile phones or iPods. Furthermore, the choice of available songs is almost endless due to music portals. This makes it possible to select suitable songs for different situations, such as relaxing songs for a cozy evening or activating songs before going out. Due to these advances in music technology, learning with background music has received more and more attention over the last decade .

For some situations it seems intuitive to think that music would help to enhance our experience but how do music and learning fit together? At present the effects of background music while learning and the mechanisms behind this are unclear. On the one side, music seems to have a positive and stimulating effect , which could improve learning. On the other side, background music could lead to an additional burden on working memory , thus hindering learning. To be able to simultaneously deal with the learning material and the background music, the learners working memory capacity is a crucial factor to consider.

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It Can Increase Focus

According to a 2007 study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, music classical music, specifically can help your brain absorb and interpret new information more easily.

Your brain processes the abundance of information it receives from the world around you by separating it into smaller segments.

The researchers found evidence to suggest that music can engage your brain in such a way that it trains it to pay better attention to events and make predictions about what might happen.

How does this help you study? Well, if you struggle to make sense of new material, listening to music could make this process easier.

You can also link the ability to make better predictions about events to reasoning skills.

Improved reasoning abilities wont help you pull answers out of thin air come exam time. But you could notice a difference in your ability to reason your way to these answers based on the information you do have.

Other research also supports music as a possible method of improving focus.

In a of 41 boys diagnosed with ADHD, background music distracted some of the boys, but it appeared to lead to better performance in the classroom for others.

Music May Reduce Symptoms Of Depression

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Researchers have also found that music therapy can be a safe and effective treatment for a variety of disorders, including depression. One study found that music therapy was a safe, low-risk way to reduce depression and anxiety in patients suffering from neurological conditions such as dementia, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease.


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Classical Music Makes You Smarter

Although thats not technically true, there have been studies that have shown how listening to classical music during childhood can have a positive effect. But how does it affect memory?

Since your memory is innately intertwined with emotion, it seems to make sense that you could draw a direct connection between the two. You might be wondering, Do I have to listen to classical music to get a positive effect, or can I listen to other styles to help remember things?. Lets take a closer look at how the effect may vary by genre.

Final Thoughts On The Effect Of Music On Memory

Did you memorize everything you just read? Just kidding! We hope that you enjoyed learning more about the effect of music on memory. With the many benefits of listening to music, its one of the best ways to focus and learn more. Schedule a lesson with a private teacher to learn more about music or invaluable study tips.

Interested in Private Lessons?


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The Effect Of Music On Memory



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Do Some Trial And Error

You Should be Listening to Music While You Study ...

If all else fails, the best way to find which style of music works best for you is to try a few different kinds. Once you start seeing positive results, you know what songs to add to your Study Playlist . Self-experimentation might not be the best option for things like treating strep throat or diagnosing yourself with cancer but a little music never hurt anyone.

Listening to a laid back EDM playlist might help you retain information when your friend might fare better listening to fast, loud drumming.

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Music Helps You Learn

A fourth way music affects your memory is it helps you learn.

How does music help you learn?

For one, it trains your brain to process more precise sounds, which helps you learn new auditory-based skills.

In fact, a study conducted by Nina Kraus of the Auditory Neuroscience Lab at Northwestern University found that music helps kids learn language and speech skills.

Whats more, learning to play an instrument strengthens your brains ability to pick up on speech nuances. In other words, music improves your ear for learning speech. The pitch, timing and timbre of music train your brain to narrow on auditory details.

So, if youre interested in the benefits of lifelong learning and picking up a new language , consider learning to play an instrument, too.

If learning an auditory-based skill isnt your speed, no worries. Simply listening to music while you study helps you learn practically anything.

Does the kind of music you listen to while learning matter?

In a word: yes.

According to renowned Bulgarian psychologist, Dr. Georgi Lozanov, the typeof music you listen to while studying impacts your learning and memorizing ability.

His musical genre of choice: classical.

Baroque music with a rate of 50-70 beats per minute, to be exact.

Its so effective that Dr. Lozanov created a widely adopted teaching method in the 70s, dubbed Suggestopedia, designed to accelerate learning while listening to soothing background music .

Research Questions And Hypothesis

To sum up, the influence of background music on learning is not clear: while the Mozart effect implies a direct, positive effect, the arousal-mood-hypothesis postulates a mediation effect over arousal and mood. Furthermore, the seductive detail effect indicates that background music has a direct negative effect on learning. In addition, the level of learning outcomes could also play an important role. On this basis, we pose the following research questions: Does listening to background music influence learning directly or is this association mediated by arousal or mood? And which role does the learners working memory capacity have and how does it interact with background music?

All three theoretical assumptions have theoretical and empirical justifications. As we are the first to compare all three of these, we formulate the following in parts competing hypotheses: Background music does not influence recall , but comprehension :

H1.2a: Due to the Mozart effect, comprehension will be influenced positively and directly by background music.

H1.2b: Due to the arousal-mood-hypothesis, we hypothesis that arousal and mood will be related to music and learning outcomes. As we chose music that was intended to induce positive mood and learning enhancing arousal, we expect background music to influence mood positively, thus fostering comprehension. Secondly, we expect that background music to have a positive impact on arousal, with arousal improving comprehension.

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Keep Your Brain Young With Music


There are few things that stimulate the brain the way music does, says one Johns Hopkins otolaryngologist. If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great tool. It provides a total brain workout.


What Does The Science Say

Alpha Waves | Binaural Beats | Frequency To Improve Memory | Music For Sleep & Concentration

So the question becomes how does music, or any specific genre, clear the path to let our brain form memories? The general speculation is that certain types of music that calm our brains leave our brains more open and able to encode more of what were experiencing at the time.

A 2012 study discussed in The effect of music genre on a memory task, tested the impact on the short-term memory of classical music, rap music, and silence. Three groups of people played the same game of Concentration while either classical, rap, or no music was playing. The group listening to classical music was the fastest team to complete the task . Indeed, the authors of the study and article found that the classical music group achieved a “significantly better memory task score than the rap group and silence group.”

A 2015 study didnt compare musical genres specifically but looked at different types of sounds that elicit different kinds of reactions. They conducted a face recall test on people who were listening either to rainfall, joyful music, or emotionally touching music. The group listening to the emotionally touching music did the best recalling faces. In this study, the participants’ heart rate and blood pressure were monitored. The group listening to emotionally touching music had increased heart rates over the other groups. The :

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Attaching Emotions To Each Phrase

When you link genuine emotions with each phrase or section of a song, it can help you memorize the song. Think about linking emotions like happiness, sorrow, and excitement with a line, and youll see amazing results. Many studies have already found that emotions play a significant role at different stages of recalling experiences, consolidating memory, and remembering information.

Enhanced Ability To Learn Foreign Language

Most high schools require students to take at least two semesters of a foreign language. But, some students struggle with language courses even when they excel in other subjects. This is not the case for students who have a background in music.

A better memory, which is a by-product of any kind of music course, is a huge aid for pupils in any foreign language class. Learning a foreign language involves three crucial skills, all of which are supported and enhanced by music education:

  • Memorization

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