Learning with Background Music: A Field Experiment

Abstract

Empirical evidence of how background music benefits or hinders learning becomes the crux of optimizing music recommendation in educational settings. This study aims to further probe the underlying mechanism by investigating the interactions among music characteristics, learning context, and learners’ personal factors. 30 participants were recruited to join a field experiment which was conducted in their own study places for one week. During the experiment, participants were asked to search for and listen to music while studying using a novel mobile-based music discovery application. A set of participant-related, context-related, and music-related data were collected via a pre-experiment questionnaire, surveys popped up in the music app, and the logging system of the music app. Preliminary results reveal correlations between certain music characteristics and learners’ task engagement and perceived task performance. This study is expected to provide evidence for understanding the effects of background music on learning, as well as implications for designing music recommendation systems that are capable of intelligently selecting background music for facilitating learning.