Reading with and without background music: An exploration with EEG, eye movement and heart rate

Abstract

The effects of background music on learning have been studied in related fields, including psychology and education, but findings are mostly inconclusive. In addition to measurements at the behavioural level, multimodal physiological signals can provide new evidence for exploring the question. This paper presents a pilot study of a reading task for a group of university students whose electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, eye movements, and heart rates were recorded with and without background music. Preliminary results demonstrated the feasibility of integrating multimodal learning analytics to probe the underlying mechanism about the effects of background music on learning.