Music And Work Performance: A Cognitive Analysis

1. Introduction

The idea that music can improve a person’s cognitive abilities has been a debate for many years among scientists and the media. Those who support this idea believe that music can enhance reading and literacy skills, spatial temporal reasoning, mathematical abilities as well as emotional intelligence. (Sarnthein,1997) Albert Einstein, one of the greatest human minds, believed in the power of music with regard to a person’s learning. When Albert Einstein was young he performed very badly at school and his teacher informed his parents that he was stupid and that the school was wasting their time trying to educating him. Not giving up his parents bought him a violin and even Einstein said that the reason he was so smart was because

Teresa Lesiuk from The University of Windsor in Canada performed research entitled, “The effect of music on work performance.” The study was done with 56 people working within Canadian software companies. The data was collected from their actual work environments over a period of five weeks. She concluded that: “Results indicated that state positive affect and quality-of-work were lowest with no music, while time-on-task was longest when music was removed. Narrative responses revealed the value of music listening for positive mood change and enhanced perception on design while working. Evidence is provided of the presence of a learning curve in the use of music for positive mood alteration.” Teresa Lesiuk concluded that the quality of work done was at its lowest when music was removed as the time taken to complete a task was longest when music was removed. Furthermore music improved both a person’s mood and gave them an enhanced perception with specific reference to design. (Lesiuk, 2005) A study conducted by the journal of Neuroscience of Behaviour and Physiology shows that listening to classical music improves a person’s ability to identify visual images including letters and numbers. (Pavlygina,

It is proven by some studies that the left and right brain can be stimulated by Mozart’s music and baroque music which has a beat pattern of 60 beats per minutes. When the left and right brain act simultaneously, it maximizes learning and holding information. The left brain is activated by studied information while the right brain is stimulated by the music. Exercise which activates both sides of the brain simultaneously enhances ability to process information. Listening to music promotes word recall. Researchers have found that specific music genres have a powerful effect on word recall. When information is studied with specific background music, it makes it easier for people to remember simply by playing the song mentally. Research also shown clearly that a child’s memory development is affected by whether they took music lessons or not. (Mammarella,