Does music help you concentrate?

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1. 1

   More than meets the ear: Investigating how music affects cognitive task performance.

   Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied (Gonzalez & Aiello)Published Jan 28, 2019Checked Sep 30, 2026

   “To further understand these effects, we consider interactions between music-based, task-based, and performer-based characteristics. Specifically, we drew from the distraction-conflict theory of social facilitation and research on boredom proneness to hypothesize that music-along with its complexity and volume-facilitates simple task performance and impairs complex task performance, and that one's preference for external stimulation (a dimension of boredom proneness) moderates these effects. We tested our hypotheses in a laboratory experiment, in which participants completed cognitive tasks either in silence or with music of varying complexity and volume. We found that (a) music generally impaired complex task performance, (b) complex music facilitated simple task performance, and (c) preference for external stimulation moderated these effects. Therefore, the data suggest that music's effects on task performance depend on the music, the task, and the performer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).”

2. 2

   Attention drainage effect: How background music effects concentration in Taiwanese college students

   Indiana Magazine of History (Indiana University) (Chou & Chou)Published Jan 1, 2010Checked Sep 30, 2026

   “The purpose of this study was to see whether different types of background music affect the performance of a reading comprehension task in Taiwanese college students.There are two major research questions in this study.First, this study tries to find out whether listening to music affect the learner's concentration when they are doing a task such as reading.The second research question is whether light classical music is more distracting or less distracting than hip hop music during a reading comprehension task.An experiment involving 133 participants from a medium-size college in southern Taiwan was conducted where the participants performed a reading comprehension task with either light classical music, hip hop music, or with no music in the background.The result of the study showed that music with a higher intensity is more distracting and has a greater effect on task performance and concentration.The result helped formulate the Attention Drainage Effect theory, which is based on Kahneman's (1973) capacity model of attention.”

3. 3

   Psychological effects of music listening habits on emotional wellbeing and cognitive performance in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

   Frontiers in psychology (Liu)Published Jul 9, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Random-effects meta-analyses indicated small-to-moderate benefits of both listening and interventions for state anxiety, depressive symptoms, and emotional well-being, with slightly larger effects for structured programs. Music-based interventions produced small positive effects on global cognition, memory, and executive function, whereas attention effects were weaker and more heterogeneous. Meta-regression suggested that older age, clinical status, longer intervention duration, and active (versus purely receptive) formats were associated with stronger effects. The risk of bias was mostly low to moderate, and there was some evidence of small-study effects for emotional outcomes, leading to moderate overall certainty for emotional benefits and low-to-moderate certainty for cognitive benefits.ConclusionThese findings support music as a low-cost adjunct to promote emotional well-being and modestly support cognition, especially in older and clinical populations, while emphasizing the necessity of larger, rigorously controlled, mechanism-focused trials.”

4. 4

   Effects of music-based interventions on test anxiety in students: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

   Frontiers in psychology (Zou et al.)Published Aug 20, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Meta-analyses were performed using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 18.0. The primary outcomes were test anxiety measured using the State Anxiety Subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S/SAI), Test Anxiety Scale (TAS), Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), and Generalized Test Anxiety Inventory (GTAI). Fixed- or random-effects models were applied according to heterogeneity, and subgroup analyses were conducted.ResultsA total of 10 RCTs involving 681 students were included, with 371 participants in the intervention groups and 310 in the control groups. The meta-analysis showed that music-based interventions were significantly more effective than control conditions in reducing test anxiety among students (SMD = -1.21, 95% CI: -1.79 to -0.63, P ConclusionMusic-based interventions appear to be a promising non-pharmacological strategy for improving students' psychological wellbeing by reducing test anxiety and may serve as an effective adjunct to school-based mental health education.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD420261414547.”

5. 5

   Distractions in digital reading: a meta-analysis of attentional interference effects.

   Frontiers in psychology (Shen)Published Nov 19, 2025Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Moderation analysis further shows that factors such as research design, type of distraction, and educational level influence this effect, particularly in between-subject studies involving television (TV) or music distractions, where older readers experienced greater declines in comprehension.ConclusionThis study advances the understanding of the cognitive-neurological foundations of attention and cognitive load theory, emphasizing the limited capacity of attention in online environments and the need to balance cognitive load to improve reading comprehension. It encourages minimizing distractions such as background music and videos, designing interactive online platforms that promote focus and selfregulated learning, using tools such as eye-tracking to monitor attention, and implementing tailored interventions that help students develop effective selfregulation strategies for better comprehension.”

6. 6

   Effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes: a systematic review and two meta-analyses

   Health Psychology Review (Witte et al.)Published Jun 6, 2019Checked Sep 30, 2026

   “Music interventions are used for stress reduction in a variety of settings because of the positive effects of music listening on both physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, and hormonal levels) and psychological stress experiences (e.g., restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness). To summarize the growing body of empirical research, two multilevel meta-analyses of 104 RCTs, containing 327 effect sizes and 9,617 participants, were performed to assess the strength of the effects of music interventions on both physiological and psychological stress-related outcomes, and to test the potential moderators of the intervention effects. Results showed that music interventions had an overall significant effect on stress reduction in both physiological (d = .380) and psychological (d = .545) outcomes. Further, moderator analyses showed that the type of outcome assessment moderated the effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes. Larger effects were found on heart rate (d = .456), compared to blood pressure (d = .343) and hormone levels (d = .349). Implications for stress-reducing music interventions are discussed.”

7. 7

   Mind your music: The effects of music-induced mood and arousal across different memory tasks.

   Psychomusicology Music Mind and Brain (Nguyen & Grahn)Published Jun 1, 2017Checked Sep 30, 2026

   “In the current study, however, the focus was to examine the effect of background music on memory, which is different from music that might be integrated with the to-be-remembered items. Here, the background music was arbitrarily paired rather than intentionally paired with the to-be-remembered items because the background music that we experience in our daily lives is not typically integrated with the task we are performing.Whether background music enhances learning and memory has yet to be fully elucidated because the effects are inconsistent. Some studies have found that background music has either no effect on memory (Hirokawa, 2004; Jancke & Sandmann, 2010; Miller & Schyb, 1989), worsens memory (Hallam, Price, & Katsarou, 2002; Iwanaga & Ito, 2002; Reaves, Graham, Grahn, Rabannifard, & Duarte, 2016), or improves memory (de Groot, 2006; Eschrich et al., 2008; Richards, Fassbender, Bilgin, & Thompson, 2008). Although the findings of the aforementioned studies are mixed, one meta-analysis has identified several studies where background music had a detrimental effect on memory compared with silence (Kampfe, Sedlmeier, & Renkewitz, 2011). …”

8. 8

   Psychology of music (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaPublished Sep 30, 2026Checked Sep 30, 2026

   “The psychology of music, or music psychology, is a branch of psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and/or musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, responded to, and incorporated into everyday life. Modern work in the psychology of music is primarily empirical; its knowledge tends to advance on the basis of interpretations of data collected by systematic observation of and interaction with human participants. In addition to its basic-science role in the cognitive sciences, the field has practical relevance for many areas, including music performance, composition, education, criticism, and therapy; investigations of human attitude, skill, performance, intelligence, creativity, and social behavior; and links between music and health. The psychology of music can shed light on non-psychological aspects of musicology and musical practice. For example, it contributes to music theory through investigations of the perception and computational modelling of musical structures such as melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm, meter, and form.”