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Mind, Brain and Technology pp 177–194Cite as

Cross-Sectional Studies Investigating the Impacts of Background Sounds on Cognitive Task Performance

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Abstract

This chapter synthesizes findings from a series of five studies examining the impacts of different background sounds on cognitive task performance. Four out of the five studies compared background sounds of silence, white noise (rain), calm music without lyrics (Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalize, Op. 34”), and fast, energetic music without lyrics (Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing”). The other study examined task performance under different musical tempos (fast, slow) and pitches (high, low). Cognitive load and academic domain (arithmetic, language, spatial) varied between studies. Findings indicated that, in general, the participants performed better on lower cognitive load tasks while listening to fast music. Performance on tasks with higher cognitive loads did not vary significantly by different listening backgrounds. Implications and future directions are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank our research assistants and volunteers, Claire Nicolas, Katie Hervey, Lauren Nolan, Tori Short, Charlie Metcalf, Tasneem Alqahtani, Alshaima Almarwai, Ken Cockerham, Maria Balduf, Joanne Wu, and Will Whitaker, for their assistance with conducting the study and organizing data. We also wish to thank the Research and Learning Center at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History for their hospitality and continued support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Learning Technologies, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, University of North Texas, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Deborah Cockerham

  2. University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Lin Lin & Mike Schellen

  3. University of Texas at Dallas, Denton, TX, USA

    Zhengsi Chang

Authors
  1. Deborah Cockerham
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  2. Lin Lin
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  3. Zhengsi Chang
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  4. Mike Schellen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lin Lin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information, University of North Texas Computational Neuropsychology and Simulation, Denton, TX, USA

    Thomas D. Parsons

  2. Department of Learning Technologies, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Lin Lin

  3. Department of Learning Technologies, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, University of North Texas, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Deborah Cockerham

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Cockerham, D., Lin, L., Chang, Z., Schellen, M. (2019). Cross-Sectional Studies Investigating the Impacts of Background Sounds on Cognitive Task Performance. In: Parsons, T.D., Lin, L., Cockerham, D. (eds) Mind, Brain and Technology. Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02631-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02631-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02630-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02631-8

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