EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task.
As tantalizing as the idea that background music beneficially affects foreign vocabulary learning may seem, there is-partly due to a lack of theory-driven research-no consistent evidence to support this notion. We investigated inter-individual differences in the effects of background music on foreig...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2016-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4990275?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818313791644893184 |
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| author | Mats B Küssner Annette M B de Groot Winni F Hofman Marij A Hillen |
| author_facet | Mats B Küssner Annette M B de Groot Winni F Hofman Marij A Hillen |
| author_sort | Mats B Küssner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As tantalizing as the idea that background music beneficially affects foreign vocabulary learning may seem, there is-partly due to a lack of theory-driven research-no consistent evidence to support this notion. We investigated inter-individual differences in the effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. Based on Eysenck's theory of personality we predicted that individuals with a high level of cortical arousal should perform worse when learning with background music compared to silence, whereas individuals with a low level of cortical arousal should be unaffected by background music or benefit from it. Participants were tested in a paired-associate learning paradigm consisting of three immediate word recall tasks, as well as a delayed recall task one week later. Baseline cortical arousal assessed with spontaneous EEG measurement in silence prior to the learning rounds was used for the analyses. Results revealed no interaction between cortical arousal and the learning condition (background music vs. silence). Instead, we found an unexpected main effect of cortical arousal in the beta band on recall, indicating that individuals with high beta power learned more vocabulary than those with low beta power. To substantiate this finding we conducted an exact replication of the experiment. Whereas the main effect of cortical arousal was only present in a subsample of participants, a beneficial main effect of background music appeared. A combined analysis of both experiments suggests that beta power predicts the performance in the word recall task, but that there is no effect of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. In light of these findings, we discuss whether searching for effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning, independent of factors such as inter-individual differences and task complexity, might be a red herring. Importantly, our findings emphasize the need for sufficiently powered research designs and exact replications of theory-driven experiments when investigating effects of background music and inter-individual variation on task performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T08:39:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1c96c8e74b1148c5a6158ba6abcb1fea |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T08:39:22Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c96c8e74b1148c5a6158ba6abcb1fea2022-12-21T23:53:34ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01118e016138710.1371/journal.pone.0161387EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task.Mats B KüssnerAnnette M B de GrootWinni F HofmanMarij A HillenAs tantalizing as the idea that background music beneficially affects foreign vocabulary learning may seem, there is-partly due to a lack of theory-driven research-no consistent evidence to support this notion. We investigated inter-individual differences in the effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. Based on Eysenck's theory of personality we predicted that individuals with a high level of cortical arousal should perform worse when learning with background music compared to silence, whereas individuals with a low level of cortical arousal should be unaffected by background music or benefit from it. Participants were tested in a paired-associate learning paradigm consisting of three immediate word recall tasks, as well as a delayed recall task one week later. Baseline cortical arousal assessed with spontaneous EEG measurement in silence prior to the learning rounds was used for the analyses. Results revealed no interaction between cortical arousal and the learning condition (background music vs. silence). Instead, we found an unexpected main effect of cortical arousal in the beta band on recall, indicating that individuals with high beta power learned more vocabulary than those with low beta power. To substantiate this finding we conducted an exact replication of the experiment. Whereas the main effect of cortical arousal was only present in a subsample of participants, a beneficial main effect of background music appeared. A combined analysis of both experiments suggests that beta power predicts the performance in the word recall task, but that there is no effect of background music on foreign vocabulary learning. In light of these findings, we discuss whether searching for effects of background music on foreign vocabulary learning, independent of factors such as inter-individual differences and task complexity, might be a red herring. Importantly, our findings emphasize the need for sufficiently powered research designs and exact replications of theory-driven experiments when investigating effects of background music and inter-individual variation on task performance.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4990275?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Mats B Küssner Annette M B de Groot Winni F Hofman Marij A Hillen EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task. PLoS ONE |
| title | EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task. |
| title_full | EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task. |
| title_fullStr | EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task. |
| title_full_unstemmed | EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task. |
| title_short | EEG Beta Power but Not Background Music Predicts the Recall Scores in a Foreign-Vocabulary Learning Task. |
| title_sort | eeg beta power but not background music predicts the recall scores in a foreign vocabulary learning task |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4990275?pdf=render |
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