The Effect of Listening to Music While Studying on Memory Retention

One of the author's name was missing in the poster

Memory retention is an intricate process and numerous research is still going on from the past decades to understand the cognitive functions and its effect on all daily tasks. For example, one of the new methods for improving long-term retention is applying the spaced-repetition method of studying, which has shown increased scores for its users. However, no matter the method of studying, incorporation of different disturbances mentally, physically, or environmentally while studying would interfere with a person’s memory and consequently affect his/her memory retention. The aim of this study is to know if listening to music while studying has an effect on the retention of information.This research will be conducted in a prospective cohort study design as the 2 groups will share common exposure during the same period. It will be comparing the effect of instrumental as well as lyrical music and silence on first-year medical students' memory retention and learning outcome.The results suggest that there is no clear trend regarding the effect of music on the scores of the exam, and therefore no effect on memory retention. Rather, the results suggest that the effect of listening to music is very individualized and based on personal factors. Listening to music while studying had a positive effect on some students, negative on others, and no effect on the rest.