Public health student Fiyo, on placement with BetterU, explores whether your study playlist helps or hinders learning and why silence might be your secret weapon. Also check out their first article on music and mood.
We often reach for music while studying, especially songs with lyrics, hoping they will help us focus. But according to a recent study by Souza and Barbosa (2023), the choice of background music – or whether to have music at all – can affect how well we learn and remember things.
In the experiment, college students completed four different cognitive tasks: recalling words (verbal memory), recalling images (visual memory), reading comprehension, and solving arithmetic problems. Each task was done under three listening conditions: silence, instrumental music (hip-hop lo-fi), or lyrical music (songs with lyrics). The same students experienced all three conditions, allowing a direct comparison of how each type of background sound influenced performance.
The results were clear and consistent across most tasks. When participants studied or worked while listening to music with lyrics, their performance was worse – their word recall, image recall, and reading comprehension scores were lower compared with silence. The drop was small but reliable (effect size around d ≈ –0.3). On arithmetic tasks, lyrical music also showed a negative trend (d ≈ –0.19), but the authors judged that effect as not credible, meaning the data did not strongly support a real impairment for math under lyrical music.
On the other hand, instrumental music – the lo-fi background – did not reliably improve or worsen performance compared with silence. In simpler terms: listening to lo-fi did not help you learn better than silence, but at least it did not hurt you in a measurable way.
Interestingly, after the tasks, participants were asked how they felt music affected their study. They generally recognized that lyrical music was distracting. Yet many judged instrumental music to be beneficial, even though objective measures showed no clear improvement. This mismatch suggests that while we may feel more focused with background music, it does not necessarily mean our brains are learning better.
✅ What This Means for Your Study Habits
If you are about to sit down for heavy reading, comprehension, or memory-based tasks, choose silence or very light lo-fi without lyrics. That way you minimize interference.
If you tend to study in noisy or distracting environments (maybe a café, hostel common room, or shared space) soft instrumental music might help reduce external noise without adding distraction, though it won’t give you a boost either.
Be aware of your feelings: even if music feels calming, motivating, or focusing, that does not guarantee improved memory or comprehension. So, after a study session, it might be wise to test yourself. Maybe re-read, recall, or summarize what you learned, rather than trusting how focused you felt.
💡 Why Some Common Beliefs Need Rethinking
Many students assume that music, especially chill instrumental tracks, helps them concentrate or helps their brain absorb information better. Others use lyrical songs as a motivational pump: “This song energizes me; I study better.”
The study by Souza and Barbosa (2023) challenges those beliefs. It shows that songs with lyrics are consistently distracting across different mental tasks. Meanwhile, instrumental music does not provide any clear learning advantage over silence, though it also does not cause harm.
Thus, if you thought that lo-fi would give you a “study boost,” that belief is not supported – at least not reliably. If you believed lyrical music helps you study better, that’s likely a misconception.
🧪How You Could Try This Out Yourself: A Simple Experiment
What if the results of the research don’t match your experiences of studying with music? You could run a small self-test in your own study sessions. Pick two similar study sessions (same subject, similar difficulty).
- In one, keep total silence (minimal ambient noise).
- In the other, play soft instrumental music with no lyrics, preferably something calming.
After each session, try to recall what you studied, summarize it, or test yourself. Compare how much you remember, how well you understood, and how confident you feel.
This simple personal comparison would not be “scientific,” but it can help you see whether music helps or hurts your focus and memory. Because even though the study gives general patterns, individual differences always matter – what works for one student might not for another.
🌱 Why This Matters Beyond Exams
Learning is often more than just memorizing facts, but memory, comprehension, and focus still form the foundation of good study habits. By being aware of how background music affects cognition, you equip yourself to make smarter choices. Sometimes silence, sometimes soft ambient sound, but rarely lyrical songs, unless you are doing something creative where lyrics are part of the process, not memorization or reading.
Using findings from Souza and Barbosa (2023) does not mean banning music forever but being mindful. That awareness can help build study habits that are effective, sustainable, and tuned to how your brain actually works.
Reference
Souza, A.S., & Barbosa, L.C.L. (2023). Should We Turn off the Music? Music with Lyrics Interferes with Cognitive Tasks. Journal of Cognition, 6(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.273