Playing background music to a class can have dramatic effects on pupils’ work and behaviour. When listening to music that they identify as being calm and pleasant, they work quickly, are able to remember things and display sociable behaviour. When music they think is unpleasant and aggressive is played, their concentration is disrupted, memory is less acute and they can have anti-social feelings.

A group of 30 Year 6 pupils were divided into mixed-sex groups. In the first experiment, no music was played to one group and quiet, calming music was played to the other while they carried out tasks to assess maths competence. The music group completed nearly 35 maths tasks as opposed to 27 completed by the other group, although accuracy wasn’t affected.

In another experiment, children listened to calming music or aggressive, unpleasant music. They were then given memory tasks and an exercise to assess their level of altruism through stories in which the characters can choose whether or not to respond to a request for help. There were significant differences between the groups. Those who listened to the calm music were much better at the memory task and displayed a more benevolent attitude than those who listened to the aggressive music, although boys tended to indicate less helpful responses.

The researchers suggest that schools could use carefully selected music to help create a positive atmosphere when children are over-active rather than on a regular basis, which could lessen the impact. By the same token, they could also put on more lively music to energise children when they are tired.

The Effects of Background Music on Primary School Pupils’ Task Performance by Susan Hallam, John Price and Georgia Katsarou, Institute of Education, University of London. E-mail: s.hallam@ioe.ac.uk