What makes background music distracting? Investigating the role of song lyrics using self-paced reading

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Hitching, L. and Tyrrell, S.

Journal: Journal of Cognitive Psychology

eISSN: 2044-592X

ISSN: 2044-5911

DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2023.2209346

Abstract:

It has been suggested that listening to music during reading may be distracting, but the empirical results have remained inconclusive. One limitation of previous studies is that they have often had limited control over the number of lyrics present in the songs. We report 4 experiments that investigated whether song lyrics make music distracting. Participants read short paragraphs in a self-paced reading paradigm in three sound conditions: 1) silence; 2) lyrical songs at ∼150 words per minute; and 3) the instrumental version of the same songs. The results showed that listening to instrumental music either did not affect reading times or led to slightly faster reading times compared to silence. However, lyrical music led to an increase in reading times in three experiments. We conclude that instrumental music does not lead to distraction during reading. Song lyrics appear to be distracting, even if the observed distraction is quite mild.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/38543/

Source: Scopus

What makes background music distracting? Investigating the role of song lyrics using self-paced reading

Authors: Vasilev, M.R., Hitching, L. and Tyrrell, S.

Journal: JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

eISSN: 2044-592X

ISSN: 2044-5911

DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2023.2209346

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/38543/

Source: Web of Science (Lite)

What makes background music distracting? Investigating the role of song lyrics using self-paced reading.

Authors: Vasilev, M., Hitching, L. and Tyrrell, S.

Journal: Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

ISSN: 0954-1446

DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2023.2209346

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/38543/

Source: Manual

What makes background music distracting? Investigating the role of song lyrics using self-paced reading

Authors: Vasilev, M., Hitching, L. and Tyrrell, S.

Journal: Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

ISSN: 0954-1446

Abstract:

It has been suggested that listening to music during reading may be distracting, but the empirical results have remained inconclusive. One limitation of previous studies is that they have often had limited control over the number of lyrics present in the songs. We report 4 experiments that investigated whether song lyrics make music distracting. Participants read short paragraphs in a self-paced reading paradigm in three sound conditions: 1) silence; 2) lyrical songs at ∼150 words per minute; and 3) the instrumental version of the same songs. The results showed that listening to instrumental music either did not affect reading times or led to slightly faster reading times compared to silence. However, lyrical music led to an increase in reading times in three experiments. We conclude that instrumental music does not lead to distraction during reading. Song lyrics appear to be distracting, even if the observed distraction is quite mild.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/38543/

Source: BURO EPrints