In contrast to the popular belief, listening to music could “significantly impair” peoples ability to solve tasks involving verbal creativity
Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast,” wroteth ye olden days drama-scribbler Billy Wobbledart.
And that it may well do, but it does nothing to help spark creativity, according to a paper published in Applied Cognitive Psychology. In fact, in discordant contrast to the popular belief, the study found listening to music could “significantly impair” peoples ability to solve tasks involving verbal creativity.
British and Swedish boffins investigated the effect of listening to music on people’s ability to complete tasks designed to measure their insight-based processes.
Study participants did the tests while experiencing either a quiet background, or one of three types of music (instrumental only, music with familiar lyrics, and tunes with unfamiliar lyrics).
“We found strong evidence of impaired performance while playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions,” the authors said, adding that the findings were consistent for all three types of music.
For your long-suffering back page ed, who is required to toil amid a tedious soundtrack of unmelodic, dysrhythmic dross, these findings are music to our ears.
