| Summary: | Research suggests that music affects people's behaviour and performance. These effects may be mediated by a range of factors. The present study attempts to explore students' perceptions of the use of, and the effects of, music on their studying taking account of cultural differences (English, American, Japanese and Greek students), age (12-13, 16-17, 20-21 year olds), gender and musical involvement (playing a musical instrument or not). These factors were explored in a survey using rating scales with students from each nationality- Significant differences were found between nationalities in relation to the music students listened to, when they chose to listen, for what kinds of studying, and in their perceptions of the effects that the music had on them and on their studyinK The findings suggested that students' nationality, age, gender and musical involvement affected not only the music that they listened to, and their decision to listen to it while they were studying, but also the perceived effect that music had on them and their studying_ A second experimental study examined the effects on adult learners of two different kinds of background music (arousing or calming), or no music on performance on a logical reasoning task and a realistic comprehension task No significant differences were found in the performance ofthe three groups on the logical reasoning task, or in the reading task The significance existed in the responses of the students to questions about the effects of the music on their performance_ Those in the arousing music group reported difficulty in concentration and the need to adopt coping strategies
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