By Meridyth Sanders ’21, co-editor in chief

Some students swear by listening to music while studying or writing, and others claim they can’t focus at all with any kind of background noise. One student decided to use her capstone project as an opportunity to finally put these ideas to the test and see who is right.

Senior psychology major Kaitlyn Petry is designing and implementing a research experiment to determine which genre of music (if any at all) will best improve students’ focus and productivity. In her study, sample groups will complete tasks while either listening to a particular genre of music or no background noise at all. She will then compare the results and determine which groups of students performed better.

Petry first came up with the idea for this project over winter break while watching viral TikTok videos.

“I approached Dr. McFalls about doing research for graduation requirements, and she asked me if I had any ideas and I said, ‘I don’t know if you’re on TikTok or not, but there’s this thing going around saying if you listen to Mario Kart music while working it will help you get stuff done faster, and my natural reaction was ‘Well, let’s test that,’” Petry said.

TikTok may have sparked the idea, but the actual foundation of Petry’s research project stems from a complex personal history with background noise and focus.

“For me, I personally think I have trouble focusing a lot,” Petry said. “In high school, I was able to listen to music and do math and write papers, but after I came to college, for some reason listening to music while I was studying or reading a textbook did not work for me anymore. Now that I’m a senior, I’ve sort of figured out what kinds of music I can listen to while working, but it’s still a little complicated. I’m interested in learning more about what type of music works better for focusing than others.”

Petry will use the results of her project to formulate a research paper for her capstone course and will present her work to her professors and peers during the psychology department’s Poster Sessions.

“I am also interested to see how my results compare to other studies, which, based on my preliminary research, seem to be conflicted and do not really agree on one specific answer,” Petry said. “One particular study suggests some background noise is better than dead silence.”

Petry’s decision to complete a research project came, in part, due to COVID-19 restrictions and personal safety concerns, as Petry has two at-risk parents. Going into the field to complete an internship seemed to pose more of a risk than developing a research project to meet graduation requirements for her psychology major.

“Fortunately, Dr. McFalls and I found a way to do the research part of this completely through Zoom, so it will be a contactless way to complete my research project,” Petry said.

This project will give future and current students a better idea of how listening to music impacts their productivity and which types of music they should lean toward if they do prefer background noise.

“Within the study, a big part will be understanding individual differences and preferences so I am excited to learn more about that and potentially help others figure out what helps them focus,” Petry said.

The research project will be going live by the end of March, and students interested in participating can check Sona Systems for a registration sign-up form.