Mozart

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Method
Participants
The participants in this experiment consisted of 16 undergraduate college students at a four year school; there were nine females and seven males. The average age for these participants was 21.5 years old, with a standard deviation of 2.3 years old. They were not compensated for their time because this study was a required class experiment. The participants all had normal to corrected hearing and had normal to corrected vision. They all were capable of reading and writing on their own with no special accommodations, and had the ability to cognitively recall events.
Apparatus (Materials/Stimuli)
There were several materials that were used during this experiment. College-ruled loose-leaf paper was used for the participants to take the test on. A number two pencil was used to take the test. The program PowerPoint, by Microsoft was used to display the list of words. A projector and white board were used to display the PowerPoint. A flat desk with a chair connected to it was used for the participants to sit in while they were presented the PowerPoint, as well as to take the test on. An HP ENVY laptop was used to connect to the projector to display the PowerPoint, as well as for the music to be obtained from. The music was played from a Beats by Dr. Dre Beatbox Portable speaker.

Experimental Design
This experiment was a within-subjects design. The manipulated variable was the music the participant listened to. The participants were randomly assigned into two separate groups. Group A listened to the Piano Sonata No. 16 in C, K. 545, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while being shown, and told to memorize a list of words. Group B was shown the same list of words and was told to memorize them, but sat in sil...

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Results
The average test score for Group A was 92.25 with a standard deviation of 2.92. Group B had an average test score of 84.88 with a standard deviation of 3.34. Based on these results, it shows that there was a significant effect of background music on the test score, where t(1,7) = 2.948 > 2.145, p < 0.005. See Figure 1.

Works Cited

Jones, M.H., West, S.D., & Estell, D.B. (2006). The Mozart effect: Arousal, preference, and spatial performance. Psychology Of Aesthetics, Creativity, And the Arts, S(1), 26-32.
Roth, R. A., & Smith, K.H. (2008). The Mozart effect: Evidence for the arousal hypothesis. Perceptual And Motor Skills, 107(2), 396-402.
Shih, Y., Huang, R., & Chiang, H. (2009). Correlation between work concentration level and background music: A pilot study. Work: Journal Of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation, 33(3), 329-333.

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