WEBVTT

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It's a question
  I get pretty often.

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Can listening to music help
  you study more effectively

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or is it just a distraction?

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Well as the journalist
H.L. Mencken once said,

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"For every complex
   problem there is an answer

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"that is clear,
  simple, and wrong."

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I've been curious about this
  question myself for years

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and I've always kind of
 secretly hoped that the answer

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came down in favor of music
  because I have almost always

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studied with music.

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But from the research
 I've done so far,

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the only thing I can confidently
tell you at this point

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is that we don't actually know.

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There are answers going
in both directions

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and to give you
   some more detail,

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we're going to dig into that
  research in a minute here,

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but first I want to preface
  this with my own experience

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because as I said, I've almost
 always studied with music.

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I've got like a borderline
   unhealthy obsession

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with trying to find
  new study music

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and I've spent more
  hours than I count

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digging through the
charts on Sputnik Music

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or going through music forums
 trying to find new stuff.

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And when I've studied
 or done homework,

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it's always almost
   with headphones on

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or something coming
  out of my speakers.

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So here's what I found
 works well for me.

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For tasks that require
 low mental effort

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or tasks that deal with
   very tangible information

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that I already am
  very familiar with,

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high energy music
  can get me energized

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and helps me get into
 the flow state faster.

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I'm talking stuff
 like statistics
 homework or accounting

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or programming, things
 where I know basically

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what needs to be done
 and it's just a matter

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of manipulating numbers
or code to get it done.

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And if you want some
   recommendations for albums

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for this kind of work, I
can give you a few here.

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Pomegranate Tiger's
 "Boundless" is a new one

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I've been really digging lately.

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Also The Algorithm's
  "Polymorphic Code".

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Any of the instrumental
tracks off of

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the Metal Gear
   Rising soundtrack.

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I absolutely love that thing.

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And Tides Of Man's
 "Young and Courageous".

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All great albums that you
  should definitely check out.

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However, once we get into
  tasks that are more cerebral

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or more conceptual or if
  I'm trying to wrap my brain

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around something
more unfamiliar,

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I really need to have
 either very calm music

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or silence.

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And if you want a
 few recommendations
 for tasks like these,

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I can give you Austin
 Wintory's Journey soundtrack,

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any of the Kingdom Hearts
   Piano Collections albums,

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Olafur Arnalds' "The
   Chopin Project",

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or Theophany's amazing
  Majora's Mask tribute album

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"Time's End".

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Regarding silence,
  studying in silence

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can work really well
  for me at times,

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but other times it
gets really distracting

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because my brain
   starts picking out

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all of the little intermittent
 environmental noises

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that you can't really control.

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It's almost as if my brain
knows it's trying to use silence

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to concentrate better,
   so it starts like picking

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those things out and
being like like, uh uh,

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it's not actually silent man.

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Kind of like what
 happens if I tell you,

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whatever you do, do not think
 about fluffy red pandas.

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What are you thinking about?

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So if you have this
  problem as well,

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calm music isn't
   the only solution.

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You can also try like
a white noise generator

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like SimplyNoise or an
 environmental sound generator

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like RainyMood or Coffitivity.

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Basically, if you deliberately
 set up the noise yourself,

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I found that it kind of helps
 to calm that distraction

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a little bit.

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So the other question
 I get a lot is,

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is lyrical music fine or does
 it have to be instrumental

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all the way?

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And what I found is for
that former type of work

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where it's either low
 or mental intensity,

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your very math or logic based,

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lyrical music is fine, cause
 I can pretty much tune it out

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and just kind of focus
 myself on that work,

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but once we get into
the more conceptual work

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or especially when I'm reading,

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it has to be
   instrumental all the way.

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Anything with lyrics
   will pull at my attention

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and distract me a ton.

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And this experience is
 actually right in line

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with the opinion of the late
 Stanford University Professor,

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Clifford Nass, who was
 known for his research

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into multitasking.

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And Nass said, "Music
   with lyrics is very likely

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"to have a problematic
   effect when you're writing

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"or reading, but probably
   less of an effect on math

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"if you're not using the
   language processing parts

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"of your brain."

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Okay, so we've gone
 over what works for me

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and I can confidently say
through years of experimentation

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that it's probably gonna
  keep working for me this way

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in the future, but what does
 science have to say about it?

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Well as I eluded to in intro,
 the answers are kind of mixed.

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For example, one
 study done in 2013 at

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The University of Maryland,
  tested 32 students

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on several different
math tests in different

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music conditions.

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They had silent music,
 high intensity music,

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and low intensity music.

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And what they found is that
  the students scored best

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under the silence condition
  with the low intensity music

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beating out the high intensity
 music for second place.

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And by low and high, I mean
  like classical piano music

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versus death metal.

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So they didn't really
have like a nice balance

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between the music.

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They went in one extreme
to another extreme.

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Still, that's
 irrelevant to the fact

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that the silence condition
 beat out both music conditions

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in that study.

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However, another study in France

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done with 249 participants,
  found that the students

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who watched a lecture while
 listening to classical music,

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scored better on
   a subsequent test

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than the students who
   watched that same lecture

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while listening to nothing.

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So the answers differ.

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And to my knowledge,
 there hasn't yet been

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a truly large scale study on
  music's effect on the brain.

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But with the results
  we have right now,

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I think we can still make a
couple of different conclusions.

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First it seems clear
   that high intensity music

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or music with lyrics,
   aren't really good choices

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when you're reading or
  when you're doing something

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that has to do with language
  or when you're trying

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to wrap your brain around
   something that's totally

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unfamiliar to you.

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Secondly, more
 generally, it could be

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that music is a kind of
a give and take thing

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when it comes to your brain.

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It might be that in an objective
sense, it is distracting,

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but it also raises
your positive emotions,

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it can lesson your anxiety,

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and it raises your
  motivation to stay focused.

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The net benefit or net
 deficit, is going to depend on

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who you are, what kind
 of work you're doing,

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and what the specific kind of
 music you're listening to is.

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And that third factor,
   the specific type of music

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brings up another question.

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Can music be specifically
   designed to increase

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your brain's performance?

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Well stay tuned because
in next week's video,

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that's exactly what
we're gonna be covering.

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In the meantime, if
 you want to check out

00:05:05.972 --> 00:05:07.473
any of those albums
  I mentioned earlier,

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they're gonna be linked up in
 the blog post for this video

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along with my ultimate study
  playlist on YouTube here.

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And if you want to discuss
   this video or get more

00:05:14.314 --> 00:05:16.115
music recommendations
 from other students,

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you can check out the
   official discussion thread

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for this video in the
  College Info Geek Community

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link down below.

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That is it for this
   week's video, so hopefully

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you found it useful,
  and if you did

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you can give it a like
to support this channel.

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I would really be curious
  to hear what your experience

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with studying with music is.

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So let me know either
in the discussion thread

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or in the comments down below.

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And as always, thank
you so much for watching

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and I will see you next week.

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Hey there guys, thank you so
 much for watching this video.

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Now if you want to get new
   videos every single week

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on being a more
   effective student,

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you can click that big red
  subscribe button right there

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and also I wrote a free book
  on earning better grades

00:05:45.978 --> 00:05:47.347
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  picture of the book

00:05:47.347 --> 00:05:48.815
if you want to get one.

00:05:48.815 --> 00:05:50.216
Also, if you want to find
 the blog posts for this video

00:05:50.216 --> 00:05:51.951
with links to a lot of
   the playlists I mentioned

00:05:51.951 --> 00:05:53.953
and some studies I've
 talked about as well,

00:05:53.953 --> 00:05:55.521
the orange button right there.

00:05:55.521 --> 00:05:57.223
In last week's video
  I talked a bit more

00:05:57.223 --> 00:05:58.691
about the College
  Info Geek Community

00:05:58.691 --> 00:06:00.093
I just launched, so check it out

00:06:00.093 --> 00:06:01.594
if you want some
 more details on that.

00:06:01.594 --> 00:06:03.563
If you want to connect, I'm
 in the community all the time,

00:06:03.563 --> 00:06:06.399
but I'm also on Twitter and
  Instagram at @TomFrankly,

00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.901
or you can leave a
  comment down below.