Language Science Lunch Talk: Mine Muezzinoglu (NACS)

Reward vs Distraction: Does Music Help or Hurt Comprehension?

Abstract: Why do many people prefer to have background music while listening to other things, such as lectures or conversations? Similar to other types of background noise, background music may hinder learning by causing distraction and/or masking the target speech acoustically, making it difficult to hear. However, it might also compensate for decrements of learning in noise by providing emotional and rewarding effects as seen in studies where people show better verbal recall performance in music than in silence. Ongoing study investigates this question by having participants listen to stories in different types of background sounds and assessing their learning and memory based on their answers to story comprehension questions. Is this along the lines of something that would work, or shall I shorten it more?

Lunch served at 12:15 PM.