Music can impact college students’ cognitive retention in a positive or negative way depending on the type of music they listen to and the times it is being played

Listening to music while studying has the potential to either enhance or hinder students’ cognitive retention. A well-known phenomenon that is occurring, especially on college campuses, is students “plugging in” their earphones to “plug out” the rest of the world in order to focus on studying. In light of this occurrence, researchers are trying to conclude which types of music is either enhancing or hindering students cognitive retention. Preferable genres of music being played, at an appropriate time, by the listeners positively enhances their cognitive performance. On the other hand, distracting and unwanted music/sounds being heard by the student leads to a negative correlation with the listeners’ studies. 

Because this phenomenon is recently recognized, most of the field study conducted in this area is uncertain and does not apply to all students. Researchers have not been able to specifically determine the most positive and proper way for students to study. It is difficult for researchers to come to a firm conclusion because of the wide variety of personality and retention traits that each student has to offer. However, there are enough studies produced by researchers in the Neuroscience, Psychology, and Music Psychology departments to conclude the positive and negative effects of students listening to different genres of music while studying.

Music impacts the brain on an emotional level, which influences the mood towards studying and retention for students 

Music impacts many parts of the human brain including the Auditory Cortex-the first stage of listening to sounds-and the Nucleus Accumbens- the emotional reaction to music. 

Studies suggest that listening to pleasurable or preferred music by a student will increase the positive arousal and attitude of studying. This will place the student in an emotionally less stressful environment. Listening to positive music will also motivate the student to stay alert while studying.  

 
Ms.Alison Robery, graduate student in the Cognitive and Neural Systems Area of the Psychology Department at the University of Maryland, states her opinion on why students are more motivated to listen to their own choice in music rather than the recommended classical music, such as Mozart.  

 

Like Ms. Robery previously stated in the video interview, researchers have concluded that when you hear something you like, whether that is rock n’ roll, jazz, country, Christian, pop music or Mozart’s classical tunes, it heightens your arousal and mood. This positive arousal ultimately improves coursework performance. For a short period of time, researchers believe that the upbeat, age-appropriate music of the student’s choice can improve the listeners’ arousal level and mood, which also expands and ignites creativity within a person while studying.  

Patrick's Answer to Question 4

Patrick's Answer to Question 3

What has Andrian learned from her research

Baseball Officials Debate Whether To Speed Up Major Leagues Games To Increase Viewers.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/should-we-put-baseball-on-speed/?ref=opinion

By: Laura67 and Hannah32

Studies conducted by the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, conclude that smart devices tend to influence how they receive world news.

            From laptops, to tablets, to smartphones, users are able to receive news reports from all different kinds of outlets. A study suggests that users world wide with smartphones tend to use a slimmer range of new sources compared to those who have a laptop or tablet. Those who use smartphones daily tend to be consumed with current news. However, when testing which device users seek out to find TV news both the smart phone and the tablet have a 84% rating for usage.

Reports display the top leading social media sites used for general purposes as well as news related purposes

Based on this year’s report, social media has been used in different parts of the country in order to share and gain access to news. The 2014 report has shown that social media sites such as Facebook has the largest network for all purpose use with 35% of it being used to consume news. Overall there were 15% of Youtube users who used the site for news related purposes and 9% of Twitter used the site to be informed of news as well. Social Media sites vary on its popularity based on its region. For an example, Twitter is vastly used in Spain with 21% of people using the site, but in the U.S only 8% are using Twitter . It mostly depends on the leading broadcasters where news is covered

Studies suggest that those from a younger generation tend to share world news via social media sites, rather than personal messaging or emailing as the older generation.

The Unites States sits in fourth place with 35% of sharing top news stories via email or social network weekly. The younger generation are more likely to send, comment, and search on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, etc. to input and output their information.

Reports have shown that men an women take a specific interest in weird news.

Weird News has been claimed by men and women to be one of their five most important types of news. According to the 2014 reports, 36% of women between the age of 18-24 claimed that weird news was an important type of news. 24% of males between the ages of 18-24 also agreed that fun or weird news was important. Weird news has been primarily “appreciated” from both men and women. Sites such as Buzzfeed have taken a specific interest and has captivated the younger audience in engaging in news.

Adrienne26's perspective on what she thinks good interactivity is

listen to ‘Adrienne26's perspective on what she thinks good interactivity is’ on audioBoom