Judi asked:

Does listening to music while working help you to study better?

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No. There are many many studies in the field of attention relating to distractors, divided attention,
switching attention, and so forth. A huge literature, in fact. And ALL of it, without exception, shows
that dividing one's attention lessens the ability to learn. There's no ambiguity here. It doesn't help.
Period.

Steven Ravett Brown

There are some opinions which affirm this and others which deny it. Then there are some views
which claim that baby needs Mozart and that hens will lay better eggs if music is piped into their pens.
Like all opinions, these are always backed up by solid proof — a reminder that if you attack a problem
from the right angle and use the right technology, you can prove anything you like.

All the same, there is something to be said for the influence of music as a background while you are
consciously focusing on some other matter. Like the colours and shapes, and smells and noises
which surround you, music has some effect on the state of your psyche. In particular music is apt to
produce moods; but what kind of mood does not depend on the music or your will. It's totally up to
chance; and that's why measuring harmonies or frequencies is an idle pursuit. Our bodies do not
react to frequencies, but to the forms in which music is cast, which address a mind; and these forms
are analogues of emotions which you may pick up in 'background listening mode'. Then you are
being, subconsciously, influenced.

Having made this more or less objective comment, I'll add my personal opinion, which is that music
making and listening is a spiritual experience. Since this is my view, I cannot but feel that music,
which is capable of connecting us with or inducing in our psyche a transcendental state, is debased
when used for mere background noise; and therefore I also happen to believe that the 'piped music
syndrome' is one of the great disasters of social living. So many people's psychic state is being
deformed daily on account of this, it is gone beyond a sick joke; and the most amazing part of it is that
so few people resist this blatant manipulation of their inner states. I can see it coming that before
much longer all these millions of people, who are completely unaware of being subjects of mood
manipulation, will fall for another trick of conditioning, except maybe something more directly
malevolent. I have wondered for a long time now why there is no resistance, and I have half a mind to
ask you, in view of your question, whether you ever feel annoyed or put out or distracted by the
hundreds of loudspeakers you have to pass every day, and if it everoccurred to you to complain?

Jürgen Lawrenz

Sydney