2015 Science Fair
By Alice D
Background
The Brain:
- the most complex and important part of the human body
- divided into many parts
- roughly divided into two hemispheres; the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.
- right hemisphere is more abstract and creative
- left hemisphere is more analytical and logical
- cerebrum is the largest part of the brain and is responsible for most of the brain’s function
- cerebrum is divided into 4 lobes; the temporal lobe, the occipital lobe, the parietal lobe, and the frontal lobe
- right hemisphere is stimulated by the non verbal melody of the music
- left hemisphere is stimulated by the lyrics of the music
- different genres of music will cause the brain to react differently
Purpose
To find out if rock music affects the brain’s ability to solve problems
Hypothesis
When people listen to rock music while they take a test, their scores will be lower than when they do not listen to music.
Parts of the Experiment
Dependent Variable: The grade on the quiz
Independent Variable: Whether or not the quiz is taken with rock music
Control:Test taken without rock music
Experimental Group:Test taken with rock music
Constants: The test questions, the piece of music
Independent Variable: Whether or not the quiz is taken with rock music
Control:Test taken without rock music
Experimental Group:Test taken with rock music
Constants: The test questions, the piece of music
Materials
25 people
A quiz
a piece of music with words a
computer with internet access
Procedure
- Create a 16 question quiz that covers the 4 core subjects; math,social studies, science, language arts. 4 questions per subject.
- Find music with words.
- Distribute the quiz with the link to the music. Send it with the directions, “listen to the music attached while you take the test the first time. Take the test a second time without music.”
- Distribute quiz until you have 50 data sets.
Observations and Data
Written
- #4 was a widely missed question
- music distracts people more when reading
Calculations
Manipulated Data
- Formula used to determine the grade
- ((total number of questions - amount of questions missed)/total number of questions)x 100 =grade
- Ex. ((16-1)/16)x 100= 93.75
- T-Test-0.028003
- This shows that my the music did affect the test grades
Analysis
Music affects the brain’s ability to process information. The average scores from when taken without rock music is 75.88, while taking the test with rock music the average score drops to 66.48. This means that rock music affects the brain’s ability to process information to a certain degree. In particular, the reading section was the section that the test takers failed. The reading section required the test taker to read an article and to answer questions on the article. This proved difficult because questions in this section was missed 55 times. Also, the genre of the music, rock, may be more distracting than other genre of music, such as classical- which is rumored to stimulate the brain.
Conclusion
The hypothesis of , “When people listen to rock music while they take a test, their scores will be lower than when they do not listen to music” was proven to be correct, and the purpose was achieved. In conclusion, the brain’s ability to think and process information is indirectly affected by external stimulus such as rock music.
Sources of Error
- the person taking the test may have been blowing it off or putting in the same answers for both times
- people may lack basic knowledge in certain subjects
- people may not have good problem solving skills
- people may have grown resilient to background noise
Application
- The results of this experiment could be used to determine whether or not people should be working while listening to music.
Improvement
- creating problems that do not require problem solving and critical thinking
- focus on one subject.