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The Effects of Personal Listening Devices on Reading ComprehensionElizabeth McLaughlin and Kelly Fritschy

ProblemGrowing trend: students are allowed to listen to their own personal music players while doing independent work Students can personalize and switch music selections suite their tasteThe results of previous studies on effects of music on comprehension have been mixed

2Hypothesis1.) The effect of music on comprehension scores:Directional Research Hypothesis: Graduate students who listen to music on a personal listening device while reading will show lower scores on a reading comprehension test than those who do not.Null Hypothesis: Graduate students who listen to music on a personal listening device while reading will have the same or higher scores on a reading comprehension test than those who do not.2.) The effect of switching music selections while readingDirectional Research Hypothesis: Graduate students who change music selections on a personal listening device while reading will show lower scores on a reading comprehension test than those who do not.Null Hypothesis: Graduate students who change music selections on a personal listening device while reading will show the same or higher scores on a reading comprehension test than those who do not.

Sample The sample of participants consisted of eleven graduate students (10 female, 1 male) who were recruited through an educational research course at Salem State University in the spring of 2012. There were six participants in the experimental group, and five participants in the control group.

DesignThe participants were randomly divided into:Experimental: instructed to listen to their personal listening deviceControl: instructed not to listen to anything Both groups read two one-page reading selections that were followed by multiple choice comprehension questions. Participants completed a brief post-survey on their study habits and interactions with the personal listening device during experiment.

InstrumentsTwo one page reading selections (approximately 400-600 words each) taken from the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL) Communications and Literacy Skills Practice Reading Subtest. The reading selections were titled Ibn Battuta and Nellie Bly and included multiple choice comprehension questions from the practice test after each of the readingsPost-survey developed by the researchers using Likert-scale questions.How often they listened to music while studying.Experimental group was asked whether or not they manually switched music on their personal listening devices during the study, and how often.

Results: Percentage correct on comprehension questionsMusicNo Music81.8281.8281.8281.8272.7363.6481.8281.8263.6463.6445.45M= 77.28M= 67.27SD= 7.61SD= 15.21

Results: Effect of music on comprehensionData SummaryWith MusicWithout Musicn65Mean77.2867.27SD7.6115.21Results of Independent Sample T TestMean a- Mean btdfP- one-tailed10.001+ 1.4290.09465

Results: Effect of manually switching music while readingData SummarySwitched ManuallyDid not switch Manuallyn15Mean81.8276.37SD08.13Results of Independent Sample T TestMean a- Mean btdfP- one-tailed5.454+ 0.6140.287408

ImplicationsThe implications of this study suggest that since there was no significant difference between the scores of the experimental and control group then music has no effect on reading comprehension.Caution: sample size was small, gender was homogenous