Help me study! Music listening habits while studying

Previous research showed that the impact of background music (BgM) on cognitive performance is influenced by various task-, music-, and listener-specific factors. However, it remains unclear whether these impacts are mirrored in real-life music listening contexts, and past research has revealed various inconsistencies. In this research, we explored university students’ music-listening habits while studying, combining retrospective surveys with a mobile experience sampling methodology to obtain more context-based information about their behaviours, and tried to explore previous contradictory findings. Our results indicate that (a) the likelihood of studying with BgM decreases with age; (b) while studying (compared to other contexts), students listen more to instrumental, softer, slower, and lower energy and valence music; (c) students listen to music while performing (self-perceived) difficult study tasks, in which the music’s energy level decreases with increased perceived task difficulty; and (d) students use BgM to balance between the affective and cognitive impact of music on their study outcome. We conclude by suggesting that to better understand BgM’s role in the interplay between affective and cognitive goals, and the ways they may favour or hinder cognitive performance, future research should explore music-listening habits over longer durations of cognitive engagement.