There have been constant studies over the years that claim watching TV and listening to music while studying is not affective and actually takes away from the learning objective. But, every student is different and has different learning habits. There are actually some, who can’t focus in complete silence because they get anxious, and some can only focus in silence because surrounding noises can be distracting.

Steven Tran, a senior and major at Cal State L.A., said, “I prefer ambient noise or music because it helps me with concentration. If it’s too quiet, I lose concentration and my focus drifts off.” It can’t be completely denied that having some type of noise in the background, such as television or music, can prevent a student from being anxious in a quiet environment. Studying in a quiet environment can make someone feel like they want to break out of the silence and frustration. It can help ease the mind, so one does not feel isolated.

Interestingly, a research done by Ohio State University (researchnews.osu.edu), found that watching television while studying makes the student feel “emotionally satisfied”, but will not make them perform at their best ability. The reason watching TV can make someone feel satisfied is because it made the studying entertaining, not necessarily positively effective.

Daria Ingram, a Fashion Merchandising senior at Cal State L.A., expressed, “I need to study in silence because if I have too much going on around me then I become distracted and can’t concentrate.”

A survey was conducted by University Times asking students whether they like to study quietly or have noise going on in the background (TV, music, etc.) to help them. After gathering a little over 40 answers from students, results showed majority, about three-fourths, prefer to study in silence. The rest prefer to either listen to music, hear the TV, or some kind of noise in the background. We received a variety of answers including listening to soft music, classical music, and even hearing the TV from a distance.

There are studies that show that classical music helps stimulate the brain while studying. But it is rare to know someone who actually listens to classical music while studying. They will typically put a genre of music that they enjoy on a daily basis.

According to psychologytoday.com, productivity depends on the type of music being listened to. “One study used a highly repetitive synthesizer piece with a narrow tonal range and compared it to a ‘dissonant, rhythmically varied and highly dynamic piece’ (and to silence) as background while high school students were reading. Reading scores were significantly higher in the low-information-load music condition than in the other conditions.”

Multi-tasking while studying can seem effective to some, and seem like a bad idea to others. But choosing efficient methods can actually positively affect one’s cognitive learning.