We did not find a mediation effect between background music and arousal or mood on learning outcomes. To measure learning outcomes we tested recall and comprehension. Arousal and mood scores before and after learning were collected as potential mediating variables. We included working memory capacity in the design as a continuous organism variable. We tested 81 college students using a between-subject design with half of the sample listening to two pop songs while learning a visual text and the other half learning in silence. Moreover, as working memory capacity has a crucial influence on learning with seductive details, we also included the learner’s working memory capacity as a factor in our study. However, the seductive detail effect indicates that seductive details such as background music worsen learning.
While the Mozart effect assumes a direct influence of background music on cognitive abilities, the arousal-mood-hypothesis assumes a mediation effect over arousal and mood. Both the Mozart effect as well as the arousal-mood-hypothesis indicate that background music can potentially benefit learning outcomes. This study investigates how background music influences learning with respect to three different theoretical approaches. Department of Learning and Instruction, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
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