From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps increase creativity, but an international study done by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that notion. Their findings show that music actually prevents creativity.
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “significantly damaged” the participants' ability to complete tasks connected with verbal creativity. The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no effect on participants' creativity.
The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word connected with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be “sun” (sundress, sunflower, sundial). Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while listening to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.
“We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions,” says co-author Dr. McLatchie of Lancaster University. Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues conclude that music(even familiar music with well-known lyrics) damages the verbal working memory processes of the brain, blocking creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study's authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “steady state” environment that doesn't affect concentration.
“To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music strengthens creativity, and instead show that music, regardless of its types, consistently damage creative performance in problem solving,” the study reads.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “notion” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Suggestion. | B．Principle. | C．Opinion. | D．Theory. |
| A．2. | B．3. | C．4. | D．5. |
| A．To prove that music is beneficial to health. |
| B．To test whether music is helpful for creativity or not. |
| C．To make it known that music can improve memory. |
| D．To indicate why background music in a library is popular. |
| A．Concentration. | B．Hearing ability. | C．Environment. | D．Patience. |
