The sight of earphones sprouting from students’ ears has become ubiquitous in schools around the world. Despite frequent pushback from teachers and parents, many students vehemently argue that music helps them focus, learn and remember. It turns out, they may not be entirely wrong.

The underlying concept to help make sense of the “music while studying” issue is called stochastic resonance. Put simply, stochastic resonance suggests that injecting noise into a system can actually enhance the function of that system.

As a simple example, take a look at image A below. I’m guessing you can make out the goddess who sits atop the Berlin Victory Column, but it’s not easy - she’s a bit faint, a bit blurry, a bit blown-out. Now, let’s add some noise to this image. In this case, the noise we’ll employ in picture B is that chaotic “ant-race” static that used to pop up on old TV sets when flipping between stations.

Adding noise increased contrast, enhanced detail, deepened tone - in other words, it made the image easier to discern. But don’t get too excited - take a look at picture C (below) to see what happens when we add more noise.

With too much noise, the signal degrades once more. So, what does any of this have to do with music and learning?

Music can serve as a source of stochastic resonance inside the brain. When used correctly, music can resonate throughout and serve as random noise within attention networks of the brain, enhancing their function and making it easier to perceive and sustain focus on incoming information.

For this process to work, however, there is one important caveat: the music must remain noise. In other words, it must be predictable enough that it does not explicitly grab and focus attention. This does not mean the music need be monotonous or boring - it need only be highly predictable to the listener.

For instance, I have a Best of Hall and Oates album, which I have listened to hundreds of times. As such, when I put it on and simply let the album play out, the music quickly becomes noise and can enhance my ability to focus on other tasks. However, when I put my iPod on to shuffle and every three or four minutes a new, unpredictable song pops on, then the music becomes a signal (not noise), draws my attention and harms my ability to focus on other tasks.

There is one additional point worth mentioning: every person has a different threshold. Whereas some individuals may require a lot of noise to benefit from stochastic resonance, others need very little or none at all. As such, the utilisation of music to enhance attention must be done at the individual (rather than group) level: there is no one-sizefits-all model.

Furthermore, every person’s threshold changes from situation to situation. This means that individuals must be aware of their unique state within differing contexts, be aware when music is helping or distracting, and adapt their behaviours accordingly.

I’d love to hear your stories and thoughts about the use of music during study. Please drop me a note and keep the questions and ideas coming!

Jared Cooney Horvath is a neuroscientist, educator and author, and is director of the Science of Learning Group

If you’d like to ask our resident learning scientist a question, email AskALearningScientist@gmail.com

This article originally appeared in the 1 November 2019 issue under the headline “Does listening to music during study help or hinder learning?”