Research Paper: Is Music An Aid To Concentration Or Distraction For Students?

7/28/2019 Research Paper: Is Music An Aid To Concentration Or Distraction For Students?

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Acknowledgements

Im thankful for the assistance of everyone during this research project. Id like thank my

course instructor Mr. Shafqat Chaudhuri for guiding me on every step of the project. His

patience with the students and expert guidelines regarding the research paper helped me

achieve this fine piece of work. Id also like to thank my family for their co-operation. Their

motivation and support enabled me to complete this research paper in time. My gratitude

also goes to my friends and course mates who helped me with the surveys and made this

entire research work possible.


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Abstract

The topic of this research paper is to find whether or not is music an aid to concentration or

distraction for students. Concentration is an effective element for the life of a student.

Music on the other hand is an entertainment source which stimulates the brain and does

amazing things. Concentration and music has been tied together by various researchers

from time to time. Some say that music has positive impacts on concentration while others

disagree with them. My hypothesis was that music actually helps students concentrate and

it has little or no negative impacts on them. Although I expected to find some negative

responses regarding the view of students towards concentration and music but by

conducting my primary research and combining it with secondary researches from various

sources I found out that music has significant positive affects on concentration and students

believe that it is a moderate concentration booster for their daily activities. After

conducting my study I came to a decision that music might not be an excellent or surefire

concentration helper but it certainly has significant positive impacts on concentration

depending on certain factors and can me described as an aid to concentration without any

hesitation.


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Table of Contents

1) Introduction and Background - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 01

2) Research Questions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 07

3) Hypothesis - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - Page 08

4) Methodology - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 09

5) Data Presentation and Analysis - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 10

6) Summary of Research Findings - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 25

7) Recommendations - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 27

8) Conclusion - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Page 28


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Introduction and Background

A students life has various factors which help with their academic success. Concentration is

the most important among these factors and it plays a vital role in the academic success of

a student. Nowadays, students use various concentration aids which help them focus more

in study and achieve good academic results.

First of all, concentration has no clear definition. Its meaning varies from person to person.

However, after giving an in-depth look we can say that concentration can be thought of as

the action or the power of focusing one's attention or mental effort into a specific matter. It

helps prioritize a specific matter. Concentration enables us to deal with one particular thing

above all others. According to Rizzo (2006), our minds are full of un-arranged thoughts and

visions. These thoughts and visions float around our brain continuously begging for

attention. Concentration is the power which keeps the unimportant thoughts and visions

silent and gives most attention to the import thoughts.

The role of concentration in our everyday life goes beyond great limits. We use its power

everyday and dont even realize were using it. We sometimes feel the need for

concentration when were distracted and we understand then that its one of the most

precious tools of our minds. Everyone needs concentration in their daily lives. Students


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consumption and considerable amount of rest is also essential for improved concentration

among people.

The most opposite of concentration is distraction. Distraction takes away the power of the

mind to concentrate and constantly scatters the point of thought into different ideas.

Concentration tries to focus the mind s point of thought into one specific thought or idea.

Distraction divides this point of thought into multiple different thoughts and therefore the

mind looses its power to concentrate on a specific thought or idea.

Distraction has several negative impacts in our lives. It makes us loose track of our work and

derails our chain of thoughts. Distraction is the number one cause of failure for human

beings and it does nothing but slow down the overall progress of ones duties and

responsibilities.

Students need to avoid distraction due to many reasons. Distractions derive them from

their main objective and as a result they get bad academic grades. Distractions in students

also cause them to be irresponsible about their duties which lead to a dark and struggling

future for them. There are various factors which cause distraction among students.

According to Richtel (2010) there are various factors such as overplaying video games,


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heavy use of gadgets, excessive internet browsing etc that cause distraction to students and

are guilty of bad academic grades for students.

Now, about music, it is a form of art which consists of instrumental sounds and / or vocal

sounds produced to generate a harmonic feeling to our ears. It is a form of expression

which existed from ancient times. Music is an important aspect to almost all cultures and

people. The definition, quality and sounds of music widely varies from culture to culture

(Music, n.d. ) .

Music is used by people of all ages. People use music to relax their minds, entertain it, and

to heavily motivate the minds to achieve things that seem almost impossible. Some people

also use music to help with the concentration process. Much like all people, students use

music to relax their minds from stress, for pure entertainment purposes and to motivate

their minds to do great things. Music is also used by them as a concentration aiding agent

from time to time.

Music is popular to all ages and occupation. However, when it comes to students, they

seem to show an increased amount of interest. They listen to music in their free time, they

listen to it while doing household chores, they listen to it while doing physical exercise, and

surprisingly they choose to use it while doing academic works such as studying or preparing

assignments.


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stimulated at once and because of this phenomenon, the brain could process information

much faster and accurately. Watkins (n.d.) suggested that certain types of music such as

rock or metal can have negative impacts on humans. So, the genre of music has strong

influence and it decides whether or not music is helpful for concentration or distraction.

Also, music only helps concentrate when its listened by choice. If a person is forced to

listen to music then it does nothing to help with concentration but causes severe distraction

and can result in serious damages to the body and mind. (Watkins, n.d.)

Keeping the above fact in mind, according to a research by the Stanford University School of

Medicine (2009), listening to music in class boosts the student s concentration by

strengthening the brain and it helps achieve better grades. Holtz (2002) says that music

does magic in the brain by re-mapping its neural path ways and it makes the memory of

something strongly imprinted based on musical melodies. Adding to this O'Donnell (1999)

also suggest that the power of music should not be underestimated and people who study

music has higher academic grades than those who don t.

So we can finally come to the deduction that music has significant affects on the human

body and mind and keeping in mind certain factors we can say that it can be an aid to

concentration.


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Research Questions

I found out various research questions related to my topic and hypothesis. These are:

1) How does music affect people physically and emotionally?

To see how music affects people both physically and emotionally and what the

good/bad sides of it are.

2) How do people use it?

To explore how people use music. I wanted to figure out theyre preferred way of

using it.

3) What are the views of students towards music?

To know what the general students think about music, whether they think of music

as a concentration helper or distraction.

4) How do students classify concentration aiding and distracting factors in life

To identify various factors that causes concentration or distraction among students.

5) What factors actually induce concentration?

To identify the factors that help concentrate.

6) What factors actually cause distraction?

To identify the factors that cause actual distraction.

7) What do researchers say about the tie between music and mental state?

To find out what researchers say about music and the mind, whether it helps

concentrate or not.


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Hypothesis

Music is a well known brain stimulant. It triggers certain parts of the brain and makes it

more active. While listening to music, one is detached from almost all contact with the real

world and falls into a semi-trance state. This semi- trance state is thought to boost ones

ability to capture and process information efficiently. Also, through this semi-trance state,

music isolates ones mind from all surroundings. It helps a student ignore all his/her

surrounding distractions and calms the brain so he/she can focus more on something.

Another thing about music is that it enables the body to releases certain types of hormones

which forms the mind to capture information effectively. Mixed with the isolation of the

mind and body hormones, I believe music creates a sound atmosphere in our minds which

help increase concentration and reduce outside distractions.

Some students will agree with me on this topic. They will say that music actually boosts

their minds processing abilities. I expect them to give a positive response regarding music

in this topic and I expect them to say that music is an aid to concentration. However, some

students might disagree and say that the atmosphere of mind created by the isolation of

mind mixed with body hormones caused by music actually distracts their minds rather than

helping them concentrate. Some may also say that certain genre of music causes them

distraction. All debates aside, I think it will be very interesting to see the two groups side by

side. I think majority of the students will agree with me and say that music helps them

concentrate more rather than distracting them.


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Research Methodology

To accomplish my primary research, I have conducted a survey among the general students

of our country to find their views towards concentration-distraction and the effect of music

on it. For this, I designed a questionnaire which contains different questions regarding my

research topic. I believe this will give me useful and sufficient data to answer my research

questions accurately.

For my secondary research, I used different research materials including books and articles,

standard reference sources, databases and publications from the internet and the

university library. My secondary research data mainly comes from different online articles,

journals, and Wikipedia entries and they are cited properly in each section.


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Data Presentation and Analysis

As the main source of my primary research data, I created a survey containing 14 questions.

The survey was targeted for all general students. 30 survey papers were filled out by

students from various age groups. Both female and male participants took part in the

survey.

The complete presentation and analysis of the survey questions and students answers for

them are given from the next page and onwards.


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My first question in the survey was How frequent do you listen to music . The purpose of

this question was to determine the popularity of music among students.

It was surprising to see that 26% of students said they listen to music several times a day,

41% of students said they listen to music at least once a day. 7% said they listen to music

several times in a week. 13% said they occasionally listen to it in a month and another 13%

said they never listen to music. The above statistics suggests that 67% of the general

students listen to music at least once a day to several times a day. This clearly means that

music is very popular among the students and they prefer to listen to it very often.

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20

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Several times a day. At least once a day. Several times in aweek.

Occasionally in amonth.

Never. I don't listento music.

How Frequent Do You Listen to Music

Percentage of students


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Next, I asked the students w hich time do they prefer the most for listening to music? The

purpose of this question was to determine the perfect time for them to listen to music.

According to my survey results, almost one fourth (23%) students prefer to listen to music

at the time of studying or solving problems. Nearly the same amount (27%) of students

prefers to listen to music while doing physical activities; also 16% students prefer to listen

to music during both physical activities and studying/solving problems. Less significant

amount of people, only 13% and 15% said they use it only when theyre in the mood or

have free time. 6% of students said they never listen to music and they consider it a waste

of time. Analyzing the above figures we can say that majority of people use it during

studying or solving problems because music probably interferes with the body and mind

and makes it useful to study, solve problems, and to do physical activities. This supports

research by O'Donnell (1999) that music has good affects on the human body and brain.

0

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15

20

25

30

When I'mstudying or

solving problems

When I'm doingphysical activities

Both A and B When Im in themood for music

On my free time,when I have

nothing to do

I never listen tomusic, it's a

waste of time

Which time do you prefer the mostfor listening to music?



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For my fourth question I asked how much does music help to concentrate. I asked the

students to choose from a scale of 1-5. 1 being an excellent concentration helper and 5 is a

great cause of distraction.

Taking an in-depth look at the above statistics we can see that more than half of the

students (24%+30%= 54%) think music is an aid to concentration and 44% of these students

think that music is an excellent concentration helper. 30% of the students thinks it causes

distraction and 15% believe it has no affect on neither concentration nor distraction.

Analyzing the charts we can say that most of the students believe that music is an aid to

concentration which supports or matches my hypothesis.

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5

10

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5 - Music is anexcellent

concentration helper

4 - Music is an aid toconcentration

3 - It has no effect onconcentration or my

works

2 - It distracts me alittle from my works

1 - Music distractsme a lot when I'm

concentrating

How much does music help to concentrate?Choose from a scale of 1-5



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For my sixth question I asked the students which of the following factors do they think is

most distracting while studying; various choices were included. The purpose of this

question was to find what factors were considered distracting for students.

The response indicate that 40% of the students thinks that the sounds made by surrounding

people and machines are distracting while studying. 26% thinks the sounds of nature are

very distracting while studying. 20% thinks its hard to concentrate while studying due to

the sound of someone elses high volume music. While 13% thinks listening to their own

music while studying is bad for concentration. The numbers suggest that most people find it

okay to listen to music while studying and show less indications that it causes distraction.

They also find the sounds of nature and forced listening of music very distracting while

studying.

0

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10

15

2025

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Sounds made bypeople andmachines

Sounds of thenature such asbirds, rain fall,

etc

When someoneelse listens tomusic in high

volume aroundyou

When you listento music usingyour iPod, mp3player, mobile

phone, or stereo

Which of the following factors do you think aremost distracting while studying


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Afterwards I asked the students how music affects their emotions. The purpose of this

question was to figure out the emotional affects of music.

Looking at the data we can see that Major amount of students with almost 40% thinks

listening to music makes them happy. One fourth or 26% thinks it gives them motivation

and another 26% thinks it does both. A small number of students, only 6%, find music very

irritating. Going through the above numbers we can say that music is an excellent tool to cheer up

people and give them motivation. Thus, we can say that music has significant effects on

peoples emotions. These statistics match with the publication of O'Donnell (1999) that

music has positive impacts on human emotion.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Music irritates me

Both A and B

Listening to music gives me motivation

Listening to music makes me happy

How does music affect your emotions?

percentage of students


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Next, I asked the students to suppose that they are working hard on something. I asked

they will use music to do what? The purpose of this question was to find how music is used

by students at the time of hard works or physical works.

Looking at the pie chart we can say that majority of the students (almost 40%) said that

music motivates them to keep working hard. Nearly one fourth (23%) said music boosts

their strength. 23% of them said it both boosts their strength and give them motivation to

keep working hard. Deducting the data we can say that music has the ability to increase the

physical and emotional performance of a person.

Suppose you are working hard on something.You will use music to:

Boost your strength.

Motivate yourself to keepworking hard

Both A and B

I won't listen to music in the firstplace


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For the ninth question, I asked the students, generally, what is their view towards music?

The purpose of it was to find out their point of view or what they think about music.

Looking at the number we can see that most students (44%) think music helps them relax

when theyre tired. 33% thinks listening to music helps them focus on something when they

get distracted. 20% thinks it both helps them relax and helps them focus on something

when distracted. Negligible 3% said music annoys them and it is a time waster. Analyzing

the numbers we can say that music has significant affects on the mind and body of the

students and it matches with the previous questions and their answers.

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5

10

15

20

25

30

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40

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50

Music helps relaxwhen I'm tired

Music helps focus onsomething when I

get distracted

Both A and B Music annoys meand is a time waster

Generally, what is your view towards music?


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For the tenth question, I asked the students whether or not listening to music while

studying has any impact on their academic result. The purpose of this question was to

determine the affect of music on academic result.

Looking at the survey results for this question we can see that majority (50%) students think

it has no affect on their academic result. 14% + 20% = 34% thinks it helps to do well in

academic results and 16% thinks it causes poor academic results. Analyzing the facts we can

see that most of the students dont think it has any affect on their academic results.

However, 34% believe that it has positive affects in their academic results which match the

research of Stanford University School of Medicine (2009) saying that music for students

can help achieve good academic results.

0

10

2030

40

50

60

Yes, it helps me getexcellent academic

results

Yes, it helps me dowell on academic

results

No, it has no affecton my academic

results

I don't listen tomusic while

studying; if I did Imsure I would getpoor academic

results

Do you think listening to music while studyinghas any impact on your academic results?


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Next, I asked the students which type of genre of music they usually listen to. The purpose

of this question is to figure out what genre of musics are popular among students.

Looking at the pie chart we can see that most people 41% prefer listening to classic music.

17% prefer rock/metal music and 14% prefer rap/hip hop music. The other choices such as

metal music, instrumental music, rhythm and blues music takes the rest of the pie chart and

are very low in numbers. Analyzing the graph we can say that most people prefer classic

and rock music and it plays a good role in concentration than the other genres of music.

What type of music do you listen to?You may pick multiple options

Classic music

Rock/Metal music

Rap/ Hip Hop music

Metal music

Instrumental / orchestral music

Rhythm and Blues


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For the 12 th question I asked the students what they use for listening to music. The purpose

of this question is to see their preferred way of using music.

Looking at the graph above we can see that a large amount of students (40%) use

headphones to listen to music. 26% use common speakers, 14% use large speakers. and

20% use sub-woofers/woofers to listen to music. The data above indicates that most people

use headphones and common speakers/sub-woofers to listen to music. These are moderate

ways of listening to music. One fifth of the students (20%) are extreme music users and they

use large speakers which produces high volume of noise to satisfy their musical needs.

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25

30

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Headphones Common speakers Large Speakers Sub-Woofers /Woofers

What do you use for listening to music?

Column2


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On the final question of the survey, I asked the students that even if they find music

distracting, do they think it will help others to concentrate. The purpose of this question

was to check whether or not students still think music helps concentration and will help

others to concentrate.

Looking at the numbers we can see that 50% of students think it will help some students

but not all. 24% students think it will definitely help others to concentrate while 15% thinks

it will not help anyone to concentrate. 10% of the students voted that music will strongly

distract others. Analyzing the above facts we can come to the deduction that majority of

the students think music helps concentrate and they recommend it to others. This response

statistic support and back my methodology that music is actually an aid to concentration.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Yes, It will definitely help others to concentrate.

Yes, It might help some but not all

No, music will not help anyone concentrate

No, music will strongly distract others

Even if you find music distracting,Do you think it will help others to concentrate?

percentage of students


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Summary of Research Findings

After going through the primary and secondary research data I think I can classify music as

an aid to concentration. Doing the research, I found out that music is very popular among

students. They prefer listening to classic and rock genre of music the most. They prefer

standard mediums such as headphones and speakers to listen to music. An average student

listens to music at least once a day and spends around an hour per day listening to it.

I also found out that music has positive affects on students/people both physically and

emotionally. It can cheer u p people when theyre feeling sad and it can also make people

sad then theyre happy. Music also has physical reactions to the body which helps it relax

when its tired and gives it motivation to push harder when people becomes frustrated with

something. Music also reduces stress of the mind and clears all unnecessary thoughts from

it to make room for concentration.

I also found out that although it is an aid to concentration but there are certain factors

which cause music to distract people. First of all, the genre or type of music has strong

impact on concentration. Classic and mild music helps concentrate more while hard and

loud music causes distraction. Another thing is that music only helps people to concentrate

or its only an aid to concentration when someone listens to it by their own choice. If

someone is forced to listen to music then it becomes a cause of distraction. Various


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secondary research data also suggested that listening to music without choice has negative

impacts on the body and mind and causes damage to the listener.

My research findings match almost perfectly with my original hypothesis that music is an

aid to concentration. I anticipated that music creates isolation from the outside world and

releases certain body hormones which make music an aid to concentration. However, I

didnt take into account that cert ain types/genres of music had negative impacts on

concentration and caused distraction. Other than the issue above, my hypothesis was

proved accurate as most of the students found music as an aid to concentration while a

small group of them thought of it as distraction and neutral to concentration.


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Conclusion

In conclusion of this research paper I can say that music is an aid to concentration for

students. Students listen to music everyday for a significant amount of time while doing

various tasks. It has amazing affects on the body and mind. However, there are certain

criterias that should be met; otherwise music will be nothing but distraction. Students

should cautiously use music to boost their concentration and they should keep in mind that

concentration is best when its not aided by other influencing factors because those factors

can sometimes result to great damage in both the body and the mind.


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References

Chipongian, L. (2000, May 15). Can music education really enhance brain functioning and academic

learning?. Brain Connection Blog . Retrieved March 30, 2013, from

http://brainconnection.positscience.com/can-music-education-really-enhance-brain-functioning-

and-academic-learning/

Holtz, R. L. (2002, December 13). Music changes links in the brain. Austin American Statesman World &

Nation Section. Retrieved March 30, 2013, from

http://www.eupsychia.com/perspectives/articles/musicbrain.html

Music. (n.d.). In Wikipedia . Retrieved April 25, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music

O'Donnell, L. (1999). Music and brain. Music Power . Retrieved March 30, 2013, from

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

Richtel, M. (2010, November 21). Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction. The New York Times , p.A1.

Retrieved April 25, 2013 from

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Rizzo, T. H. (2006, June). Developing Better Concentration . IDEA Fitness Journal , 3(6). Retrieved March

30, 2013 from http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/how-to-improve-concentration
http://brainconnection.positscience.com/can-music-education-really-enhance-brain-functioning-and-academic-learning/http://brainconnection.positscience.com/can-music-education-really-enhance-brain-functioning-and-academic-learning/http://brainconnection.positscience.com/can-music-education-really-enhance-brain-functioning-and-academic-learning/http://www.eupsychia.com/perspectives/articles/musicbrain.htmlhttp://www.eupsychia.com/perspectives/articles/musicbrain.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.htmlhttp://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/how-to-improve-concentrationhttp://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/how-to-improve-concentrationhttp://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/how-to-improve-concentrationhttp://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/how-to-improve-concentrationhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musichttp://www.eupsychia.com/perspectives/articles/musicbrain.htmlhttp://brainconnection.positscience.com/can-music-education-really-enhance-brain-functioning-and-academic-learning/http://brainconnection.positscience.com/can-music-education-really-enhance-brain-functioning-and-academic-learning/


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Appendix

The following documents are included in the research paper packet:

Original and Revised Research Proposal.

Original and Revised Questionnaire.

Detailed Research Paper Outline.

All earlier drafts.

Marked Printouts of used secondary research sources.

Filled out questionnaires.

Research Paper: Is Music An Aid To Concentration Or Distraction For Students?

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