A study of the effect of music distraction on reading efficiency

Very often college students claim that they can study effectively with the radio on, that music does not "bother" them This suggested the following study which attempts to determine whether or not reading efficiency is influenced when music is used as distraction, and whether there is any difference in the influence of popular and classical music upon reading efficiency. In a similar study Paul Fendnck 1 found that semiclassical music tended to reduce efficiency, but since he did not equate his groups and because he used only one type of distraction, it was decided to supplement his results through this experiment