Abstract

Background: Students who are used to listening to music claim that the music helps
them in concentrating. There are studies which support this claim. However, there are
also studies which show that music does not help in concentrating ability and in fact it
distracts them from their studies. The aim is to Study the effect of music without lyrics
(instrumental music) and music with lyrics and to Compare the effects of both on the
concentrating ability of medical students.
Materials and Methods: Study Design: Institutional based Observational study. Study
area: The study was done in the Dept. of. Physiology in a Medical college. Study Period:
April 2020 to march 2021. Study population: MBBS students who were joined in the
medical college. Sample size: A total of 202 students were included in the study.
Sampling method: Simple Random sampling method. Ethical consideration:
Institutional Ethical committee permission was taken prior to the commencement of the
study. Study tools and Data collection procedure: Stroop test card: A stroop colour
word test card was prepared. It contained 50 words arranged in 10 rows and 5 columns.
Five words denoting five different colours were used (RED, BLUE, GREEN, PINK &
BLACK). It was made sure that each word was repeated 10 times and each colour
appeared 10 times in the test card and no word was printed in its own colour. Sample
stroop test card to allow the students understand the test. Philips Go Gear Mix MP3
music player was used to play the music. Mozart’s Serenade no.13 /
EineKleineNachtmusik was used as the instrumental music. The title track from old
kannada song used as the song. Statistical Analysis: The data was collected, compiled
and compared statistically by frequency distribution and percentage proportion.
Quantitative data variables were expressed by using Descriptive statistics (Mean ± SD).
Qualitative data variables were expressed by using frequency and Percentage (%).
Results: A total of 202 students volunteered for the test. They were allotted to 3 groups
(by selecting one of the three carom coins). The control group had 70 students, who
performed the stroop test without listening to any music. The instrumental group had
66 students, who performed the stroop test while listening to Mozart’s Serenade No.13 /
EineKleineNachtmusik. The song group had 66 students, who performed the stroop test
while listening to the title track from old kannada song.