Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

QUICK TIP: Read online materials in sections of 15–20 minutes 
followed by a fve- to ten-minute break. 

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Reading online 53 
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READ WITH MUSIC IN THE 
BACKGROUND 
Music can enhance your learning. Several studies show how mu-
sic improves performance. Professional athletes are well known 
for having an inspirational playlist that they listen to while train-
ing to spur them on. It works. Many amateur athletes and those 
who run for ftness will also have experienced the benefts of lis-
tening to music while training. Academic reading is really training 
for your brain. So it makes sense to consider whether background 
music can improve your reading. Research in Germany, for in-
stance, found that for people who already have good memory 
skills, background music helped improve their comprehension of 
what they were reading (Lehmann and Seufert, 2017). However, 
in people with a lower memory capacity, background music did 
not help. Indeed it decreased the ability of such students to re-
call what they had read. Te research, though, used instrumental 
versions of familiar tracks. So, the participants may have mental-
ly inserted the lyrics while trying to read and thereby hampered 
their performance. Tis is also suggested with another study on 
music and a task requiring attention when reading random letters. 
Te American researchers found that performance deteriorated 
when music with lyrics was played (Oliver, Levy, and Baldwin, 
2021). Tese two studies taken together imply that instrumental 
background music that is not associated with any lyrics could help 
your reading performance; hence it is worth a try. 
Tere is another reason why you may wish to read with some 
background music. If you listen to background music, especially 
through noise-cancelling headphones, you may fnd concentra-
tion improves. Tis is because other background noises, especially 
people talking, can distract you and reduce your concentration. 
Chinese researchers found that background noise and irrelevant 
speech can impair your ability to read (Yan et al., 2018). When you 
are studying online, you are likely to be at home with other peo-
ple in the household. If they are busy chatting in the background, 
or you can hear noises as they watch TV in another room, your 

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