TYPE Original Research

PUBLISHED 13 June 2023

DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1140959

The effects of background music

OPEN ACCESS on English reading
comprehension for English foreign
EDITED BY
Juzhe Xi,
East China Normal University, China

REVIEWED BY
Tao Zeng,
language learners: evidence from
Hunan University, China
Pu Song,
Putra Malaysia University, Malaysia
an eye movement study
Hu Yongxiang,
Fujian Polytechnic Normal University, China Yankui Su 1,2, Meiling He 2 and Rongbao Li 2*
*CORRESPONDENCE
Postdoctoral Station of Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian,
1
Rongbao Li
China, 2 College of Foreign Languages, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
[email protected]

RECEIVED 09 January 2023

ACCEPTED 22 May 2023 Based on previous literature, the present study examines the effects of background
PUBLISHED 13 June 2023
music on English reading comprehension using eye tracking techniques. All the
CITATION
participants, whose first language was Chinese, were selected from a foreign
Su Y, He M and Li R (2023) The effects of
background music on English reading language college and all of them were sophomores who majored in English. The
comprehension for English foreign language experiment in this study was a 2 (music tempo: fast and slow) × 2 (text difficulty:
learners: evidence from an eye movement difficult and easy) × 2 (background music preference: high and low) mixed design.
study.
Front. Psychol. 14:1140959. Both musical tempo and English reading passage were within-subjects factors,
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1140959 and the level of music listening preference was a between-subjects factor. The
COPYRIGHT results showed that the main effect of the music tempo was statistically significant,
© 2023 Su, He and Li. This is an open-access which indicated that participants read texts more quickly in the fast-tempo music
article distributed under the terms of the
condition than in the slow-tempo music condition. Furthermore, the main effect
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
The use, distribution or reproduction in other of the text difficulty was statistically significant. Additionally, the interaction
forums is permitted, provided the original between the text difficulty and music tempo was statistically significant. The
author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are
music tempo had a greater effect on easy texts than on difficult texts. The results
credited and that the original publication in this
journal is cited, in accordance with accepted of this study reveal that it is beneficial for people who have a stronger preference
academic practice. No use, distribution or for music listening to conduct English reading tasks with fast-tempo music. It is
reproduction is permitted which does not
detrimental for people who have little preference for background music listening
comply with these terms.
to complete difficult English reading tasks with slow-tempo music.

KEYWORDS

background music, English reading comprehension, background music preference,

eye movement study, music tempo

1. Introduction
It is common for people to listen to music while conducting daily activities in contemporary
society. Furthermore, reading a text is always prone to take place with plenty of potential
distractions. There are a number of researchers who have investigated the interplay between
background music listening and reading comprehension. These studies to some extent provide
evidence that reveals the effects of background music on reading comprehension.
Reading, a high-level cognitive performance, plays an important role in our daily life. Also,
reading is a significant means of knowledge acquisition. Reading, more or less, happens every
day, but not always in quiet surroundings. That is, reading performance may be disturbed by
irrelevant sounds. Reading, a complex cognitive task, requires word recognition and semantic
integration to acquire information (Cauchard et al., 2012). Music also plays a very important

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Su et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1140959

role in today’s society. An experiment performed by Gorn (1982) rates of participants during reading comprehension and mathematical
showed that subjects were willing to choose a specific color of pen if computation with different kinds of background music.
the pen was paired with joyful music instead of displeasing music. The technique of eye tracking has unique advantages in exploring
Since then, Gorn’s research has become rather popular, and relevant the effects of background music on English reading comprehension.
studies of the effects of background music on our daily lives increased. For example, the movement of the subjects’ eyes while they read
Background music permeates our daily lives. It is probable that people materials can be recorded in real-time using eye tracking, which is
might not perceive the effects of background music when they more objective and natural than other techniques. Furthermore, high
perform daily tasks, such as driving, eating, reading, working, and ecological validity of the experiment is ensured if the technique of eye
even studying. How does background music influence people who tracking is used. Therefore, the technique of eye tracking is widely
listen to it by coincidence or on purpose? There are three kinds of applied in the studies of cognition. Moreover, every stage of the effects
primary findings regarding previous research on the effects of of background music on task performance can be reflected in the
background music. That is, background music may have beneficial, differences among the targets of eye movement that are tracked by an
detrimental, or no effect on behaviors. EyeLink. This contributes to exploring the mechanisms of factors
There are some studies which reveal that background music has a driving the effects of background music on reading.
positive effect on task performance. Hall (1952) explored the possible
application of music in school education, and he found that students’
comprehension was greatly improved when they listened to music. All 1.1. Definition of background music
the participants were divided into four groups in his study. The four
groups of students read a long passage in jazz music, pop music, There have been numerous studies investigating the effects of
classical music, and silent conditions. The results showed participants background music, so the definition of background music should
in the classical music condition performed the best among all four accordingly be set forth. Radocy and Boyle (1988) suggested that
conditions. There was no difference between the jazz music condition background music could be defined as any kind of music which is
and silent condition. However, participants listening to pop music played while the listener’s primary attention is focused on another task
performed worst compared with the other three conditions. or activity. Similarly, Furnham et al. (1999) held that background
Additionally, Hurst (2011) investigated the effects of background music involves music which is played in the workplace, such as factory
music on reading comprehension by asking 20 students to finish and offices, accompanying tasks which require varying levels of skill
reading comprehension tests in a classical music condition or and concentration.
non-music condition. He found that participants did a little bit better Previous studies have indicated that the effects of different kinds
in the classical music condition than in the silent condition. But the of background music on human activities vary from each other. When
difference between the two conditions was not significantly obvious. background music is a variable in the experiment, factors of the music
Recently, McDonald (2013) investigated the link between that should be considered become an important issue for the
preferred music genre and extroversion on reading performance. The researchers to think about. Generally speaking, there are three factors
result of his study showed that music could facilitate reading that researchers have most investigated regarding background music.
performance if the music which was listened to was what they They are the type of the music, the music tempo, and the information
preferred. On the other hand, conclusions of a negative or null effect in the music.
of background music on task performance have been drawn by a First, the tempo of music is a crucial element in the studies of the
number of researchers. Etaugh and Michals (1975) carried out an effects of background music on cognitive tasks. From the point of view
experiment to investigate the effects of background music on reading of the musical profession, music with 60 beats per minute is classed as
comprehension. Thirty-two participants were required to finish slow-tempo music, whereas music with 120 beats per minutes is
reading comprehension tests in two conditions: a familiar music regarded as fast-tempo music. Kari (2002) investigated the tempo
condition or non-music condition. The result revealed that there was effects of background music on reading comprehension. He examined
a main effect for gender differences. Females performed more poorly the effects of background music on reading business news in a
in the music condition than in quiet surroundings and the crowded cafeteria environment. Measures were taken in three reading
performances of males in the two conditions were not largely different. conditions. They were no background music, fast-tempo music, and
Perham and Sykora (2012) discovered that performance in silent slow-tempo music. The results indicated that the reading condition
conditions was better than those both in preferred music conditions notably influenced both the reading measures and the emotional
and disliked music conditions. In addition, participants performed evaluation of the news content. Moreover, the reading rate and
better with preferred music than with disliked music. However, Roger efficiency was significantly lower in the slow-tempo music group than
et al. (2011) examined the effects of background music on reading in the fast-tempo music group.
comprehension using eye tracking techniques. In his study, 24 Conversely, Thompson et al. (2011) examined the effects of
university students were asked to read four different articles in four background music on reading comprehension by manipulating
different conditions. Participants read while listening to their preferred variables to create four repeated-measures conditions: slow/soft
music, read with music that they did not prefer, read with a recording (110 bpm, 60 dB); slow/loud (110 bpm, 72.4 dB); fast/soft (150 bpm,
of noise from a coffee shop, and read in a silent condition. The results 60 dB); and fast/loud (150 bpm, 72.4 dB). In their study, tempo and
revealed that there was no significant difference between the intensity were manipulated using ProTools software (version 7.3).
conditions, which was found using the main eye-movement measures Baseline performance was established by having the subjects complete
for reading. More recently, An-Che and Chen-Shun (2013) found that the reading task in silence. The findings indicated that listening to
there was no statistical difference between the test scores and heart background instrumental music was most likely to impair reading

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comprehension when the music was fast and loud. Because of this attempting to carry out two tasks that draw on inherently limited
greater intensity, music listening might consume more of the listeners’ cognitive resources would work to the detriment of one or both. They
finite attentional resources when it comprised a greater number of demonstrated that trying to complete two tasks simultaneously
auditory events per unit time that were difficult to ignore. By exceeded a person’s capacity for attention. However, Bourke et al.
comparison, slow-tempo music might allow for continuous and (1996) argued that the fatal factor was not whether the cognitive
spontaneous recovery from acoustic interference, permitting capacity was exceeded, but rather that performance declined when
simultaneous verbal comprehension even when the music is loud. It both tasks involved processing the same type of information.
was noted that the tempo of music had various effects on English and
Chinese reading performance: the faster the background music was,
the slower the reading speed. By contrast, Chinese reading speed was 1.2. Background music preference
faster than that of English reading when it came to faster background
music. These experiments reached different conclusions on account of Previous studies have focused much attention on the effect of the
the disparate variables. Additionally, Kari (2002) used no background information in background music on reading comprehension, that is
music, fast music, or slow music as the background music, which to say, individual differences have often been neglected in previous
could not exclude the effect of the positive mood of the music. In studies. Huang and Shih (2011) suggested that the influence of
addition, the music material in Thompson et al. (2011) was originally background music on daily activities was mostly determined by
from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, which might have personal preference. According to educational psychology, the habit
been familiar to the subjects (Plantinga and Trehub, 2014). To our of studying while listening to music is regarded as a type of learning
knowledge, more reliable evidence is necessary to support the ideas style. A great deal of studies of music preferences were carried out in
obtained in previous studies. the last century (Heyduk, 1975; Steck and Machotka, 1975), and there
The type of background music is another issue that influences the have been several good reviews and theoretical integrations which,
effects of background music on task performance. Musical genres that though vastly different in breadth, were all helpful for a better
have been used in these kind of studies can roughly be classified into understanding of preference (Meyer, 1956). Deems (2005) studied the
five genres: popular music, rock music, jazz music, natural sounds, effects of background music on reading comprehension by examining
and classical music. The reason why researchers take these kinds of two groups of participants, those who preferred studying while
music as the variables is that they are so common that the majority of listening to music and those who did not. The conclusions showed that
people like to listen to them. Numerous researchers have investigated the former group performed better than the latter. Because of the
how music genre affected cognitive function. Furnham and inconsistent findings, the effects of background music preference
Stephenson (2007) demonstrated that performance of reading requires further investigation.
comprehension, free recall, mental arithmetic, and verbal reasoning In short, the relationship between reading and listening to music
tasks while listening to calm music was better than while listening to has been discussed in many studies and from a variety of perspectives.
upbeat music. At the same time, Cassidy and MacDonald (2007) However, this research has brought about diverse and conflicting
examined the effects of background music and background noise on results which indicate that the effects of background music is very
the task performance of introverts and extroverts. They found that complicated and tough to investigate. The purpose of the present study
performance of comprehension and free recall were better while is to reveal the effects of music listening more accurately. The present
listening to slow-tempo music compared with fast-tempo music. Two study will re-examine the interplay between music and text difficulty
major categories of study activities were examined in four different by taking individual factors concerning music preference
conditions of background music genre. The study activities were into consideration.
reading comprehension and mathematical computation. The music
conditions were soft music, rock music, heavy metal music, and no
music. The results suggested that the performance without background 2. Methods
music was relatively poor while the performance during soft music
was the best. Music type had a statistically significant effect on test 2.1. Participants
performance. From the perspective of all the previous findings, it is
noted that negative or positive effects of background music on reading A total of 130 participants with normal visual and hearing
comprehension probably relies on the characteristics of the music. capabilities were recruited from the College of Foreign Languages,
The amount of information in the music itself also influences the Fujian Normal University. All were willing to participate in the
effects of background music on task performance. The information experiment. They were given a gift for their attendance. They were
that exists in the music includes the complexity of the instrumental sophomores majoring in English and they were paid for their
music and lyrics in the songs. According to neuropsychological participation after the experiment. There were 100 participants who
research, when an individual listens to music, the brain processes the finished the music preference questionnaire. The principal experiment
lyrics and melodies independently (Besson et al., 1998). This supports was finished by 77 participants who were selected from the 100
the notion that not only do these two types of listening compete with participants. It must be noted that the other 30 subjects were assigned
each other in having different functions, but they are likely to compete to take part in a pilot study conducted to verify the difficulty and
with additional demands on the brain. Similarly, Broadbent (1958) familiarity of the reading test passages for the principal test. The 30
cited the limited capacity model as a framework to explain the subjects in practice were not involved in the principal experiment.
negative effects of competitive tasks on concentration. Pool et al. Seventy-seven students participated in the principal experiment. None
(2003), who were proponents of the limited capacity model, held that of them were exposed to any portion of the test materials which were

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TABLE 1 Descriptive statistics of the familiarity and difficulty of the

employed in this study. However, during the last part of the reading materials.
experiment, only the data of 60 participants were analyzed because of
missing or excluded data. Familiarity Difficulty
Materials
M SD M SD
Reading 1 1.03 0.18 1.07 0.25
2.2. Instruments
Reading 2 1.17 0.46 1.03 0.18

The instruments used in this study included a background music Reading 3 1.1 0.30 1.07 0.25
preference questionnaire, which was utilized to group the participants Reading 4 1.13 0.35 1.10 0.31
into two parts. One group had a high level of background music
Reading 5 1.07 0.25 4.60 0.68
listening preference and the other had a low level of background
Reading 6 1.20 0.41 4.83 0.38
music listening preference. An Eyelink 1,000 eye tracker (SR Research
Ltd) used to record the trace of the reading was also adopted in this Reading 7 1.03 0.18 4.93 0.25
study. The sampling rate was 1,000 Hz and the eye movement Reading 8 1.07 0.25 4.90 0.31
trajectory was recorded every millisecond. The English reading
materials appeared on a 17-inch Dell LCD monitor which was 75
centimeters away from the participants and had a resolution of TABLE 2 Descriptive statistics of the music familiarity.

1,024 × 764. Although the participants read the passages with their Music tempo M SD
natural eyes in a natural way, only the movement of the left eye was
Original tempo 1.18 0.469
monitored by the eye tracking technique. In addition, a post-test
questionnaire was used to make sure that all the participants were Fast tempo 1.03 0.181

unfamiliar with the English test materials and music stimuli. Slow tempo 1.08 0.334
Additionally, SPSS 25.0 was used to analyze the data. Furthermore,
two computers were applied in this study, one of which was a desktop
used as the display screen and the other one was to play the familiarity with the experimental reading materials are shown in
music stimuli. Table 1.

2.3.2. Background music stimuli

2.3. Materials There were three kinds of music which were applied in this study.
The first one was selected from the prelude of Bach’s Piano Sonata in
The materials were composed of English reading test materials, G. The other two were also based on the same piece of music. These
music stimuli, a music preference questionnaire, and a post- three kinds of background music were exactly the same except for the
test questionnaire. music tempo. The tempo of the original music is 72 beats per minute.
The original music was applied in the practice experiment. The other
2.3.1. English Reading test materials two versions were used in the final experiment. The tempo of the last
The reading test materials for the principal experiment differed in two were 60 and 120 beats per minute, respectively, of which the faster
test difficulty. The more difficult ones were selected from reading version was called fast background music and the slower version was
passages in Science magazine, and the simpler ones were from reading called slow background music. Familiarity with the three kinds of
comprehension tests in practice tests of the College English Test Band background music was examined on a 5-point scale, where 1 meant
Four in China. There were five passages each with about 70 English participants did not know the music at all and 5 meant that
words from each difficulty level. The number of the passages was ten, participants were very familiar with the music. The music familiarity
two of which were for the practice experiment, and eight were for the evaluation is shown in Table 2.
principal experiment. In order to distinguish the difficulty of those
selected passages, a pilot study was conducted using the 30 participants 2.3.3. Background music preference
who did not take part in the principal experiment. All the reading test questionnaire
materials were expositions with one judgment question. The function The background music preference questionnaire was used to
of the question here was to remind the participants to read the evaluate the level of music preference of the participants. This
passages carefully. The question was a main idea question. All the questionnaire included 13 items, each with five levels. In order to
English reading materials were assessed by a college teacher who make sure the background music preference questionnaire was
taught participants English writing. Participants’ familiarity with the effective, 100 participants finished the questionnaire. Twenty-three of
reading passages was also examined. The evaluation of readers’ the 100 participants did not attend the principal experiment. The final
familiarity with the reading materials was made on a 5-point scale, credibility of the questionnaire was 0.901, which was achieved using
where 1 meant that readers were not familiar with the reading the SPPS 25.0 for Windows.
materials at all and 5 meant that the readers were very familiar with
the reading materials. The difficulty of the reading materials was also 2.3.4. Post-test questionnaire
evaluated on a 5-point scale, where 1 referred to the easiest reading It was required that none of the test materials in this study had
passage and 5 represented the most difficult reading passage. been previously read or completed by participants, so a post-test
Estimations of the difficulty of the reading materials and readers’ questionnaire was needed. Participants were asked to complete a short

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exit questionnaire, inquiring whether they were familiar with the background music listening preference questionnaire. Generally,
English reading materials and the background music stimuli. It also participants with higher scores had stronger preferences for music
required participants to evaluate the difficulty level of the English listening and were grouped into the high level of preference for music
reading materials. listening during reading category. At the same time, participants who
showed less interest in listening to music during reading were grouped
into the low level category.
2.4. Experimental design
2.5.3. The principal experiment
The experiment was a 2 (music tempo: fast and slow) × 2 (English All 77 participants received a list of English words and expressions
reading text difficulties: difficult and easy) × 2 (music preferences in which would appear in the final experiment. The participants were
reading: high and low) mixed design. Both music tempo and English requested to remember the word list so as to avoid failure in reading
text difficulty were within-subjects factors, and the musical preference because of poor understanding of words and expressions. The
during reading was a between-subjects factor. experimenter would check that each participant had a good
understanding about the word list so that the participant could attend
the final experiment. In the principal experiment, each participant was
2.5. Research procedure tested individually. They were instructed to sit in front of the desktop
and put on earphones. The experimenter played music to the
There were three steps in the research procedure, which included participant and asked whether they were satisfied with volume of the
the pilot study, the selection of the participants, and the music. The volume of the music was regulated according to the
principal experiment. participants’ habits. At the very beginning, the participants were told
to rest their chin on a holder and read the instructions on the screen
2.5.1. The pilot study carefully and silently. The participants were encouraged to voice any
The study was held in a sound-attenuated classroom with 30 doubts if they had any question about the procedure of the final
participants. All the participants were asked in Chinese to verify the experiment, and the experimenter would clarify the key points. The
difficulty of the English reading materials and their familiarity with participants were asked to press any button on the keyboard to enter
the English reading materials. The test paper was composed of 14 the calibrate stage as soon as they were clear about the
English reading passages, each of which had a judgment question. The experimental procedure.
English reading materials contained seven difficult passages and seven The calibration was validated after the participant looked
easy passages. The degree of text difficulty was evaluated by an English accurately at five different points which appeared one after another in
teacher from the Foreign Language College first. After reading each five varying positions on the screen. Prior to the presentation of each
passage, the participants had to evaluate the difficulty and their stimulus, a black dot would appear on the middle left of the screen to
familiarity with each English reading article from one to five points. guide the participants’ eye movements. After valid calibration, two
The higher the score they gave, the more difficult the reading passage practice reading passages were presented to familiarize the subjects
was and the more familiar they were with the English reading passage. with the procedure. After that, there was the critical session. The
The participants were required to finish the test paper within 30 min. critical session was divided into two periods: one was the fast music
Thereafter, all the test papers were collected to analyze the results. period, in which four English reading passages were presented. The
The degree of difficulty of the 14 English reading passages and the difficulty sequence of the four reading passages was: difficult, easy,
participants’ familiarity with the reading passages were counted and difficult, and easy. The other period was the slow music period. The
compared. Also, the answers to the true-false questions were pattern of the four reading passages in the slow music condition was
examined. As a result, it turned out that all the participants were the same as that of the fast music period. The participants were
unfamiliar with the English reading materials. In addition, the reading directed to read the passages at their own personal pace. When the
materials were grouped into two parts according to the scores that all critical session was completed, participants were given a post-test
the participants gave. Furthermore, 80% of the answers to the questionnaire to ask them about their familiarity with the reading
judgment questions were correct, which to a great extent suggested materials and the music stimuli. Participants were also queried about
that the participants read the materials carefully. Finally, 10 of the 14 the perceived text difficulty. The whole procedure lasted about 25 min.
English reading materials were chosen for the final experiment. Five
English reading passages were difficult, and the other five were 2.5.4. Data analysis procedure
relatively easy. The difficult ones were of the same difficulty level. Subjects were all engaged during the experiment and grasped the
Similarly, the simple ones also shared the same level of difficulty. meaning of the reading passages, with a mean correct rate of more
Finally, all the English reading materials selected were suitable for the than 84% for the judgment questions. According to the established
principal experiment. practices, some data were trimmed before the final analysis (Rayner,
1988). Specifically, (1) the eye movement data from subjects were
2.5.2. The selection of participants discarded on account of some serious data missing; (2) fixations that
One hundred participants were asked to complete the background were shorter than 80 ms or longer than 1,200 ms were eliminated in
music listening preference questionnaire within 10 min. According to that excessively short fixations could not be a sign of mental processing
the result of the questionnaire, 77 of the 100 participants were selected and unduly long fixations were usually due to equipment errors; (3) a
to attend the final experiment. The 77 participants were classified into single test where the count of fixations was less than 4 was discarded;
two groups on the basis of the scores that they received in the (4) outlying data were eliminated; and (5) data were excluded where

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TABLE 3 Descriptive statistics of total fixation duration.

the tracker failed to log the trajectory of the eye. The data which lay
three standard deviations from the mean were regarded as outliers. p A M SD N
The removal of this data was 22% of the total. The eye movement data
B1 G A1 44863.25 14399.90 30
of 60 participants were exported from Data Viewer (SR Research Ltd)
A2 25637.77 6925.03 30
and processed in Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics 25.
Primarily, three-factor analysis of variance was carried out to reveal D A1 47140.88 15551.83 30

the effects background music exerted on reading performance; tests A2 27507.23 9043.33 30
of within-subjects effects were added to show the significance of the B2 G A1 46123.58 13958.97 30
facilitation and interference of music tempo and the text difficulty.
A2 32897.48 11790.56 30
Taking background music listening preferences into consideration, a
mixed repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to examine the D A1 52493.97 16533.15 30

main effects and interactive relationships among the levels of the A2 34963.73 12339.27 30
preference for listening to music while reading, text difficulty, and p means background music listening preference; G refers to a high level of background
music tempo. music. Listening preference while reading; D refers to a low level of preference for
background music. Listening while reading; A is the text difficulty; A1 is the difficult reading
Five eye-movement measures were collected in this experiment.
materials; A2 is the easy. Reading materials; B1 refers to fast background music; B2 is the
They were average saccadic amplitude, fixation count, total fixation slow background music.
duration, saccade count, and pupil size mean. The whole reading
passage in a single test was treated as the area of interest. We were TABLE 4 Descriptive statistics of pupil size mean.
interested in the reading duration of the whole passage. The definitions
and ways of measurement were as follows: (1) Average saccadic p A M SD N
amplitude. This is the average size (in degrees of visual angle) of all B1 G A1 959.09 325.55 30
selected saccades. The amplitude of saccade is influenced not only by A2 956.05 324.85 30
the difficulty of the reading materials but also by the length of words
D A1 1034.17 295.19 30
in the texts (Phillips and Edelman, 2008). A larger saccadic amplitude
means participants have grasped more information in the fixation A2 1027.95 295.95 30

before the saccade happens. (2) Fixation count. This is also called the B2 G A1 926.94 308.50 30
total number of fixations. It computes the number of times that the A2 941.49 315.98 30
eyes view the interest area. It indicates the cognitive burden of the
D A1 646.37 194.37 30
material in the interest area. More fixations in the interest area means
a heavier load of cognitive processing. (3) Total fixation duration. This A2 670.53 183.48 30

is equivalent to what is named total viewing time by some academics.

As the name indicates, total fixation duration is calculated as the
summation of the length of all the fixations in the interest area. (4) 3. Results
Saccadic count. This refers to the total number of saccades in the
interest area. (5) Pupil size mean. Changes in pupil size can The data have been obtained from the experiment. The data of
be regarded as a good indicator of cognitive load changes in total fixation duration and pupil size means were chosen for analysis.
speech processing. Data analysis was divided into two parts. One is the descriptive
The reason why we choose the five eye-movement indexes as analysis, and the other is the main effects and interactive effects of the
the measurement in the present study was decided by the benefit of three variables in this study.
those eye-movement measurements. First, the higher the fixation
count is, the lower the efficiency of task performance. That is, the
fixation count number reveals the efficiency of the task performance. 3.1. Descriptive statistics
However, the increasing amount of the fixation count in a specific
interest area can also be explained in that more attention is being 3.1.1. Total fixation duration
paid to it. The second measurement is total fixation duration. There As is shown in Table 3, participants spent more time on the
are two explanations for a longer total fixation duration. On one difficult reading passages. However, the time spent in the fast
hand, when it is more difficult to extract information from the background music condition was less than in the slow background
reading materials, a longer total fixation on the reading materials music condition. In addition, the participants with high background
will happen; on the other hand, people will fixate something longer music listening preferences spent less time on the reading
if it is interesting. Third, the saccade count number of specific areas comprehension compared with participants with low
represents the research process of this area. The higher the saccade listening preferences.
count is, the longer it takes for information processing. Next, a
larger average saccadic amplitude can be explained by the interest 3.1.2. Pupil size mean
that people have in the next interest area. Lastly, it is concluded that As is shown in Table 4, the mean pupil size of participants with
cognitive load leads to larger pupil size. Reading is a complex high music listening preferences in the fast background music
cognitive task, which places demands on cognitive resources. condition were obviously smaller than that of participants with low
Difficult English reading comprehension requires more cognitive levels of music listening preference. However, in the slow-tempo
resources than easy ones. music condition, the pupil size of participants who reported that they

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TABLE 5 Tests for within-subjects effects of total fixation duration.

SS df MS F p
A 18173674497.06 1 18173674497.06 238.79 0.00

A*P 83271642.33 1 83271642.33 1.09 0.30

B 1706074718.00 1 1706074718.00 44.99 0.00

B*P 69000360.81 1 69000360.81 1.82 0.18

A*B 246207629.40 1 246207629.40 8.84 0.00

A*B*P 56919586.00 1 56919586.00 2.04 0.15

TABLE 6 Tests for between-subjects effects of total fixation duration. TABLE 8 Tests for between-subjects effects on pupil size mean.

SS df MS F p SS df MS F p
Intercept 364169805219.03 1 364169805219.03 690.54 0.00 Intercept 192384758.97 1 192384758.97 652.04 0.00

P 593813792.26 1 593813792.26 1.12 0.29 P 613684.65 1 613684.65 2.08 0.15

Error 30587047494.57 58 527362887.83 Error 17112749.64 58 295047.40

TABLE 7 Tests for within-subjects effects of pupil size mean. reading. However, the main effect of the tempo of background music
was significant, F (1,58) =101.25, p = 0.00 < 0.05. The interactive effect
SS df MS F p between the tempo of the background music and the levels of
A 3255.51 1 3255.51 0.85 0.35 preference for listening to music while reading was also significant, F
A*P 155.27 1 155.27 0.04 0.84 (1,58) =78.77, p = 0.00 < 0.05. But the interactive effect between the two
B 2351815.30 1 2351815.30 101.25 0.00
within-subjects factors was not significant, F (1,58) =2.02,
p = 0.16 > 0.05. There were no interactive effects between the three
B*P 1829733.84 1 1829733.84 78.77 0.00
factors, F (1,58) =0.14, p = 0.70 > 0.05. Table 8 report the tests of
A*B 8632.38 1 8632.382 2.02 0.16 between-effects of the pupil size mean. There was no main effect on
A*B*P 613.32 1 613.328 0.14 0.70 the pupil size mean, F (1,58) =2.08, p = 0.15 > 0.05.

had a stronger preference for background music listening while 4. Discussion

reading was larger than those who had lower levels of preference for
reading with music. In response to the belief that reading comprehension is impaired
by the tempo of background music, and to the suggestion that reading
performance is only enhanced when the participants tended to listen
3.2. Main effect analysis and interactive to preferred music while reading, the present study was conducted to
effect analysis assess the effect of the tempo of music and the level of preference for
music listening while reading on English reading comprehension.
3.2.1. Total fixation duration
For the total fixation duration, the within-subjects effects are
described in Table 5 and show that the main effect of text difficulty was 4.1. The effect of music tempo
significant, F (1,58) =238.79, p = 0.00 < 0.05, and the main effect of
music tempo was observed, F (1,58) =44.99, p = 0.00 < 0.05. What is The main effect of the music tempo in this study was statistically
more, there was an interactive effect between text difficulty and music significant. In particular, the performance in the fast-tempo music
tempo. Table 6 report the tests of between-subjects effects and show condition was better than that in the slow-tempo music condition,
that there was no main effect in background music listening preference which was inconsistent with previous studies (Kari, 2002; Thompson
while reading, F (1,58) =1.12, p = 0.29 > 0.05. There was no interactive et al., 2011). Music of 120 beats per minute was chosen as the fast music
effect between the three factors including text difficulty, music tempo, in the present study. According to the arousal and mood hypothesis,
and the levels of preferring to listening to music while reading. music listening affects arousal and mood, which in turn impacts task
performance of cognitive skills. The explanation of this result can
3.2.2. Pupil size mean be concluded as follows: task performance could be influenced by
For the pupil size mean, the results of all the main effects of all the mood and emotions, and the cognitive-motor benefits are associated
three factors are shown in Table 7. Specifically, the main effect of the with enhanced mood and heightened arousal. Furthermore, mood and
text difficulty was not significant, F (1,58) =0.85, p = 0.35 > 0.05. arousal can be enhanced by music of 120 beats per minute, so the
Additionally, there were no interactive effects between the text music of 120 beats per minutes used in this study, being fast-tempo
difficulty and the level of preference for listening to music while music, could facilitate English reading comprehension.

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4.2. The effect of background music of participants with a higher level of preference. Studying with
listening preference background music is a kind of habit. This kind of habit might to some
extent reduce the effect of music tempo, so it can be concluded that,
In the eye movement measurements, participants with a higher in general, the effects of music tempo would be diminished because
level of background music listening preference did better in task of the habituation effect. Moreover, the pupil size of participants who
performance than those of a lower level of preference, which had a stronger preference for reading with music in fast-tempo music
contradicted with previous studies (Stacey and Gerald, 2010). surroundings was smaller than those of participants of a lower level
Previous studies have shown that the harmful effect of background of preference. However, in the slow-tempo music condition, pupil
music on reading comprehension was more pronounced for size was larger for the high level of preference participants than the
students who had a stronger preference for music listening while lower ones. What was the underlying reason for this kind of
learning and most students who showed a preference for music interaction? The index of pupil size can reveal one’s tension of
listening while studying performed more poorly with background pressure. The smaller the pupil size, the more pressure the participants
music than those who preferred to study without background may bear. In the fast-tempo music condition, a higher level of
music. There are several possible explanations for the result of this preference for reading with music listening can make participants
study. According to the affective filter hypothesis, motivation, more relaxed than a lower level of preference, and their pupil size
anxiety, and self-confidence are three factors that impact second mean is also smaller. However, in the slow tempo music condition,
language learning. self-confidence can enable better language the effect of music tempo played a more important role than the effect
learning. The preference for music listening while studying is good of music listening preference.
for foreign language learning. Good task performance in English
reading comprehension can be achieved by having a high preference
for music listening, because the efficiency of second language 5. Limitations
learning can be influenced by the affective factors. Participants who
had a stronger preference for music listening while studying were Similar to other studies exploring background music and cognitive
accustomed to reading with music, and listening to music while tasks, there are also some limitations to this study. First, the effect of
reading could ease stress and anxiety to make them happier and background music on English reading comprehension is also affected
more willing to read English texts, which could also facilitate by the ability of the participants in English reading comprehension.
English reading comprehension. But the reverse effect might occur However, the recruitment of participants for the experiment was more
for those students who prefer reading in quiet surroundings. difficult than previously planned, which resulted in an uneven and
small sample size. Actually, the recruitment of the participants for the
experiment was based on their score from the College English Test
4.3. The interaction between music tempo Band Four, so the ability of English reading comprehension of all the
and text difficulty participants was not scientifically similar. What is more, because of the
fact that there were more females than males in the foreign language
Text difficulty had a main effect in the eye-movement college, the number of male participants was smaller than that of
measurements, which meant that the more difficult the reading female participants. Previous studies have found that the effect of
material was, the more time or strength would be put on it to background music on reading may be on account of gender differences
process it. What is more, the interactive effect between text difficulty (Kari, 2002; Stacey and Gerald, 2010).
and music tempo was statistically significant. That is, the effect of
music tempo was affected by the text difficulty. The music tempo
had a greater impact on easy texts than on difficult texts. This effect 6. Conclusion
was also revealed in the eye measurements. The explanation for this
effect was that the difficult texts in this study were difficult for the To sum up, this study investigates the effects of background
participants, so the participants did not read them carefully, but music on English reading comprehension from three perspectives:
when the easy texts were exposed to the participants, they were text difficulty, music tempo, and background music listening
more willing to read the simple texts carefully, so the tempo of the preference. This study was implemented on the basis of previous
music had a greater influence on the reading comprehension of easy studies, but it differs from previous research. Firstly, the present
texts compared with complex texts. study is the first attempt at examining the influence of background
music on English reading comprehension from three perspectives,
which has scarcely been covered in previous studies. Secondly, from
4.4. The interaction between music tempo the perspective of individual differences, the factor of background
and background music preference music preference was used in this study. Lastly, the effect of
background music on task performance is also regulated by the
The interactive effect between background music listening difficulty of the task. As the results of the study are discussed above,
preference and music tempo was statistically significant, which was the conclusion can be drawn below.
shown in the eye measurements of pupil size mean. The effect of People who had a preference for studying while listening to music
music tempo was affected by the preference for music listening. performed better in the task performance than those who showed
Background music tempo had a greater influence on the reading of little or did not show preference for music listening while reading. This
participants with a lower level of music listening preference than that is one of the main findings of the study; thus, students who do not

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Su et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1140959

have a strong preference for reading to music should not often Ethics statement
perform reading tasks with background music.
Furthermore, the music tempo also influenced the reading The studies involving human participants were reviewed and
activities. Fast-tempo music could improve English reading approved by the Ethics Committee of Fujian Normal University. The
comprehension. The population of EFL learners in China becomes patients/participants provided their written informed consent to
larger and larger, so the topic of how to improve English language participate in this study.
teaching and learning becomes particularly crucial for both teachers
and students. Music is an important tool for foreign language teaching
and learning. Fast-tempo music can activate students’ arousal and Author contributions
mood so that students may have a good mood and be more willing to
engage in the activities of English classes. Therefore, teachers can YS and MH made substantial contributions to the conception,
apply fast-tempo music to English language classes. design, acquisition of the data, and analysis and interpretation of the
In addition, the interplay between the factor of background music data. RL developed the theory, verified the analytical methods, and
preference and music tempo is clear in this study. People with a high supervised the findings of this work. All authors contributed to the
level of background music listening preference perform better than article and approved the submitted version.
those of a low level of background music listening preference. On
account of this result, it is wise for people who report that they have a
stronger preference for background music listening to perform Funding
reading tasks in a music condition.
Lastly, the findings on music tempo indicate very clearly that it is This work was supported by China Postdoctoral Science
necessary to study the effects of the structural properties of the Foundation (2019M652239).
background music in detail. The inconsistent results of previous
research may be due to the factors that are taken into consideration. In
the investigation of the effects of background music on reading Conflict of interest
comprehension, there are three main factors that should be examined.
They are the background music, individual differences, and the The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
difficulty or properties of the reading tasks. The results of this study absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could
could be further investigated by consideration of all these factors. It is be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
beneficial for people who have stronger preference for music listening
to conduct English reading tasks with fast-tempo music. It is detrimental
for people who have little preference for background music listening to Publisher’s note
complete difficult English reading tasks with slow-tempo music.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
Data availability statement organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. endorsed by the publisher.

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