Effects of music and grade consequences on test anxiety and performance.

Abstract

Many undergraduate college students experience higher than normal levels of anxiety owing to a variety of stressors, including the academic demands of their studies, homesickness, alcohol, peer pressure, and a novel independent financial life (e.g., Butler, Dodge, & Faurote, 2010; Conley & Lehman, 2012; Hamaideh, 2011; Verger et al., 2009). The current study will examine whether listening to calming music lowers students' anxiety in testing situations.Test Anxiety and Grade ConsequencesAnxiety is a human emotion that persists in reaction to fear, uncertainty, or threat in the environment. Several attempts to conceptualize and classify anxiety have been primed, one of which is the state-trait function (Spielberger, 1972, 1983). State anxiety is an acute reaction to a particular situation that appears to be uncertain or threatening, inducing stress on the individual. Trait anxiety refers to the permanent tendency to react with state anxiety due to anticipation of stressful events. Both of these classifications can be further broken into hierarchal catalogs. One subset of the state brand is test anxiety, which encompasses anxiety when under evaluation or in testing situations. This construct is a physiological and psychological response to concern over poor test performance and its implications. Empirical literature advocates that test anxiety negatively affects student academic performance in high school and college students through several methods. In particular, cognitive interference and worry caused by test anxiety before examinations may lead to poor understanding of test material and study habits, as well as inhibit adequate performance during tests (Carden, Bryant, & Moss, 2004; Cassady & Johnson, 2002; Chapell et al., 2005).Relieving AnxietyOne anxiety-relieving strategy that is used universally in human nature is music. The findings from research on the impact of music in occupational settings revealed that a single music relaxation session decreased participants' state anxiety significantly, compared to a control group with no music therapy (Smith, 2008). These results support the idea that music can serve as a relaxation tool in occupational settings. Not only did participants have feelings of reduced tension but also a sense of pleasantness. The results support the idea that music can help workers reduce anxiety that is normally associated with workplace environments. The calming effect of music has a positive impact on a person's mood and quality of work, as well as an increase in perceived level of relaxation that may help the person focus on performance (Labbe, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007; Lesiuk, 2005).Music therapy has many demonstrated applications. Transplant (Madson & Silverman, 2010), Alzheimer's (Guetin et al., 2009), and mechanical ventilation (Han et al., 2010) patients have all had a positive reaction to music therapy. The Madison and Silverman study measured anxiety with verbalization from the patient as well a Likert-type scale, and the Guetin et al. study issued the Hamilton Scale to assess the patients' levels of anxiety.The Han et al. study used the State Trait Anxiety Scale but also evaluated physiological measurements like respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and heart rate (HR). HR and blood pressure (Duan, Xiao, Zhao, & Zhu, 2008) have been shown to be physiologic indices of anxiety. Therefore, one could predict that if anxiety were to be alleviated, so would the cardiovascular consequences. Numerous studies have shown that music therapy can reduce such physiological measures as SBP and HR, as well as other negative effects of anxiety (Han et al., 2010; Knight & Rickard, 2001; Tse, Chan, & Benzie, 2005).Music and Cognitive PerformanceAdditional research on the positive effects of music has explored its influence on cognitive performance. Many researchers have found that people perform better on spatial cognitive tasks after listening to 10 min of Mozart than after sitting in silence (e. …