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APP| Published By AEIRC| https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v6.i1.2019.1-7 

ISSN 2412 - 3188 

Original Article                                                                                  

Impact of music on reaction time, attention, short 

term memory and verbal fluency: A gender-

based study 
Ujalla Anwar, Amaila Fazal & Faizan Mirza  
Department of Physiology, University of Karachi. 
 
 

Abstract 
Background: Music is beneficial for adults, it enhances psychological comfort, self-
confidence, self-esteem, and lowers the symptoms of anxiety, pain and depression, 
relieving stress by improving life quality and thus providing satisfaction. It holds 
the capacity to initiate a multitude of cognitive processes in the brain. We aim to 
evaluate and compare the effects of music on reaction time, attention, working 
capacity of short-term memory and verbal fluency of male and female subjects.  
Methodology: An observational study was conducted on a sample of 300 subjects 
either males or females between the age groups of 19 to 30 years, affiliated with 
different universities and institutes. After inclusion, these subjects were divided 
into two groups, standard and experimental group with 150 subjects in each 
group. Ruler & Drop method test and Stroop test with or without music were used 
to test the reaction time (RT) and attention, respectively. Whereas, working 
capacity of short-term memory was tested using the George A. Miller rule of 
memory. And verbal fluency was evaluated using semantic verbal fluency (SVF) 
and phonological verbal fluency (PVF) tests. The data was analyzed using SPSS 
Version 22. 
Results: The comparative mean values between the groups for RT, attention, short-
term memory and verbal fluency scores were greater among the subjects in the 
experimental group as the tests were performed in association with musical 
interference. Mean reaction time for both visual and tactile cues were significantly 
increased in the experimental group i.e. 0.151±0.034 (males) and 0.124±0.050 
(females) for tactile cues and 0.150±0.042 (males) and 0.152±0.033 (females). 
Moreover, Stroop interference also increased in both genders while short-term 
memory score declined from high to average and verbal fluency was also 
compromised due to musical interference. 
Conclusion: It is concluded from the study results that music holds both positive 
and negative effects on brain activity. It imparts positive effect on both RT and 
attention but in case of the working capacity of short-term memory and verbal 
fluency, the effects are negative. 
 

Keywords 
Reaction time, Stroop Test, Verbal Fluency, Short-term Memory, Music. 

 

Citation: Anwar U, Fazal A, Mirza F, 
Ahmed S. Impact of music on reaction 
time, attention, short term memory and 
verbal fluency: A gender-based study. 
APP. 2019; 6(1):1-7 
 
Corresponding Author Email: 
fm.faizan.mirza@gmail.com 
 
DOI: 10.29052/2412-3188.v6.i1.2019.1-7 
 
Received 10/02/2019 
 
Accepted 04/05/2019 
 
Published 12/10/2019 
 
Copyright © The Author(s). 2019 This  
is an open access article distributed 
under the terms of the Creative 
Commons Attribution 4.0 International 
License, which permits unrestricted 
use, distribution, and reproduction in 
any medium, provided the original 
author and source are credited.  
 

 

Funding: The author(s) received no 
specific funding for this work. 

Conflicts of Interests: The authors 
have declared that no competing 
interests exist. 
 

https://doi.org/10.29052/2412-3188.v6.i1.2019.1-4
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Introduction  
Music is an art form which is now being used 
as a therapeutic tool for individuals of all age 
groups and both genders, as it has been 
known for its social nature of healing. Music 
upregulates the working efficiency, boosts 
the productivity levels, enhances 
psychological comfort and self-confidence1,2. 
It also helps with complex cognitive 
functioning like critical thinking, reasoning 
and problem solving3. Music activates the 
deep parts of the brain including amygdala, 
ventral striatum and hippocampus which in 
turn activates the euphoric stimulation. 
Where amygdala responsible for expression 
and perception of fear and the development 
of fear conditioning, regulates additional 
cognitive processes like memory or 
attention4. It is a known fact that intellectual 
abilities can be improved by fragrances or 
certain music (i.e., the Mozart Effect)5. 
Literature suggest that exposure to music, 
specifically Mozart, improves the 
performances and also increases spatial 
skills6. 
 
Apart from reaction time and concentration, 
music also has effects on the memory. The 
memory retained for a duration of 15 and 30 
seconds is short term memory. It can be 
verbal or visual, items can be kept in short 
term memory by repeating them verbally 
(acoustic encoding)7. While Visual Short-
term Memory involves the ability to 
temporarily retain a small amount of visual 
information like shapes, colours, relative 
locations, or movement directions available 
for a limited time period8. Music also 
influences stress-related cognitive processes 
and alters numerous physiological 
responses9. From a functional point of view, 
the acoustic data is processed in the motor 
and auditory areas of the brain through the 
auditory neural pathways connecting the 
amygdala and auditory cortex10. Several 
interconnected neural pathways associated 
with memory, music and emotions are 
working parallel to each other to create 
detailed layered memories.  
 

Verbal fluency is another cognitive function 
that is enhanced through music listening, it 
helps in recovering information from 
memories. However, recovery of information 
is successfully executed when an individual 
has control over mental processes like mental 
set shifting, selective attention, self-
monitoring and internal response 
generation11. Verbal fluency involves both 
semantic and phonologic contents which 
engage distinct cognitive processes and brain 
circuits12. The phonologic content requires 
functioning of left inferior, middle frontal 
cortices, putamen and thalamic networks, 
and also verbal element in addition to 
executive functions which later involves the 
unusual generation of strategies based on 
categorical representations13. In contrast, 
semantic requires temporal lobe functions 
and impose a smaller demand on executive 
processing because performance rely on 
common and established verbal strategies14.  
 
Based on the previous literature it is evident 
that the music improves cognitive abilities 
and hence contribute better results in 
memory and language tasks. Therefore, this 
study aims to evaluate the contribution of 
music on working capacity of short-term 
memory and verbal fluency of male and 
female subjects and its effect on reaction time 
and attention. 

 

Methodology 
This observational study was conducted on 
general population. A sample of 300 subjects 
between 19-30 years of age affiliated with 
different universities and institutes were 
enrolled in the study. Subjects suffering from 
any pathological condition at the time of 
sampling were excluded. After receiving 
informed consent, the subjects were divided 
randomly into two groups i.e. standard and 
experimental group. In standard group there 
were 150 subjects including 60 males and 90 
females. In this group, all parameters were 
tested without music. Experimental group 
also contain 150 subjects including 80 males 
and 70 females. In this group, all parameters 
were tested with music. 



 

   

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For reaction time, ruler and drop method was 
used, subject was asked to sit on the table 
with their dominant hand over the edge. To 
test the visual response, the ruler was placed 
at the 30 cm mark so that the 0 cm end is just 
at the subject's index finger. Soon after this 
the investigator releases the ruler without 
making any noise or gesture. The subject will 
react to the visual stimulus of seeing the ruler 
being released. The experiment is repeated 
three more times and the centimetre mark is 
taken for each time. For tactile response, the 
subject is asked to sit at the table wearing the 
eye shade and touch the shoulder of their 
non-dominant arm as the investigator release 
the ruler. The subject will be given a simple 
touch while releasing the ruler without any 
auditory cue. The measurement is recorded 
and the experiment is repeated thrice 
switching places. The reaction time was 
calculated using following formula: t = 
√2y/gₒ. Where, y is the distance measured in 
cm, gₒ is the acceleration due to gravity 
constant (980 cm/sec2); and t is the time in 
seconds. The average reaction time for 
humans is 0.25 seconds to a visual stimulus, 
0.17 for an audio stimulus, and 0.15 seconds 
for a touch stimulus. 
 
Stroop effect test was used to assess attention, 
the subject was made to read out the word 
printed in black, same words printed in 
congruent colours, colours printed in 
incongruent shades and colour of ink from 
which the word is written and the time was 
recorded each time. Stroop interference and 
facilitation were calculated using the 
formula:  

   Stroop Interference = Incongruent - Control 
Stroop Facilitation= Congruent - Control 
 
For working capacity of short-term memory 
assessment, George A. Miller rule of memory 
score was used. Harvard-based psychologist 
George A. Miller found that in our short-term 
memory, the average number of 'chunks' of 
information (names, numbers, etc) that can 
be stored is 7±2. According to which a score 
between 5 and 9 of the words on the list 

indicate average working capacity of short-
term memory, if less than 5, short term 
memory is working at low capacity and if the 
score is above 9 indicates high working 
capacity of short-term memory. Thereby, 
subjects were provided with a list of words 
which they can learn for a short period of 
time (30 seconds – 1 minute), then they were 
asked to recall the list with or without 
listening to music.  
 
Both semantic verbal fluency (SVF) and 
phonological verbal fluency (PVF-FAS) tests 
were performed. In SVF test, the participants 
were asked to evoke and speak as many 
animal names as they could over a period of 
60 seconds. The total number of correct items 
mentioned by the subject was recorded. 
Moreover, in PVF-FAS test, the participants 
were asked to mention as many words as 
they could starting with the letter’s “F”, “A” 
and “S”, over a period of 60 seconds for each 
letter separately, proper names and numbers 
were avoided. The total number of correct 
items mentioned for each letter was recorded. 
The results in the FAS test were computed for 
the number of the word generated with the 
initial letter, i.e. F, A, S, and the sum of the all 
three letters was calculated i.e. F, A and S (Σ 
FAS). All of the above mentioned tests were 
performed on the enrolled study subjects in 
accordance to the ethical guidelines and the 
tests were run twice, with and without music 
and the results were displayed gender wise. 
Data was analysed using SPSS Version 22 
and displayed using mean and standard 
deviation. 
 

Result 
Based on the results the mean reaction time 
for both visual and tactile cues was 
significant improved in both genders. But for 
attention the Stroop interference was 
prolonged among subjects of experimental 
group. Moreover, the working capacity of 
short-term memory was decreased from high 
to average and verbal fluency both semantic 
and phonologic was compromised while 
listening music as shown in table 1. 

 



 

   

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Table 1: Changes in mean reaction time, attention, short term memory score and verbal fluency 
among subjects in both standard and experimental group 

 
Parameters   Standard Experimental 

Male 
(n=60) 

Female 
(n=90) 

Male 
(n=80) 

Female 
(n=70) 

Reaction Time Tactile 0.1488 ±0.036 0.118 ±0.043 0.106 ±0.034 0.124 ±0.050 

Visual  0.148 ±0.036 0.153 ±0.040 0.150 ±0.042 0.152 ±0.033 

Attention  IF  35.68 ±7.69 33.584 ±7.978 40.816 ±11.65 38.57 ±11.53 

FT -0.93 ±3.10 -0.50 ±3.22 -2.033 ±3.53 -1.211 ±3.54 

Short term 
memory score 

Below 5 6±2.831 1±4 6±3 2±4 

5 to 9 39±2.7004 37±3.3 45±2.9 46±4.1 

Above 9 15±2.591 52±3 9±3 42±4 

Verbal 
Fluency  

Semantic 15.03±4.40 41.32±10.55 13.566±3.48 34.18±9.58 

Phonologic 16.15±3.89 48.21±12.75 14.65±3.15 38.088±11.43 
*Values are given as mean ± SD 
*IF-Stroop Interference; FT-Stroop Facilitation  
*Standard Group – Without Music; Experimental Group – With Music   
 

Discussion 
Exposure to music stimulates brain areas, but 
the process occurs differently among males 
and females which are attributed to various 
genetic, hormonal and environmental factors. 
However, both genders are equal in 
intelligence, but tend to work in a different 
manner. This is because both male and 
female use different parts of their brain to 
recognize faces, sense emotions, encode 
memories, make decisions and solve certain 
problems. According to our results, reaction 
time was much faster among females as 
compared to males in the control group as 
well as experimental group (Table 1). 
However, it is generally accepted that males 
have faster reaction time as compared to 
females. Men tend to have larger diameter of 
axons than women. Larger diameter of axons 
causes signals to be transmitted faster up to 
the nerve fibres, leading to a shorter latency 
between stimulus and response15. But our 
results are contradictory to previous 
researches. This might be due to the 
neuroanatomical differences among both the 
genders. That is female have bigger Corpus 
callosum as compared to males which is the 
larger tract of neural fibres that allows the 
free flow of communication between both 
hemispheres of the brain16. Furthermore, 

regions for frontal lobe that are responsible 
for problem solving and decision making 
were larger in women17. 

In addition, our graphs also showed that both 
the genders took more time in Stroop 
interference (Table 1) it is because, there are 
two brain regions involved in the processing 
of Stroop task cingulated cortex and 
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Hemisphere 
difference has also been proved by a study 
that right cerebral hemisphere reads the 
colour, the left cerebral hemisphere insists to 
read the words. It is easy to recognize the 
actual colour of the word when the meaning 
is consistent, while the inconsistent word 
meaning and colour creates conflicts. The 
word-recognition and colour-recognition are 
the two brain processes explaining "conflict". 
Thereby, to resolve this conflict, extra time is 
required by the brain. Word-recognition is 
slightly faster/stronger as compared to 
colour-recognition as we are so fluent in our 
language18. The brain has to inhibit the 
faster/stronger word-recognition process in 
order to allow the colour-recognition to win 
in the final response. This inhibition requires 
"selective attention" (attention focus) to 
inhibit the competing conflicting process. The 
reaction time is an indicator of the "attention 
process" in the brain it increases with 



 

   

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attention fatigue and/or inattentiveness19. 
However, when comparing between both the 
genders, it was found out that females 
perform somewhat better than males this is 
because the neurons in the pre frontal cortex 
of female’s brain are more closely packed 
together than male’s brain20. And the 
prefrontal cortex is involved in Stroop task 
and problem-solving ability.  

Many researches have been done proving 
different effects of music on psychological 
parameters, all with contradictory 
conclusions to one another. Like authors have 
concluded that music does not have any 
effect on memory21. On the other hand, some 
have also reported that sound in the 
background actually enhances the learning 
ability22. In our study, the overall working 
capacity was decreased along with the verbal 
fluency (Table 1). This can be due to the 
perspective proposed by Kahneman as 
Cognitive Capacity model. In this model it is 
demonstrated that cognitive processing can 
be done only for a limited pool of resources 
at a given moment. When multiple tasks 
occur at the same time, they compete for the 
limited resources and thereby exceeding the 
available capacity due to combined demand. 
And ultimately capacity interference occurs. 
This causes the processing of only portion of 
the task and thereby performance 
deteriorates. Thus, increasingly complex 
distractions due to music cause decline in 
cognitive performance23.  This might be the 
possible reason that the working capacity of 
our participants decreased from high to 
average, in addition to the verbal fluency. 
This is similar to other researches which 
demonstrated that background music has 
small but continuous negative effect on 
memorizing words or nonsense syllables 
(especially when listening to loud music)24, 
remembering advertisements25 and also in 
memorizing earlier read texts and reading 
performance26. Listening to music has also 
been reported to hinder with many other 
cognitive processes, including multimedia 
learning, performance on diagrammatic, 
numerical and verbal analysis, the ability to 
perform arithmetic, reading, performance 

inhibition on Stroop task and also in the 
learning of new procedures27-29. 

This study provides the positive effects of 
music on attention, verbal fluency, and short-
term memory and also on reaction time. 
However, more significant data is required in 
future in support of the positive effects 
associate with music. Moreover, the negative 
effects were not evaluated in this study which 
play a significant role in one’s health and 
well-being, thereby, future researches should 
also focus both the negative and positive 
aspects of the music and comparative data 
must be represented in order to evaluate the 
overall significance and outcomes of musical 
interventions. 

Conclusion  
Limited data is in favour of positive effect of 
music on psychological parameters but it is 
firmly demonstrated that music consistently 
and reliably interferes with the mental 
performance, also indicated by our study. But 
it is recommended that further studies 
should be performed to compare the positive 
or negative impacts of music or the specific 
type of music causing either positive or 
negative effect on memory and attention. 

Acknowledgement  
The author acknowledged the support of the 
students of Karachi University who 
participated in this study and also the 
colleagues for helping out in the entire 
research. 

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