The Effects of Playing a Musical Instrument on Multitasking Ability

Overview

To test musicians’ multitasking ability compared to that of non-musicians, subjects were tested using a modified Six Elements Test. In this study, people who currently play one or more musical instruments at least 3 times per week qualified as musicians. Subjects were chosen from students at a county career academy - a specialized secondary school - and musicians played a variety of instruments. During the testing period of 10 minutes, participants were told to do as much of the six given tasks as possible without doing two subtasks of the same task consecutively. The tasks were two sets of linear and quadratic math problems, a prose and informative article with reading comprehension questions, and 10 Lego figures with orthographic drawings made with the software Autodesk Inventor 2016. After the testing period, the scores were immediately calculated as the sum of the total number of correct answers and the number of tasks completed, out of a total of 36 points. The scores were then averaged to find the average scores of the two groups, and statistical analysis was performed. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the multitasking ability of musicians and non-musicians, although the mean score of the non-musicians was a bit higher than that of the musicians. Therefore, according to the results of this study, the improved brain structure and faster reaction time of these musicians did not make them more efficient task-switchers, despite the multiple benefits of playing music.

Competition history

• AJAS 2019 Category not listed

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