Does background noise affect reading comprehension?
Human Health and Behavior- Grade:
- 7
- Teacher:
- Jennifer Rozo
This project investigates how different types of background sounds influence reading comprehension and memory. Specifically, the study tests whether certain kinds of background music or noise help or hinder a person’s ability to understand and remember written information. I chose this topic because I am curious about how the brain responds to sound while concentrating on a mental task. By comparing performance under different sound conditions, this project aims to better understand how background sounds can impact concentration, learning, and overall task performance. The results of this experiment show that white noise produced the highest reading, memorization, and comprehension scores, even surpassing silence. In contrast, conditions with spoken words, such as a podcast, resulted in the lowest scores.