The Effect of Music Listening on a Computer Programming Task

Abstract

Information systems professionals are experiencing workplace stress and loss of productivity during the design and coding phases of systems development. This study focused on the effect of music listening on anxiety and task achievement in a computer programming exercise. Subjects were 72 undergraduate students enrolled in an “Introduction to Programming” course at the University of Windsor in Southern Ontario, Canada. To assess the benefit of music listening on anxiety and task achievement, subjects were assigned to one of three conditions: control, primer or periodic. The primer group received music listening prior to the programming task while the periodic group listened to music prior to and throughout the programming task. One-way ANOVA results indicated a statistically significant difference in anxiety level between control and music groups with the greatest difference following the initial music listening. Repeated measures analysis revealed the least amount of anxiety level across time for the periodic group. There was no significant difference in syntax and logic task achievement between groups. However, the periodic group scored the highest means in both programming tasks.