Rating scale questionnaires were administered to 600 students in three age groups, 12?13, 15?16 and 20?21 from Japan, the UK, Greece and the USA. The questionnaires explored the extent of playing music while studying, the kinds of tasks when music was played, the perceived effects of music on studying, the characteristics and types of music played while studying and the factors that influenced the decision to play music while studying. Statistical analysis revealed both commonality and differences in playing music while (...) studying related to both age and culture. Some tasks were more frequently accompanied by music than others. Students reported being able to make decisions about the impact of background music on their performance. The results are discussed in relation to their educational implications. (shrink)

The vast majority of experimental studies of music to date have explored music in terms of the processes involved in the perception and cognition of complex sonic patterns that can elicit emotion. This paper argues that this conception of music is at odds both with recent Western musical scholarship and with ethnomusicological models, and that it presents a partial and culture‐specific representation of what may be a generic human capacity. It argues that the cognitive sciences must actively engage with the (...) problems of exploring music as manifested and conceived in the broad spectrum of world cultures, not only to elucidate the diversity of music in mind but also to identify potential commonalities that could illuminate the relationships between music and other domains of thought and behavior. (shrink)