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<\/a><\/p>\nIntuition might lead us either to a \u201cyes\u201d or to a \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes<\/strong>: music might get students\u2019 creative juices flowing. Especially if it\u2019s upbeat, energetic, and particularly creative in itself, music might spark parallel creativity in our students\u2019 thought processes.<\/p>\n No<\/strong>: on the other hand, music just might be a serious distraction. Students might focus so keenly on the music — or on trying to ignore the music — that they can\u2019t focus on the creative work before them.<\/p>\n Researcher Emma Threadgold used a common creativity test \u2013 with the unlikely acronym of CRAT \u2013 to answer this question.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how a CRAT works:<\/p>\n I give you three words: \u201cdress,\u201d \u201cdial,\u201d and \u201cflower.\u201d<\/p>\n You have to think of another word that \u2013 when combined with each of those words \u2013 produces a real word or phrase.<\/p>\n To solve a CRAT, you have to rifle through your word bank and try all sorts of combinations before \u2013 AHA! \u2013 you pull the correct answer up from the depths of your brain.<\/p>\n In this case, the correct answer is \u201csun\u201d: as in, sundress, sundial, <\/em>and sunflower.<\/em><\/p>\n Threadgold and her team tested this creativity question several times<\/a>, in order to explore several variables.<\/p>\n They played music with English lyrics, with foreign lyrics, and with no lyrics. They played upbeat, happy music.<\/p>\n They even played library noise \u2013 with the sound of a photocopier thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n In every case,\u00a0music made it harder to solve CRAT problems<\/em>.<\/p>\n To put that in stark terms: music interfered with listeners\u2019 creative thinking.<\/p>\n (For those of your interested in statistics, the Cohen\u2019s d values here are astonishing. In one of the three studies, the difference between music and no music clocked in a d=2.86. That\u2019s easily the highest d value I\u2019ve seen in a psychology study. We\u2019re typically impressed by a value above 0.67.)<\/p>\n Having done such an admirably thorough study, has Threadgold\u2019s team answered this question for good?<\/p>\n Nope.<\/p>\n As always, teachers should look not for one definitive study, but for several findings that point in the same direction.<\/p>\n And, we should also look for boundary conditions<\/em>. This<\/em> research might hold up for these<\/em> particular circumstances. But: what other<\/em> circumstances might apply?<\/p>\n For me, one obvious answer stands out: timing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Other researchers have studied creativity by playing music before<\/em> the creative task, not during<\/em> it.<\/p>\nDo You Smell a CRAT?<\/h2>\n
The Results Are In<\/h2>\n
Case Closed?<\/h2>\n