Music Only Helps You Concentrate
If You're Doing the Right Kind of Task
只有做的事情对路，音乐才有助于集中精力
Nick Perham 尼克·佩勒姆
Many of us listen to music while we work，thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. And in fact，recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity. When it comes to other areas of performance， however， the impact of background music is more complicated.
The assumption that listening to music when working is beneficial to output likely has its roots in the so-called “Mozart effect”， which gained wide media attention in the early 1990s. Put simply， this is the finding that spatial rotation performance （mentally rotating a 3D dimensional shape to determine whether it matches another or not） is increased immediately after listening to the music of Mozart， compared to relaxation instructions or no sound at all.
How sound affects performance has been the topic of laboratory research for over 40 years， and is observed through a phenomenon called the irrelevant sound effect. Basically， this effect means that performance is poorer when a task is undertaken in the presence of background sound （irrelevant sound that you are ignoring）， in comparison to quiet.
To study irrelevant sound effect， participants are asked to complete a simple task which requires them to recall a series of numbers or letters in the exact order in which they saw them – similar to trying to memorize a telephone number when you have no means to write it down.The tricky thing is being able to do this while ignoring any background noise.
Two key characteristics of the irrelevant sound effect are required for its observation. First， the task must require the person to use their rehearsal abilities， and second， the sound must contain acoustical variation – for example， sounds such as “n， r， p” as opposed to “c， c， c”. Where the sound does not vary much acoustically， then performance of the task is much closer to that observed in quiet conditions.
The irrelevant sound effect itself comes from attempting to process two sources of ordered information at the same time – one from the task and one from the sound. Unfortunately， only the former is required to successfully perform the serial recall task， and the effort expended in ensuring that irrelevant order information from the sound is not processed actually impedes this ability.
A similar conflict is also seen when reading while in the presence of lyrical music. In this situation， the two sources of words – from the task and the sound – are in conflict. The subsequent cost is poorer performance of the task in the presence of music with lyrics.
What this all means is that whether having music playing in the background helps or hinders performance depends on the task and on the type of music， and only understanding this relationship will help people maximize their productivity levels. If the task requires creativity or some element of mental rotation then listening to music one likes can increase performance. In contrast， if the task requires one to rehearse information in order then quiet is best， or， in the case of reading comprehension， quiet or instrumental music.
我们许多人会在工作时听音乐，认为这有助于我们专注手头的事务。而事实上，最近的研究发现，音乐会对创造力产生有利影响。然而在涉及其他方面的表现时，背景音乐的作用更为复杂。
关于工作时听音乐有助于提高效率的假说或许源于所谓的“莫扎特效应”，这一理论在20世纪90年代初受到媒体广泛关注。简而言之，这一研究结果认为，与听到放松提示或一点声音都听不到的情况相比，在听了莫扎特的音乐后，空间旋转能力（在头脑中旋转一个三维形状，以确定它是否与另一个形状匹配）会立即出现提升。
40多年来，声音如何影响表现一直是实验室研究的主题，研究人员透过被称为无关声音效应的现象对此进行了观察。从根本上说，这种效应意味着相对于安静的环境而言，在有背景音乐（你予以忽视的无关声音）的情况下去做一件事情时，表现会较差。
为了研究无关声音效应，参与者要完成一项简单的任务，这项任务要求他们严格按照自己看到的顺序回忆一串数字或字母——类似于在没办法写下来的情况下试图去记忆电话号码。棘手的是要能够在忽视一切背景噪声的情况下做这件事。
无关声音效应的两个关键特点要在观察它的过程中体现出来。首先，这一任务必须要求参与者运用复述能力；其次，该声音必须包含声学上的变化——比如，像“n、r、p”这样的音而不是“c、c、c”。当声音在声学上的变化不大时，任务表现更接近于在安静环境下观察到的表现。
无关声音效应本身是由试图同时处理两种渠道的有序信息所导致—— 一种源自任务，还有一种源自声音。令人遗憾的是，成功完成依序回忆任务只需要前者，为确保不去处理声音带来的无关有序信息所花费的精力实际上妨碍了这种能力。
在播放歌曲的情况下阅读时也会出现类似的冲突。在这种情况下，源自工作和声音这两种渠道的话语会发生冲突。随之而来的代价是在听着有歌词的音乐时，任务表现较差。
所有这些表明，播放背景音乐到底是会促进还是妨碍表现取决于要完成的任务以及音乐类型，只有明白这种关系才有助于人们最大程度地提高工作效率。如果要完成的任务需要创造力或者一些脑力转动元素，那么听着喜欢的音乐会有更出色的表现。对比之下，如果要完成的任务要求按顺序复述信息，那么最好保持安静；就阅读理解而言，则要保持安静或者听器乐曲。（李凤芹译自美国《大众科学》月刊网站11月12日文章）
