Study Conditions

[Gymnosopher]

I was doing my SRS drills the other day whilst listening to some music in the background and got to wondering what everyone's thoughts might be on study conditions. For instance, do you study to music, can you work with tv on in the background, day or night or whatever-which way suits you...?

One thing that has always stuck with me is the comment of a secondary school teacher perhaps 8 years ago when talking of revising for exams, that though you may do homework and other study with the tv or radio on when it comes to exam revision if you have other things going on it'll not be so efficient. Since then I've always doubted whether there's any truth or not to this, particularly as every few years an article is published pointing to increased performance of those studying whilst listening to classical music, so perhaps in sharing experiences we can learn from eachother.

Personally, I often feel that I'm distracted by my own thoughts and distractions so have tended towards studying with music on to cloud them out. This really was a lifeline when writing essays at uni, including reading books and academic journals and note taking, though since then (only a few months down the line) I can't say I remember much of my studies So whilst I know I can study for much longer with background music it's hard to tell whether there was any effect on retention either way. That said, I could never go as far as to have tv on at the same time as my housemate seemed to even when writing out his dissertation.

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say studying political philosophy is a lot different to learning Chinese (albeit sharing alien language, symbols and meanings), so wonder whether because of the nature of thinking about words/sounds/grammar/structure etc would be interrupted by things going on in the background. And the impossible - it would be great to see a graph weighing off the disadvantages of such distractions against the gains of being able to study for longer! Well, I guess that sums up my thoughts - though not having earnestly studied Chinese for long enough under varying conditions can't say how this would work out.

[Shelley]

Hi ya,

My experience has been that studying for an exam is not of much use. I believe if you don't know it the night before the exam you will never know it. Revision is a different thing, I revise all the time. Go back and redo exersises, re read texts etc. Wether you do it with music or tv or train noises in the background, doesn't make a lot of difference. There is a school of thought that the conditions you learn it in is the conditions you will best remeber it in, so as there is no noises in the exam you may find recollections harder. This is the only (and quite unproved reason) for learning in the quiet. I think it is a very personal thing. If I wanted quiet when I studied I would never get any done, because of the busy household I live in.

Study well:)

Shelley

[Silent]

I guess it's pretty much personal and a matter of habits. If you tend to have background noise all the time the lack of it may be distracting. In my experience it also depends a lot on the mood and what/how you study.

A clear benefit of music is that continuous noise tends to be filtered out by the brain. So the music, if it's consistent enough, is filtered out. At the same time the music smothers discontinuous background noise that otherwise might be disturbing.

[edelweis]

This may be totally irrelevant, but I recently stumbled on a collection of cat purr sound files.

I listened to them and thought that it is more disturbing but more pleasant and relaxing than white noise, and it could be useful when the neighbours make noise when I want to study. (I've not actually tried it...)

(Adrian, Big Boy, Bowie, Chicken, Maja and Trip are my favourites)

too bad my flat is too small to get a live purr device

[Guest realmayo]

I read something that tested two groups of people who had to study stuff over a period of several days and were then tested. One group studied in the same place each day, the other group mixed it up. The second group did better in the test.

[Gymnosopher]

Thanks for all your replies, I find them all pretty interesting.

My experience has been that studying for an exam is not of much use. I believe if you don't know it the night before the exam you will never know it.

This is an interesting approach and actually seems to match that of my girlfriend - when she was younger her grandmother would have her do her homework straight away after which would kick her out of the house to go and play and not let her do any last minute cramming. Consequently she went into Chinese-English interpreting and even when doing her masters didn't feel like revising for exams was for her so for language acquisition there's no doubt that the sooner you learn the better (however when studying an arts subject that covers 15-20 topics and wants you to pick out 3-6 to know back-to-front the structure of learning is very different).

Of course, most of us interested in learning a language are looking past the exams to real goals of improving ability. It's one thing wanting to get all your A(*) grades at school to show that you're diligent, hard-working, studious etc and another to develop something into an ability/skill.

There is a school of thought that the conditions you learn it in is the conditions you will best remeber it in, so as there is no noises in the exam you may find recollections harder.

This could lead to the bizarre conclusion that if you study with music your recollection would be best in a club or at a concert! And I pity the person who's language is best whilst others are watching TV, what a nuisance...

Well, here's hoping there's not that to it.

I was thinking more along the lines of retention after study being a taken/constant/output which is affected by the variables of study conditions. So retention is X, with music is 0.8X, with TV is 0.6X though if you can go for longer would be more like 0.8(X*M) and 0.6(X*T) etc.

I guess it's pretty much personal and a matter of habits.

True, we're always told there are people who are visual/audial/etc learners whilst we're all specialists in different fields that perhaps are a combination of what compliments our methods, habits and interests.

I listened to them and thought that it is more disturbing but more pleasant and relaxing than white noise, and it could be useful when the neighbours make noise when I want to study.

Creepy Interesting suggestion edelweis, at one point I was considering/trying to work with different sorts of white noise as some people seem to swear by it though think in the end even though background constant background noise is a step up on nothing music was top dog for me. Shelly did say train noises above, strangely for me it was the hum of a fan or something similar opposed to white/colour noise (which reminds me of a site I used before called Simply Noise) - whilst others use it to sleep.

I read something that tested two groups of people who had to study stuff over a period of several days and were then tested. One group studied in the same place each day, the other group mixed it up. The second group did better in the test.

Mixing things up would seem beneficial from a logical point of view, though it is far to easy to find a place you're comfortable in isn't it? Be it your bedroom, library or local coffee shop - even if you used those said 3 it'd still be pretty hard to mix it up more. So a question of logistics hmm...