Research completed by Scott and colleagues confirms that listening to music while doing mental work may not be a good idea. The investigators collected data from “three studies: a pilot study of 108 employees from a software company who took part in a 2-week . . . study and self-rated their music listening and performance, a laboratory study (Study 1) of 252 undergraduate students in which task attentional focus and objective performance on proofreading tasks were captured across repeated trials while listening to music, and a 3-week experience-sampling methodology study (Study 2) of 247 employees that included a within-person manipulation of music listening (little to no music vs. 1 hr longer than usual vs. 3 hr longer than usual), daily self-ratings of task attentional focus and task performance, and weekly coworker ratings of task performance. . . . Time spent listening to music exhibited an inverted, U-shaped relationship with self-rated (pilot study) and objective (Study 1) task performance.” So, time spent listening to music at lower amounts increased and then, with more listening, decreased, self-rated and objectively measured task performance.
Brent Scott, Nikhil Awasty, Shugi Li, Donald Conlon, Russel Johnson, Clay Voorhees, and Liana Passantino. “Too Much of a Good Thing? A Multilevel Examination of Listening to Music at Work.” Journal of Applied Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001222