Listening to music while reading
It seems to be a benign prerogative for the Gen-Z and millenials, especially the Gen-Z to listen to music while studying. This is not so benign as there is only so much attention our brain can expend, according to some studies. But “you gotta do what you gotta do”, right? So, here are some things I’ve learnt through practical experience that minimize the distraction. This, I must say, is retrospective knowledge recall I had while reading this post. I read an interesting line from this post, that the knowledge recall is at its highest when you recall in the same conditions that you acquired it. This is Hebbian learning. The brain increases the connection strength among neurons based on how often they fire together, as exemplified by the famous quote – neurons that fire together, wire together.
Here are some of my brain cells on this matter:
- Listen to music that doesn’t contain words – it reduces the cognitive load.
- Listen to music you are familiar with – that way new connections need not be formed.
- Listen to music not in the language you are not familiar with – can’t learn it if you can’t understand it.
These are my three hastily compiled rules. But you gotta do what you gotta do!
Perhaps, this is why your mind feels peaceful and serene when surrounded by nature, as its ambient noise is where your brain is fully firing and introspective, as the ambient world is the natural rhythm of the brain. I am just guessing here.