This study examined the impact of background media on students' performance and time spent on two types of homework assignments: paper-and-pencil and memorization assignments. Eighth-grade students (N = 160) did the assignments with either (a) a soap opera, (b) music videos, (c) radio music, or (d) no medium in the background. Results indicated that doing homework combined with watching a soap opera interfered with students' performance on both types of assignments. However, irrespective of the medium employed, music in the background left homework performance unaffected. There was no indication that background media influenced the amount of time spent to complete homework assignments.
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Pool et al. (2003) studied this question.
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