The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds
A new study published in Psychology of Music tried to cut through that debate by asking what university students actually do when they sit down to read, and whether anything about their personality or mental makeup predicts whether music helps or hurts. The answers were more personal than a simple thumbs up or thumbs down.
Among students who said they listen while reading for school, a large proportion rated the music as very helpful or extremely helpful. But the study authors are careful to note that feeling helped and actually performing better are two different things. No participant had their reading comprehension tested directly. This was a survey of self-reported habits and perceptions, not objective learning outcomes.
That gap between perception and performance matters. Students who love music may genuinely benefit from it, or they may enjoy studying more and mistake that enjoyment for better understanding. Future research would need to test whether perceived benefits actually show up in comprehension scores.
The near-even split between listeners and avoiders, combined with the finding that musical identity, more than working memory or attention span, was linked to the choice, suggests that blanket advice to either always or never study with music misses the point.
Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.com/what-science-says-studying-music/