Student Presenter(s): Irham Saeed, Kaitlyn Broderick, Deborah Benitez, Serena Onbasi, and Serra Issi
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Calma-Rodin
School/College: Arts and Sciences, Old Westbury

For this experiment, we are looking to see if there is an effect of music on undergraduate students’ ability to memorize their class material. Music has always been part of many students’ studying routines and our study will help support the claim that music plays a positive role in academics. In 2016, a three-part study on grade-level students by Crowther, McFadden, Fleming, and Davis concluded that educational music videos improved knowledge of covered materials, made education more enjoyable, and improved long-term recall of the material. We plan to separate two statistics classes and expose one to a song about hypothesis testing. The song is to the rhythm of a popular song, specifically ‘Flowers,’ by Miley Cyrus. To quantify the results, two quick assessments will be conducted. We will be measuring whether music truly helps increase memory retrieval for Statistics concepts. Our hypothesis is that college students who memorize their course material using music will perform better on the assessment than those who do not use music. If music improves recall, this can influence future teaching techniques, using songs as a resource for better memory.