Exploring the Impact of Emotional Congruence in Music on Memory Recall of University Students: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Aims: This study examined the conditions under which music influences memory recall, focusing on the effects of emotionally congruent music, emotionally incongruent music, and the absence of music on memory performance. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at a private university in Digos City. Data collection took place during the latter half of the 2024 academic semester to enhance the accuracy and reliability of the findings, as participants were expected to engage with minimal academic distractions. Methodology: The research design is a true experimental between-group research design involving random assignment to ensure high internal validity. 45 participants were randomly assigned during the experiment. Results: This study aimed to determine whether music and emotional congruence significantly affect memory recall. The Kruskal-Wallis test, a non-parametric alternative to one-way ANOVA, was employed to analyze the data. The chi-squared statistic χ² = 3.76, with df = 2, assesses differences in memory recall across three conditions: Emotionally Congruent, Emotionally Incongruent, and No Music. The effect size was calculated as ε = 0.0854, indicating that approximately 8.54% of the variance in memory recall was attributed to the emotional congruence of the music. However, the small effect size suggests these differences have limited practical significance. Additionally, with a p-value of 0.153 (p > 0.05), the results demonstrate no statistically significant effect of music and emotional congruence on memory recall. Conclusion: This study has several limitations that may affect the significance of its findings, such as participants' emotional states, past experiences, and environmental factors like lighting, temperature, or noise. To address these issues, future research should consider using a standardized setting, ensuring consistent participant preparation, and including more similar characteristics between groups to enhance internal validity. The study will be replicated with stricter controls to validate further and improve the findings, and external variables will be examined more closely. Additionally, while the experimental design provides valuable insights, its conclusions may be less generalizable. Future studies could adopt correlational designs to expand and complement these findings.