The four experiments were based around the workers completing certain tasks in a specified amount of time, with different styles of music being played in the background. Their findings suggested that music can improve efficiency in repetitive tasks. They also concluded that any music that is played should be "lively and upbeat-, and the length and scheduling of the music is important. That is that some of the experiments involved the music being played in intervals rather than continuously. This gave results that suggested that this was the best way to improve the efficiency.
The principle that music can be a means to help employees concentrate, or be a distraction can be applied to students and schoolwork. The way in which a student chooses to work could determine how well they do in school. Research has been done on students regarding this principle. In 1988 Martin found that subjects' test scores increased slightly in the presence of instrumental background music than with lyrical music or no music. Kiger did a similar study in 1989. He found that students scored highest on comprehension exams with low information load music (soft with a slow tempo, repetitive rhythm, and no lyrics) than with high information load music (non-repetitive, quick, upbeat lyrics) or no music. This is contradictory to Fox and Embrey's findings in 1972. They concluded that the music should be "lively and upbeat-. There are many factors that this difference in opinion could be due to. It could be due to the different periods of time, nearly 20 years apart, or maybe it is due to the age gap between the students and the workers, or maybe it is simply because different people like different types of music.
Some jobs are very repetitive and monotonous, such as entering data into a database spreadsheet or typing up a long document. These jobs require a little "spice- to keep the employees sane'! This spice could be whistling or tapping out a rhythm with their feet.
