A study that tests the effects on music on a task involving listening or speaking is not obviously relevant to tasks that do not involve your auditory pathways.
Also, [always distracting to the majority] does not equal [always distracting to everyone].
There is limited evidence that listening to music can help some people with ADHD maintain focus (something that I have personally found to be the case in non-academic situations). Reference.
My personal experience is that on task in which I am distractible because I am bored or under-engaged, music helps keep my ‘squirrel!’ circuit from firing.
Actually, I think when I said “always distracting” I was thinking about myself. I’m pretty much in front of a computer during my entire waking hours, so always involved with text. I agree that it doesn’t have to be distracting for other kinds of activities like manual work.
With the ADHD study, I wonder if that might work by the music actually distracting them, but not by as much as other things would distract them without the music. Of course even if this is the case, the study would still show that it is helpful for them.
Why cold turkey on music? Instead, maybe it would be better to find music that does not disrupt your concentration.
Also, some people say its better to change one thing at a time.
Gwern seems to have some evidence that music is always distracting.
A study that tests the effects on music on a task involving listening or speaking is not obviously relevant to tasks that do not involve your auditory pathways.
Also, [always distracting to the majority] does not equal [always distracting to everyone].
There is limited evidence that listening to music can help some people with ADHD maintain focus (something that I have personally found to be the case in non-academic situations). Reference.
My personal experience is that on task in which I am distractible because I am bored or under-engaged, music helps keep my ‘squirrel!’ circuit from firing.
Actually, I think when I said “always distracting” I was thinking about myself. I’m pretty much in front of a computer during my entire waking hours, so always involved with text. I agree that it doesn’t have to be distracting for other kinds of activities like manual work.
With the ADHD study, I wonder if that might work by the music actually distracting them, but not by as much as other things would distract them without the music. Of course even if this is the case, the study would still show that it is helpful for them.