Do your students claim that they can concentrate better while listening to music? Dare tell them otherwise. Perham‘s 2010 study, Can preference for background music mediate the irrelevant sound effect?, shows how music can interfere with short-term memory performance. Perham says. “If you can understand the lyrics, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not, it will impair your performance of reading comprehension.” Read more: Don’t listen to music while studying