Background:
Building on earlier studies investigating music therapy amongst individuals in the workplace, who were individuals more advanced in age, this research seeks to further examine the potential effect of music therapy on individuals who are younger and are students.

Aims:
Considering that previous research has linked the effectiveness of music in aiding learning, and has considered the use of Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music (CDIM) (Bonakdarpour et al., 2023) in a clinical trial, our research question will ask if Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music (CDIM) will have an effect in learning outcomes and stress in postgraduate students.

Methods and Results:
This research was carried out at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University with 32 post-graduate students (average age ± SD = 27.8 ± 5.6 years), where we exposed the treatment group which took the comprehension, retention, and transfer tests while CDIM was playing in the background and the control group took the comprehension, retention, and transfer tests in silence (Lehmann et al., 2016). Post-CDIM surveys (Bonakdarpour et al., 2023) containing questions that measure their emotional state, tension, restlessness, and pleasure on a Likert’s scale of 1-10, were presented to the participants to measure their stress level before taking the test and after.
No significant differences were observed in total perceived stress levels and total learning outcomes across the treatment and control group. Further analyses revealed that even though there was no effect in the comprehension and transfer test, the treatment showed a significant effect in the recall test for learning outcomes (W = 247, P = 0.02), and in the emotional state for perceived stress level (W= 268, P = 0.02). In addition, a paired t-test showed a significant increase in tension levels (t(29)= 2.26, p = 0.038) from before the intervention (M = 3.9, SD = 1.7) to after the intervention (M = 4.9, SD = 1.7).

Discussions and Conclusion:
Contrary to our expectations, the results indicate that clinically designed improvisatory music (CDIM) does not evidently have an effect on learning outcomes and stress. However, due to the small sample size, future exploration is necessary to enhance the statistical power of the results of the study.

Limitations of the study:
Self-reported stress measures from our participants are a potential limitation. In interventional and longitudinal research, this constraint might be addressed by merging self-reported and biophysical stress level data (e.g., Asikainen & Katajavuori, 2021). In addition, the sample size was small, and our participants were in the examination phase of the semester, this could have confounded their performance. Increasing the statistical representativeness of sample sizes would enhance the generalizability of the results.

References:
[1] Bonakdarpour, B., Zhou, G., Huang, D., Vidano, C. T., Schuele, S., Zelano, C., & Takarabe, C. (2023) Calming effect of Clinically Designed Improvisatory Music for patients admitted to the epilepsy monitoring unit during the COVID-19 pandemic: a pilot study. Front. Neurol. 14:1206171. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1206171
[2] Lehmann, J., Goussios, C., & Seufert, T. (2016). Working memory capacity and disfluency effect: an aptitude-treatment-interaction study. Metacognition and Learning, 11, 89-105.

Keywords: Music, Stress, Learning.