The Effectiveness of Fast- vs. Slow-Tempo Music on Students’ Cognitive Performance: A Within-Subject Experimental Design

Abstract

This study examined the effects of music tempo on students’ cognitive performance under three conditions: fast-tempo, slow-tempo, and no-music. Despite widespread use of music during studying, it remains empirically unclear whether and how music tempo differentially affects cognitive performance among junior high school students in Indonesia. A quantitative approach with a within-subject repeated measures experimental design was employed, involving 34 ninth-grade students from a junior high school in Indonesia. Each participant completed mathematical problem-solving tasks under three controlled conditions: fast-tempo instrumental music (120–190 BPM), slow-tempo instrumental music (60–80 BPM), and silence. Cognitive performance was measured using accuracy scores and subjective cognitive load assessed through the NASA-TLX. Data were analyzed using Repeated Measures ANOVA and validated with the Friedman test due to partial violations of normality assumptions. The results indicated that the fast-tempo condition produced the highest mean accuracy , followed by no music  and slow-tempo music . However, the differences were not statistically significant, , although a moderate effect size  suggested practical relevance. Pairwise comparisons revealed a consistent trend favoring fast-tempo music over slow-tempo and no-music conditions. Notably, NASA-TLX scores indicated that the fast-tempo condition produced significantly lower perceived cognitive load (M = 50.07) compared to slow-tempo (M = 61.59), χ²(2) = 13.41, p = .001, suggesting that fast-tempo music reduced subjective mental effort even when accuracy gains were not statistically significant. These findings support the theoretical perspectives of Cognitive Load Theory and arousal-mood theory, indicating that optimal levels of auditory stimulation may enhance cognitive processing efficiency. The results highlight the practical relevance of fast-tempo music in academic settings and underscore the need for further research with larger samples and physiological measures