This study investigated the effect of music on subject’s performance on a concurrent task. Five types of music (based on arousal level) were used. Subjects completed 5 rounds of Tetris each with a different type of music selected at random. The subject’s familiarity and activation levels were measured and the results were analyzed to determine any correlation to reaction/movement times and task performance. Results indicated a strong correlation between familiarity and arousal level of the music to task performance with a high familiarity and arousal leading to low performance. There was little correlation between familiarity and reaction/movement times, but a moderately high correlation to the arousal level.
