Hacking our senses to boost learning power
Some schools are pumping music, noises and pleasant smells into the classroom to see if it improves exam results. Could it work? Why do songs stick in our heads? What does your school smell like? Is it noisy or peaceful?
It might not seem important, but a growing body of research suggests that smells and sounds can have an impact on learning, performance and creativity. Indeed, some head teachers have recently taken to broadcasting noises and pumping smells into their schools to see whether it can boost grades. Is there anything in it? And if so, what are the implications for the way we work and study?
There is certainly some well-established research to suggest that some noises can have a harmful effect on learning. Numerous studies over the past 15 years have found that children attending schools under the flight paths of large airports fall behind in their exam results. Bridget Shield, a professor of acoustics (声学) at London South Bank University, and Julie Dockrell, from the Institute of Education, have been conducting studies on the effects of all sorts of noises, such as traffic and sirens (汽笛), as well as noise generated by the children themselves. When they recreated those particular sounds in an experimental setting while children completed various learning tasks, they found a significant negative effect on exam scores. “Everything points to a bad impact of the noise on children’s performance, in numeracy, in literacy, and in spelling,” says Shield. The noise seemed to have an especially harmful effect on children with special needs.
Whether background sounds are beneficial or not seems to depend on what kind of noise it is — and the volume. In a series of studies published last year, Ravi Mehta from the College of Business at Illinois and his colleagues tested people’s creativity while exposed to a soundtrack made up of background noises — such as coffee-shop chatter and construction-site drilling — at different volumes. They found that people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level than when volume was low. Loud background noise, however, damaged their creativity.
Many teachers all over the world already play music to students in class. Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in later tasks, the so-called Mozart effect. While the evidence actually suggests it’s hard to say classical music boosts brainpower, researchers do think pleasant sounds before a task can sometimes lift your mood and help you perform well, says Perham, who has done his own studies on the phenomenon. The key appears to be that you enjoy what you’re hearing. “If you like the music or you like the sound — even listening to a Stephen King novel — then you do better. It doesn’t matter about the music,” he says.
So, it seems that schools that choose to prevent disturbing noises and create positive soundscapes could enhance the learning of their students, so long as they make careful choices. Yet this isn’t the only sense being used to affect learning. Special educational needs students at Sydenham high school in London are being encouraged to revise different subjects in the presence of different smells — grapefruit scents for maths, lavender for French and spearmint for history.
The four questions in the first paragraph are meant to ________.

A．create some sense of humour to please the readers

B．provide the most frequently asked questions in schools nowadays

C．hold the readers’ attention and arouse their curiosity to go on reading

D．declare the purpose of the article: to try to offer key to those questions

What does the conclusion of the studies of noise conducted by Bridget Shield and Julie Dockrell suggest?

A．Peaceful music plays an active role in students’ learning.

B．Not all noises have a negative impact on children’s performance.

C．We should create for school children a more peaceful environment.

D．Children with special needs might be exposed to some particular sounds.

Ravi Mehta’s experiment indicates that ________.

A．students’ creativity improves in a quiet environment

B．we may play some Mozart music while students are learning

C．a proper volume of background noises does improve creativity

D．noise of coffee-shop chatter is better than that of construction-site drilling

Towards the positive impact of appropriate background sound and smell on students’ learning and creativity, the author’s attitude is ________.

A．ambiguous

B．doubtful

C．negative

D．supportive

Which of the following is most likely to follow up the research findings?

A．Experts’ research into other senses that can improve students’ grades.

B．More successful examples of boosting learning power by using music.

C．Suggestions for pumping lots of pleasant smells into school campuses.

D．Debates on whether noises can really have positive effect on students’ performance.