3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The impact of music on the academic performance of undergraduate students(2018) Rajab, PakeezahListening to music is a universal activity and with technological advances, more individuals are able to listen to their personal choice of music on their cellphones, MP3 players and iPods. Given that the brain has been shown to have limited capacity to process information, this study aimed to investigate how listening to music may affect the academic performance of undergraduate students when they are simultaneously studying or engaging in other academic activities. The study consisted of two parts; first, a survey was sent out to undergraduates currently registered at a South African university to gauge their current music usage behaviours, of which 197 undergraduates’ complete responses were used. Following completion of the survey, these students were then invited to participate in a within-subject experiment to investigate whether different sound conditions affected their performance on working memory span assessments. The experimental responses of 35 participants were used to conduct a one-way repeated measures ANOVA, which indicated that although there is no significant difference in working memory performance between White Noise and Beethoven sound conditions, students’ performance decreased significantly when they listened to the music of their choice. Whether or not students had been studying with music for many years did not have a significant impact on their performance on the corresponding working memory assessment. These findings indicate that working memory capacity may be overloaded when listening to one’s own choice of music, which may affect how information is encoded when studying and completing other academic activities. Results further suggest that students can identify whether they are getting distracted by music, but this perception does not prevent them from listening to music, which could later affect how the studied information is recalled, thus having a negative impact on one’s academic performance.Item Reimagining the city, rewriting narratives: music, suburban youths, and inner city redevelopment in Johannesburg, circa 2015(2016) Mullins, AmandaThis research explores the influence that inner city redevelopment in Johannesburg has had on both its music scenes and the identities of those participating in the music scenes, particularly young participants from Johannesburg’s suburbs who did not interact with the city before its redevelopment. Understanding the city’s history as well as the current lived and imagined divides between its suburbs and inner city illuminates its fragmented nature and informs the significance of the presence of suburban youths in today’s inner city music scenes. Personal and collective narratives gathered from participants of these inner city music scenes provide insight into the city’s spatial, social, and musical transitions, adding subjective voices to the city’s complex and ever-evolving history. The use of culture-led regeneration (within cultural clusters), as a model of redevelopment, has aided in the success of attracting new audiences to the inner city once eschewed by suburbanites, providing grounds for new experiences and interactions within an increasingly diverse social sphere. Due to this, the music’s diversity within these spaces is expanding too. The role of music – and in particular, alternative music – in enticing suburban youths to the inner city requires an understanding of why ‘alternative’ (or arguably, creative) people are often drawn to urban spaces, and in doing so, often become main contributors to the accomplishments and successes of redevelopment initiatives. Examining social interactions and relationships within the inner city, in comparison to those in suburban Johannesburg, exposes a unique and highly valued manner of communal bonding amongst participants that is often tied to involvement in similar music scenes. The experience of the inner city, the experience of music in the inner city, and the experience of a community of like-minded people within the inner city all combine to create new discourses about Johannesburg, as well as impacting on the identities and experiences of those contributing to these discourses. Transforming city. Transforming music. Transforming people.