... auditory distraction interferes with reading comprehension. The aim of Fendrick's experiment (1937), for instance, was to measure the difference in reading efficiency when college students were asked to study a selected assignment in the classroom with and without distraction by radio music. Fendrick used the matched subject design: the two experimental groups being equated with respect to chronological age and average scores on a test of intelligence. One hundred and twenty-two participants were given 30 min. to study a 12-page mimeographed chapter from a psychology textbook. While the control group worked under quiet conditions, music from phonograph records (semi classical) was used as distractor for the experimental group. Subsequently, they were given 15 min. to complete a 60-item true-false test on the contents of the chapter, they were also asked to indicate the number of pages they had read. Sixty-one students formed the control group and sixty-students composed the ...

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