Running head: BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
1
Discussion
The study was focused at establishing the improvement of cognitive abilities when the
participants listened to binaural beats. Therefore, the discussion is based on the three findings
above regarding the improvement scores as measured, analyzed and presented in the results
section
The results showed no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test as
measure using the t-test. This shows that the cognitive abilities in pre-test did not change
significantly after the binaural beats were administered to the participants and a post-test done.
To check for the improvement, the differences between the pre-test and post-test improvement
scores were subjected to one-way ANOVA. The finding from the analysis showed that there was
no significant improvement. Thus, the study showed that binaural beats do not improve cognitive
abilities.
According to the results, the effects of binaural beats on the cognitive abilities are the
same regardless of the type of beats used on the participant. This can be deduced from the
finding that there was no difference in performance across all the four conditions (alpha, beta,
gamma, and control) after the one-way ANOVA was conducted.
The independent-samples t-test showed no gender difference on the improvement scores.
This means that the effects of the binaural beats on cognitive abilities are not gender dependent.
Thus, males and females would be expected to have similar improvement in cognitive abilities
when subjected to the binaural beats.
Thus, the researcher found that binaural beats did not improve the cognitive abilities of
the participants. However, this finding may not apply to anxiety, creativity, mindfulness, and
Running head: BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
2
depression which had been shown to improve in previous studies (citations) but were not
considered in this study.
Theoretically, binaural beats are expected to stimulate certain neural patterns in specific
areas of the brain that perceive auditory stimuli. On this background, the investigator had
expected that the binaural beats would improve cognitive abilities in the nine participants in this
study. This is because the previous studies on the same had shown improvement of cognitive
abilities when binaural beats were administered. For instance, as cited in the literature review,
previous studies had shown binaural beats increased attention in children, teens and adults with
ADHD (Chaieb et al., 2015). Also, binaural beats had been shown to improve memory and
concentration on subjects in previous studies (Kennel et al., 2010). Thus, the researcher had
expected to have similar results in this study. However, the findings showed that binaural beats
did not improve cognitive function and improvement scores subjected to t-tests showed no
significant improvement in the cognitive abilities. This finding could be due to environmental
factors that affect the participants’ perception of binaural beats and other internal validity and
external validity issues that affected the study. Also, it could be because the binaural beats do not
actually improve cognitive abilities and the study findings are accurate.
The researcher had expected significant differences in improvement of scores across the
four frequencies of binaural beats (alpha, beta, gamma, and control). Previous studies had shown
that beta waves increased vigilance and attention while alpha waves binaural beats had been
shown to increase divergent thinking (citation). The results however showed no significant
differences when different waves (alpha, beta, and gamma) of binaural beats were used. This
finding may be because the study focused on cognitive abilities while the findings in previous
studies had used other variables (divergent thinking, memory, and mood) to establish the
Running head: BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
3
differences in improvement scores as determined by the type of waves used in the binaural beats
(Chaieb et al., 2015; Fink et al., 2006, 2009). Again, the difference in improvement scores due to
the beta, gamma and alpha waves was not objectively evaluated in this study and could have let
to the above finding when the scores were subjected to one-way ANOVA.
According to Chaieb et al. (2015), the menstrual cycle affects auditory perception in
females. Thus, the investigator expected the study findings to show gender difference in the
improvement scores. However, the gender difference in improvement scores was not apparent in
this study. This could be due to the fact that the sample used was inadequate to show statistically
significant difference in improvement scores between males and females.
There were some limitations that affected the study. The recruitment of the participants
was difficult and affected the study. For instance, the study had only nine participants aged
between 18-64 years who were students recruited from Northeastern Illinois University.
However, the investigator had expected to have a sample size of at least 38 participants in the
study. Thus, the sample size was inadequate to meet the study objective and to confidently
generalize the findings to the population from which the study sample was drawn. In addition,
selecting participants from the same context was a threat to the internal validity of this study. In
addition to using a random selection method, similar studies in future should have adequate
sample size drawn from different places at different times to increase the accuracy of the results
and improve external validity.
Maturation of the participants may have affected the internal validity due to physical and
psychological changes between the young and the elderly participants in the study. This is
because auditory perception changes with age. Thus, there may have been inconsistencies in the
data collected due to perception differences between the participants.
Running head: BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
4
Another internal validity factor that affected the study was the testing. The participants
gained experience with the pre-test and became test-wise. This is because the pre-test and posttest every time the participant listened to binaural beats for seven minutes. This affected the
scores in the pre-test and consequently, had an impact on the difference between improvement
scores between pre-test and the post-test.
The time allocated for the research was limited. The study was conducted in one and half
weeks which was a short time to allow the investigator adequate time to recruit the participants
to meet the desired sample size, collect data and administer the different waves of binaural beats.
Due to inadequate time allocated for the research, the amount of data collected was also limited.
In addition, the researcher used a questionnaire that was physically administered to the
participants. Thus, more time was required to administer and collect the questionnaire, enter the
data into a data-base, verify the data, clean the raw-data files, and subject the data collected to
analysis. Adequate time should be allocated in future studies to overcome the challenges caused
by limited study time.
Lastly, financial constraints were experienced during the study. The investigators desired
to have adequate materials such as headphones and laptop for each participant in the study. Thus,
adequate funding is required in future studies to enable the investigators have enough materials
for a larger study sample.
The study findings challenge the previous findings that binaural beats can be used as a
therapeutic intervention for people with cognitive and mental issues such as ADHD, memory and
mood disorders. Since the findings in this study not significant improvements scores in cognitive
abilities, the researcher would not recommend the application of binaural beats as a therapeutic
Running head: BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
intervention. The researcher would recommend further research on effect of binaural beats on
cognitive functions using a larger sample size and conduct the study for a longer duration.
5
Running head: BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
Binaural Beats Stimuli Increases Cognitive Abilities
Olimpia Zaczynska
Northeastern Illinois University
1
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
2
Abstract
In this study, binaural beats will be investigated on cognitive abilities limit with different waves
for binaural beats used (alpha, beta, gamma,). The study declared that binaural beats could bring
a human into a condition of unwinding, expanded concentration, and even have positive effects
on the memory. The participants for this study included registered students at Northeastern
Illinois University the ages between of 18-64. Materials used for the study are headphones,
demographic questionnaire along with pretest and posttest questionnaires.
The participants were asked to sign the informed consent form and be given a pretest
questionnaire that assesses their initial levels of mindfulness, anxiety, creativity, and cognitive
ability. The participant listened 7 minutes of binaural beats at either alpha, beta, or gamma
frequencies. Each of the participants received one of the following stimulus (Alpha, Beta,
Gamma, and control). Alpha waves used for 3 participants, Beta, Gamma and Control used for 2
participants only. An independent-samples t-test was analyzed to test for gender differences on
improvement scores. There was no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test as
measure using the t-test.
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
3
Binaural Beats Stimuli Increases Cognitive Abilities
Heinrich Wilhelma Dove discovered binaural beats almost 200 years ago. In this study,
binaural beats will be investigated on working memory limit (WMC). Different waves for
binaural beats were used (alpha, beta, gamma, delta). However, alpha ranges revealed large
connected with numerous psychological capacities alongside working memory change. Mostly,
the mind movement inside alpha, beta (7.5 - 12.5 Hz in grownups) has been related to
carefulness, inhibitory procedures, consideration, working memory, perceptual capacities and
data handling speed. Additionally, some other authors suggested that the alpha range directly
affects memory size and brain limits by being more able to flirting important and not important
information (Klimesch et al., 2007; Tuladhar et al., 2007).
According to Chaieb et.al. (2015), there are significant effects on the mind by binaural
beats. This study declared that binaural beats could bring a human into a condition of unwinding,
expanded concentration, and even have positive effects on the memory. One of the experiments
had participant listen to binaural beats for 15 minutes twice per day for 15 days. This resulted in
significant differences in how many words the participant recalled by using Wechsler III
Memory Scale. In a pilot study, Kennel et al. (2010), explored the potential utilize binaural beats
over attention, the results showed increased attention in children and young adults, teens with
ADHD performed better and were less distracted based on the experiment. Participants
announced subjectively encountering fewer issues related with distractedness amid the review
period. Kraus & Porubanova (2015) proposed that particular brain wave motions join cognitive
abilities
Additionally, Le Scouarnec et al., (2001) conducted a pilot study with binaural beats delta
waves where beats examined the participant’s level of concern/doubt. The report revealed that
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
4
patients recorded a diminishment in tension appraisals and expansion in the number of times that
the patients tuned into the recordings. Furthermore, in later study Chaieb et al., (ibid.) measured
participants' concerns while decision making using delta frequency for 30 min daily over 60
days, the result provided a decrease in concern level.
Another aspect of cognitive abilities is vigilance. Vigilance is the capacity to keep up the
center of consideration and to stay alarmed to jolts over delayed timeframes. The experiment
which applied theta (7Hz) and beta (16Hz) frequencies to measure participant’s
awareness/vigilance, showed that by using beta frequencies range difference in a mood which is
considered as vigilance is observed. Vigilance depends on stimulus length and what
improvements in cognition want to be noted (Chaieb et al., 2015).
According to Reedijk et al., (2013) binaural beats were measured on creativity/divergent
thinking. There is significant evidence that divergent thinking is affected by binaural beats while
on the other hand, convergent thinking is not effected. Secondly, alpha and gamma frequencies
did not differ when used to check divergent and convergent thinking. Another study took into
account divergent thinking that it is related with alpha frequency synchronization (Fink et al.,
2006, 2009). It could in this way be contemplated that initiating a condition of lower cortical
excitement by giving individuals alpha wave binaural beats briefly expands their execution on a
diverges thinking assignments.
A different approach was presented by Lane et al., (1998) to investigate why binaural
beat effect mood and attention. During the study, participants filled out questionnaires to
measure their mood and attention before the experiment. Lane et al., (ibid.) discovered that
participants were able to be more focus and detect particular targets while listening binaural
beats in the beta frequencies at the same time. While delta and theta waves affect human
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
5
conscious, however, they produce false alarms. Additionally, there is a significant increase in
perplexity and exhaustion while participants are stimulated by delta or theta compared to beta.
This study supports the notion that binaural beats enhance cognitive abilities.
Based on the assumption that binaural beats influence cognition through neural
synchronization, it is conceivable that the waves of the beat matters. For example, short-run
correspondence inside brain territories is frequently connected with neural synchronization in the
gamma wave, while long-extend correspondence is related with neuronal stage securing in the
slower recurrence groups (Schnitzler & Gross, 2005). Many variables have an effect on the
viability of beat incitement, including time of each stimulation. Different waves play an
important part as well the environment and background that the participant is stimulated which
can open or close beat perception (Chaieb et al., 2015).
In conclusion, it is evident that binaural beats do have a strong relation with the working
memory. The beats have the potential to make the human brain unwind as well as increase the
concentration. The beta and theta type of binaural beats are directly proportional to the vigilance
of the human brain. The alpha type of beats are also directly related to divergent thinking and
increasing the beats increases the divergent thinking capacity of an individual. However, it is
important to observe that the binaural beats have a negative impact on the human brain in the
sense that they produce false alarms. The aim for the study is investigate how binaural beats in
different frequencies (alpha, beta, and gamma) affect human cognitive abilities (attention,
reading, thinking, memory). The researcher can predict that each of binaural beats frequencies
improves human cognition by stimulation by binaural beats. The improvement may be different
based on different waves.
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
6
Participants
Participants included for this study were registered students at Northeastern Illinois University
the ages between of 18-64. Data collected for study came from 9 participants (Female and Male).
The participants were recruited through the SONA system.
Materials
Materials used for the study included a demographic questionnaire (5 sections)
along with pretest and posttest questionnaires. Headphones provided by the researchers for
participants to listen to the binaural beats and sanitized by alcohol pads before each participant.
To access binaural beats one laptop for each participants was used. Binaural beats were coming
from four different files created for purpose of the study (alpha, beta, gamma,) frequencies.
Procedure
Participants entered the study site, and were greeted. The researcher(s) provided the
participants with a brief description of what the study will entail. Once briefed, the participants
were asked to sign the informed consent form and be given a pretest questionnaire that assesses
their initial levels of mindfulness, anxiety, creativity, and cognitive ability. The researcher then
sanitized a pair of headphones and gave them to the participant to place over their ears. The
participant listened 7 minutes of binaural beats at either alpha, beta, or gamma frequencies. A
fourth condition was serve as the control. After 7 minutes of listening, participants received a
posttest questionnaire assessing their levels of mindfulness, creativity, cognitive ability, and
anxiety. After completion of the questionnaire participants were debriefed and thanked for
participating in the study.
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
7
Results
The study measured cognitive abilities affected by binaural beats in three different
frequencies. The data were collected based on 9 participants that participated in the study. Each
of the participants received one of the following stimulus (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and control).
Alpha waves used for 3 participants, Beta, Gamma and Control used for 2 participants only. The
participants, mostly were African Americans, Hispanic, and Caucasian ethnicity. The ethnicity
was no associated with the participant variables based on collected data.
An independent-samples t-test was analyzed to test for gender differences on
improvement scores. The results were not significant, t(7) = .21, p = .837. There were no
differences on improvement scores between men (M = 0.00, SD = 0.00) and women (M = 0.14,
SD = 0.90).
Performance on the cognitive task was measured by how many items were correct on the
cognitive task in both pre-post testing conditions. A dependent-samples t-test was conducted to
test for differences between pre-test and post-test scores on the cognitive task. The results were
not significant, t(8) = .43, p = .681. There were no differences on performance between the pretest (M = 6.89, SD = 1.54) and post-test scores (M = 7.00, SD = 1.50).
Improvement scores were calculated by subtracting pre-test scores from post-test scores.
A one-way between-participants analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test for
differences on improvement scores across the four conditions (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and
control). The results were not significant, F(3, 5) = 1.59, p = .302. There were no differences in
performance across all four conditions: for Alpha M = 0.00, SD = .00, for Beta M = 0.00, SD =
0.00, for Gamma M = -0.50, SD = 0.70, and for control condition M = 1.00, SD = 1.41).
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
8
Discussion
The study was not able to establish the effects of the binaural beats of creativity,
mindfulness, depression and the level of anxiety. This is because the researcher did not have the
tools and measures to objectively evaluate the effects of binaural beats on these variables.
Therefore, the findings discussed here are based on the cognitive abilities (attention, reading,
thinking, memory).
The results, it was found that there was no significant difference between the pre-test and
post-test as measure using the t-test. This shows that the cognitive abilities in pre-test did not
change significantly after the binaural beats were administered to the participants and a post-test
done. To check for the improvement, the differences between the pre-test and post-test
improvement scores were subjected to one-way ANOVA. The finding from the analysis showed
that there was no significant improvement. Thus, the study showed that binaural beats do not
improve cognitive abilities.
According to the results, the effects of binaural beats on the cognitive abilities are the
same regardless of the type of beats used on the participant. This can be deduced from the
finding that there was no difference in performance across all the four conditions (alpha, beta,
gamma, and control) after the one-way ANOVA was conducted.
The independent-samples t-test showed no gender difference on the improvement scores.
This means that the effects of the binaural beats on cognitive abilities are not gender dependent.
Thus, males and females would be expected to have similar improvement in cognitive abilities
when subjected to the binaural beats.
Thus, the researcher found that binaural beats did not improve the cognitive abilities of
the participants. However, this finding may not apply to anxiety, creativity, mindfulness, and
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
9
depression which had been shown to improve in previous studies but were not considered in this
study.
Theoretically, binaural beats are expected to stimulate certain neural patterns in specific
areas of the brain that perceive auditory stimuli. On this background, the investigator had
expected that the binaural beats would improve cognitive abilities in the nine participants in this
study. This is because the previous studies on the same had shown improvement of cognitive
abilities when binaural beats were administered. For instance, as cited in the literature review,
previous studies had shown binaural beats increased attention in children, teens and adults with
ADHD (Chaieb et al., 2015). Also, binaural beats had been shown to improve memory and
concentration on subjects in previous studies (Kennel et al., 2010). Thus, the researcher had
expected to have similar results in this study. However, the findings showed that binaural beats
did not improve cognitive function and improvement scores subjected to t-tests showed no
significant improvement in the cognitive abilities. This finding could be due to environmental
factors that affect the participants’ perception of binaural beats and other internal validity and
external validity issues that affected the study. Also, it could be because the binaural beats do not
actually improve cognitive abilities and the study findings are accurate.
The researcher had expected significant differences in improvement of scores across the
four frequencies of binaural beats (alpha, beta, gamma, and control). Previous studies had shown
that beta waves increased vigilance and attention while alpha waves binaural beats had been
shown to increase divergent thinking. The results however showed no significant differences
when different waves (alpha, beta, and gamma) of binaural beats were used. This finding may be
because the study focused on cognitive abilities while the findings in previous studies had used
other variables (divergent thinking, memory, and mood) to establish the differences in
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
10
improvement scores as determined by the type of waves used in the binaural beats (Chaieb et al.,
2015; Fink et al., 2006, 2009). Again, the difference in improvement scores due to the beta,
gamma and alpha waves was not objectively evaluated in this study and could have let to the
above finding when the scores were subjected to one-way ANOVA.
According to Chaieb et al. (2015), the menstrual cycle affects auditory perception in
females. Thus, the investigator expected the study findings to show gender difference in the
improvement scores. However, the gender difference in improvement scores was not apparent in
this study. This could be due to the fact that the sample used was inadequate to show statistically
significant difference in improvement scores between males and females.
Limitation
There were some limitations that affected the study. The recruitment of the participants
was difficult and affected the study. For instance, the study had only nine participants aged
between 18-64 years who were students recruited from Northeastern Illinois University.
However, the investigator had expected to have a sample size of at least 38 participants in the
study. Thus, the sample size was inadequate to meet the study objective and to confidently
generalize the findings to the population from which the study sample was drawn. In addition,
selecting participants from the same context was a threat to the internal validity of this study. In
addition to using a random selection method, similar studies in future should have adequate
sample size drawn from different places at different times to increase the accuracy of the results
and improve external validity.
Maturation of the participants may have affected the internal validity due to physical and
psychological changes between the young and the elderly participants in the study. This is
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
11
because auditory perception changes with age. Thus, there were inconsistencies in the data
collected due to perception differences between the participants.
Another internal validity factor that affected the study was the testing. The participants
gained experience with the pre-test and became test-wise. This is because the pre-test and posttest every time the participant listened to binaural beats for seven minutes. This affected the
scores in the pre-test and consequently, had an impact on the difference between improvement
scores between pre-test and the post-test.
The time allocated for the research was limited. The study was conducted in one and half
weeks which was a short time to allow the investigator adequate time to recruit the participants
to meet the desired sample size, collect data and administer the different waves of binaural beats.
Due to inadequate time allocated for the research, the amount of data collected was also limited.
In addition, the researcher used a questionnaire that was physically administered to the
participants. Thus, more time was required to administer and collect the questionnaire, enter the
data into a data-base, verify the data, clean the raw-data files, and subject the data collected to
analysis. Adequate time should be allocated in future studies to overcome the challenges caused
by limited study time.
Lastly, financial constraints were experienced during the study. The investigators desired
to have adequate materials such as headphones and laptop for each participant in the study. Thus,
adequate funding is required in future studies to enable the investigators have enough materials
for a larger study sample.
The study findings challenge the previous findings that binaural beats can be used as a
therapeutic intervention for people with cognitive and mental issues such as ADHD, memory and
mood disorders. Since the findings in this study not significant improvements scores in coginite
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
abilities, the researcher would not recommend the application of binaural beats as a therapeutic
intervention. The researcher would recommend further research on effect of binaural beats on
cognitive functions using a larger sample size and conduct the study for a longer duration.
12
BINAURAL BEATS EFFECT ON COGNITIVE ABILITIES
13
References
Beauchene Ch, Abaid, N., Moran, R., Diana, R., Leonesa, A. (2016). The Effect of binaural beats
on visuospatial memory and cortical connectivity. Plos One, 11(11), 1-20.
Chaieb, L., Wilpert, E., Reber, T. P., & Fell, J. (2015). Auditory beat stimulation and its effects
on cognition and mood states. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 70(6): 1-9.
Fink, A., and Neubauer, A. C. (2006). EEG alpha oscillations during the performance of verbal
creativity tasks: differential effects of sex and verbal intelligence. International Journal
Psychophysiology 62, 46–53
Goodin, P., Ciorciari, J., Baker, K., Carrey, A., Harper, M. (2012). A high-density EEG
investigation into steady state binaural beat stimulation. Plos One, 7(4), 1-8.
Heinrich Wilhelm Dove. (2017, February 25). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Wilhelm_Dove
Kennel, A. G. Taylor, D. Lyon, and C. Bourguignon. (2010). Pilot feasibility study of binaural
auditory beats for reducing symptoms of inattention in children and adolescents with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 25(1), 3– 11.
Klimesch, W., Sauseng, P., Hanslmayr, S., 2007. EEG alpha oscillations: the inhibition-timing
hypothesis. Brain Research Reviews 53, 63–88.
Kraus, J., Porubanova, M. (2015). The effect of binaural beats on the working memory capacity.
Studia Psychologica, 2(57), 1-13.
Lane J., Kasian S., Owens J., Marsh G. (1998). Binaural auditory beats affect vigilance
performance and mood. Physiology Behavior. 63, 249–252.
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14
Le Scouarnec RP, Poirier RM, Owens JE, Gauthier J, Taylor AG, et al. Use of binaural beat
tapes for treatment of anxiety: a pilot study of tape preference and outcomes. Alternative
Therapies in Health and Medicine. 2001; 7,58–63
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