Background music for repetitive task performance of severely retarded individuals

Environmental manipulation in the form of specific tempo background music was used to assist in the habilitation of severely retarded persons. Thirty institutionalized retarded males were tested on a repetitive manual performance task judged to be similar to the type of tasks found in sheltered workshops. Each subject received each of the background treatments noncontingently: no music, slow tempo music, regular tempo music, fast tempo music. The results indicated that the regular tempo of background music facilitated the greatest improvement in performance, suggesting that the effect of music on performance is more complex than the issue of contingent presentation.