Isah F.A,Muhammad U.A,Yusha?u Yusuf,
Possible Effect of Headphone Usage on Working Memory Among Students in Faculty of Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria‒Nigeria
Neurology and Neurobiology
2019
2613-7828
http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.NNB.2019.02.02
https://www.sciencerepository.org/possible_effect_of_headphone_usage_on_working_memory_among_students_in_faculty_of_medicine_ahmadu_bello_university_zaria_nigeria_NNB-2019-2-102 
Abstract: Working memory is a system that is responsible for transient holding and processing of new and already
stored information. It also involves processing for reasoning, comprehension, learning and memory
updating. Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers that are designed to be held in place close to a user’s
ear. They are electroacoustic transducers which convert electrical signals to a corresponding sound in the
user’s ear. Several studies have recently shown a link between cognitive abilities and response to hearing
aid and signal processing in the brain. Therefore, the relationship between headphone usage among healthy
subjects become pertinent. This study is aimed at evaluating the effect of headphone on working memory
using N-back task. One hundred (100) participants (55 headphone users and 45 non-headphone user’s)
within the age range of 18-31 years were assessed. Participants were instructed to keep in memory, a series
of letters and say “target” whenever there was a repetition of letter with exactly one intervening letter and
to remain silent when any other letter appeared. The results of this study showed that there was no
statistically significant difference in working memory between headphone and non-headphone users with
p>0.05. In conclusion, this study revealed headphone use has no effect on working memory of the
participants subjected to N–back test.
Keywords: Headphone, working memory, n-back task, hearing aid