This study explored the effect of live harp music (LHM) on the heart rates of college students
during a series of STEM exams. The initial research questions aimed to determine if LHM would
decrease students’ heart rates during an exam, and if students’ anxiety and/or learning style
mattered.
Music has been associated with its ability to reduce anxiety, but research related to how live harp
music interacts with individual traits like anxiety levels and learning styles is lacking. Insights
into how music interventions may improve testing performance may be valuable.
Within a repeated-measures experiment, college students in a STEM course completed one exam
in a quiet environment and the next exam, 3-weeks later, in the same environment but with music
from a therapeutic harpist. Mean heart rates, state anxiety scores, and learning style preferences
were recorded and analyzed.
ANOVA analyses resulted in a linear model with an adjusted R 2  of 79.97% in which learning
style, state anxiety and live harp music interacted to account for the majority of the variance
found in students’ exam heart rates. Results suggest that the effect of harp music during an exam
depends on students’ state anxiety and learning style preference. Increased heart rates were
observed in students with higher state anxiety and preference for visual learning during the exam
with live harp music. Students with non-visual learning preferences and lower state anxiety were
less affected by live harp music or protected from exam-related physiological arousal.