Tobias Lam
7th Grade, Long-View Micro School
Austin, TX
The Effect of Nintendo’s NES Tetris Theme Music and 28 Hertz High Beta-Frequency Binaural Beats on a 233 Hertz Carrier on Attention Span
View Poster
Project Background
Tobias is concerned by how hard it is to focus, especially when he found that adults’ attention spans were four seconds shorter in 2024 than they were in 2000. “This is a big problem, and the effects have been seen even in classrooms where students have trouble focusing on the teacher,” he says. He is also interested in binaural beats, where a slightly different tone is played in each ear, making someone hear an illusion of a pulsing beat. Binaural beats may help people achieve meditative states. As a passionate musician, Tobias wondered if they could help people focus.
Tactics and Results
Tobias tested 65 people online for their reaction time and accuracy in a task. One third took the test in silence, while another third heard the theme song from the Nintendo game Tetris for half of their tests. The final third heard binaural beats at 28 Hz — a frequency linked to improved concentration — for half of their tests. Tobias found that the video game music didn’t help anyone’s concentration. “Many participants found it hard to focus while listening to video game music,” he says. But people who listened to binaural beats performed better on the task than those who listened to nothing. While none of Tobias’s tests proved to be statistically significant, he hopes that more participants and a longer test might help him understand how music affects focus.
Beyond the Project
Tobias has been playing piano since he was five years old, and his love of music has inspired several of his science fair projects. “Music and piano have always affected other areas of my life and are a large part of what gives me inspiration for many types of activities.” He plays the piano at senior homes and says seeing his audience react to his music “makes playing at senior homes as rewarding for me as it is for the seniors there.” He would like to become a chemist.
