In 1993, a study conducted by researchers Rauscher, Shaw and Ky aimed to test the theory that listening to Mozart increased ones performance on spatial relations tasks. Now decades on, the study forms the basis of a preconception that listening to Mozart can make someone (specifically babies) smarter and is now “one of the most well-known popular interpretations (or rather misinterpretations) of a psychological finding” (Husain, Schellenberg and Thompson, 2001, p. 248). With this being said, the following essay aims to eliminate this preconception by analysing current research valid to the Mozart affect whilst reinforcing the argument that listening to Mozart does not improve intelligence, but rather, in limited cases is able to produce minimal and temporary spatial aptitude that does not necessarily pertain exclusively to Mozart’s pieces. This can be supported by analysing studies; that show listening to Mozart only boosts spatial ability, that the improvement of spatial ability can be credited to other factors such as arousal, mood or personal preference and also that the increase in spatial capacity has yet to be studied in-depth in terms of if it is able to have long-term effects. The lack of studies involving babies or even young children also supports the argument that listening to Mozart does not makes babies smarter. One of the main arguments behind the decision that Mozart’s music does not in fact make babies smarter is that the effect has only been shown (to a degree and is not always replicated) to enhance spatial abilities evident in tests “derived from the Stanford-Binet scale such as paper-cutting and folding procedures or pencil-and-paper maze tasks” (Jenkins, 2001) and not in general intelligence (improvement ov... ... middle of paper ... ...ether or not the Mozart effect could be applied to them in a school setting. Positively, it was shown that the children scored higher on a spatial ability task of paper folding after listening to Mozart, although the results, just like every other study concluded, seemed to last only for the duration of the test which was around 10-15 minutes. One must also keep in mind that many tests never endeavoured to delve into whether or not the results could be reproduced later without the need of Mozart’s sonata. Since this study has yet to be thoroughly examined and replicated, it is hard to give weight to the argument. The fact that the study does not involve infant participants also contributes to the issue that studies involving babies are lacking, and thus it is difficult to support the theory that babies are able to be “made smarter” by the effects of Mozart’s music.
As Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Studies shown that classical music, specifically Mozart, help you engage in your studies better and as a result showed high test scores according to a test scientist at Stanford University held. Did you ever imagine how powerful a piece that was composed in the 1780’s could be?
The literature reviewed found that listening to classical music, in particular music written by Mozart produced only short term, if any, increased cognitive abilities and did not aid the intellectual development of children. This contradicts the claim made by Don Campbell of the Mozart effect resource website. Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993) the group who first coined the term ‘Mozart effect’ reported on a study investigating the effects of listening to Mozart on spatial task performance in adolescents. It was found in this study that listening to Mozart did in fact increase spatial task performance. However the enhanced effect only lasted 10 to 15 minutes (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). ...
Ivanov, K. V., & Geake, J. E. (2003). The Mozart effect and primary school children.
The average brain contains two percent phone numbers, three percent names, five percent knowledge gained in school, and ninety percent song lyrics (source 1). Through music, numerous positive benefits can influence and enhance the effectiveness of a child in and out of school. The most essential benefits that are enhanced, are work ethic, motivation, relaxation, sleep patterns and concentration. A study conducted by the University of California at Irvine in 1993 and again in 1995 was to study the effects of listening to Mozart for ten minutes before taking a test. The results from this study were the students who listened to music before their exams had dramatically improved their scores compared to students who did not participate in heeding to the music
Three aspects of this topic will be discussed throughout this report to analyse why the Mozart Effect is being misrepresented. The difference between music listening and music instruction will be examined, as well as the different methodologies used in literature, and an alternate explanation for why a temporary increase in IQ ...
The past research about the effect of music on the brain is called the Mozart Effect. The Mozart Effect refers to claims that people perform better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart. This experience examined whether the Mozart effect is a result of differences in stimulation and temper. (William Forde Thompson, E. Glenn Schellenberg and Gabriela Husain, 2001). A research was made by Dr.Gordon Shaw at UCI and Fran Rauscher about this Mozart effect. The experience is to use college students who listened to Mozart’s symphonies while they are solving a spatial temporal task. This task is a famous one: the paper folding and cutting test. The results were astonishing. In fact, all the students recorded impressi...
Studies have shown that the effects of classical music, are advantageous to both one’s ability to process and retain new information, as well as to recall and memorize old material. I believe that the outcome of an experiment of this nature will be entirely dependent upon the individual that the experiment is being conducted upon. Furthermore, due to the complexity of as well as the diversity found within humans, and the fact that no two humans are the same, I believe that the results will vary from person to person.
Campbell, Don G. The Mozart Effect for Children: Awakening Your Child's Mind, Health, and Creativity with Music. New York: William Morrow, 2000. Print
Schlaug, Gottfried, Andrea Norton, Kate Overy, and Ellen Winner. Effects of Music Training on the Child’s Brain. The Musician's Brain. New York Academy Of Sciences, 2005. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. .
- Schlaug, G; Norton, A; Overy, K & Winner, E. 2006. Wiley Online Library: Effects of Music Training of the Child’s Brain and Cognitive Development. Date accessed 2014/02/09. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1196/annals.1360.015/full
Music, an essential component to mankind’s culture, is said to affect the intellect of humans in several different ways. Specifically, it’s affect on infants is more important than any other age group due to the brain’s plasticity at such a young age. Music can improve learning skills, test taking skills, concentration, heartbeat, and relaxation. Understanding the human brain is a great endeavor that countless scientists have spent lifetimes on. It will probably never be fully understood, however, I think that researching music’s relationship with the brain should help uncover many mysteries. Neuroscientific studies have shown music to be an agent capable of influencing complex neurobiological processes
The idea of the Mozart effect began in 1993 with a study conducted by Rauscher, Shaw & Ky. This study involved 36 university students taking three different IQ spatial reasoning tasks and for each test used either Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major and relaxation music was played, silence was also used. The results of this experiment showed that students who had listened to the music of Mozart had better results for the spacial reasoning tests in comparison to silence or relaxation music. The results also showed that the impact of Mozart’s music was only temporary and only lasted for 10-15 minutes. Overall this study was very basic and had numerous flaws such as the sample size and also the variety of tests used to look at the impact of music (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). In 1997 Don Campbell’s book The Mozart effect popularised the claim that music makes children smarter. This book created a public interest in music and brain development. The book uses Rauscher’s experiment as an example of what Mozart’s music can do which in this experiment shows a temporary increase in spatial reasoning, this however was misinterpreted by the public as an increase in IQ. The popularisation of the...
Scientists and skeptics have different beliefs about the benefits of the Mozart Effect. Scientists found that Mozart “enhanced synchrony between the neural activity in the right frontal and left tempoparietal cortical areas of the brain,” and that this effect continued for “over 12 minutes” (Rauscher & Shaw, 1998, p. 839). Based on these results, Leng and Shaw speculated that “listening to Mozart could be stimulating the neural firing patterns in the parts of the cerebral cortex responsible for spatial-temporal skills, which subsequently enhances the spatial-temporal abilities that are housed in those parts of the cortex”[Dowd]. However nonbelievers suggest that the research is incomplete and misleading. The Irvine study that launched the phenomenon has been widely criticized. The Startling results announced by the initial paper were misleading. First, the researchers claimed that the undergraduates improved on all three spatial-reasoning tests. But as Shaw later clarified, the only enhancement came from one task—paper folding and cutting. Further, the researchers presented the data in the form...
There is limited literature centered on an infant age group to support the notion that babies will become smarter through exposure to Mozart’s symphonies. Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993) devised an experiment initiating the theory now known as the ‘Mozart Effect’. The study examined the possible effect the exposure to three differing conditions; silence, a relaxation tape and a Mozart piece had on college student’s ability to perform spatial tasks, and hence the effect on their spatial IQ scores (Rauscher et al. 1993). Rauscher et al. (1993) concluded there was an increase in these scores for studen...
Patel states in the article that music neuroscience, which draws on cognitive science, music education and neuroscience, can help answer basic questions about the working of the human brain. Music addresses some of the behaviors and skills that are necessary for academic success (How Playing Music Affect the Developing Brain, n.d). A classical composer, which goes by the name of Mozart, makes music that is 60 beats per minute. Surprisingly his music activates both the left and right parts of the brain. If someone is studying and also listening to one of his pieces the person listens with the right part of the brain while the left part is taking in information (O’ Donnell 1999).“Music makes your kid interesting and happy, and smart will come later. It enriches his or her appetite for things that bring you pleasure and for the friends you meet,” says, Pruett (Brown, n.d para.