Society has always had a growing fascination with human intelligence which is why society cogitate the Mozart Effect (Bangerter & Heath, 2004). Various assumptions have been made in the past regarding the plausibility of this theory, however without reliable sources, no conclusions can be drawn (Črnčec, R., Wilson, SJ., & Prior, M, 2005). Former studies concerning the Mozart Effect have helped to delineate the soundness of this theory especially regarding the effect Mozart’s composition has on an individual’s intelligence from a young age. It will be argued that former studies have not been able to provide enough evidence to support the Mozart Theory; and therefore the theory remains unresolved. This essay will critically analyse results from previous studies focusing primarily on the length of time the subject remains affected, the socio-economic statuses as well as the idea of nature vs. nurture, and also any bias inconsistencies in the findings.
Former studies have evaluated whether Mozart’s composition has continuing benefits on a child’s cognitive development. A former study conducted by Rauscher (1993) contradicts the belief that the Mozart Effect has long-term benefits for children and individuals. The study involved thirty-six college students which were directed to listen to three alternative conditions for ten minutes- Mozart piano sonata, relaxation music and silence (Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N, (1993). Using the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale, the students were immediately examined on their spatial reasoning where the results indicated the student’s mean IQs were 8-9 points higher when they listened to classical music compared to other conditions (Rauscher et al, 1993). Further examinations disclose...
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...ic; more that the structure of music lessons are able to develop a child’s susceptibility to formal education and learning.
Society has been provided with reliable results from former studies which suggest the Mozart Theory has only temporary effects. Studies have provided the answer to the ongoing, controversial theory and have discussed many factors that influence intelligence, especially in children. It is evident that socio-economic status, as well as the concept of nature vs. nurture does have influence on a child’s development and without the right nurturing and environment a child may not reach full potential. Additionally, the inconsistency of results, as well as bias and lack of repetition can conclude that the Mozart Effect is only temporary. Therefore, it is now known that there are many domains of intelligence and the former Mozart claim is not true.
The Mozart Effect Resource Centre website, music educator Don Campbell made the claim that “classical music has a powerful effect on the intellectual and creative development of children from the very youngest of ages.” (Campbell, n.d.). To critically evaluate this claim a number of sources have been analysed. Through this analysis it was found that the claim cannot be supported by reliable empirical research and that classical music only produces short-term cognitive enhancement. This effect can be achieved by listening to any type of music. The first main theme found in the literature was that listening to classical music such as Mozart produced only short term increased cognitive abilities and did not aid the intellectual development of children. Secondly it was found that much of the testing on the topic was not reliable, contained many uncontrolled variables and there was little information relating to babies directly. Finally, many sources corroborated to agree that the same affect could be yielded from other types of music such as rock and pop.
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...
Although the Mozart effect has shown a varied enhancement of participants’ spatial cognition the claim that ‘Mozart makes babies smarter’ is completely discredited. Through the aforementioned analysis of arousal and mood factors it is clear that cognitive enhancement relies strongly on the participants’ reaction to any stimuli, rather than specifically Mozart. Additionally, the lack of dependency on just one form of stimuli to achieve result indicates that the phenomenon is not specific to Mozart’s sonata. Finally, the limited longevity discredits the importance of the speculated phenomenon as it does not have any long term benefits to the user. Overall, this claim, despite having partial merit is fundamentally incorrect, despite its wide-spread popularist acceptance.
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?
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
Yoon, Jenny Nam. “ Music in the classroom: It’s Influence on Children’s Brain Development, Academic Performance, and Practical life skills.” Diss. Biola University, 2000.
Many parents are under the influence that their child will be better in school and life, increasing their I.Q. scores by listening to Mozart at an early age; any child would want their child to better. This idea first came into light in 1993 with an article describing an improvement in spatial reasoning testing for college students after 10 minutes of listening to Mozart compared to a control group who did not. This study only focuses on one attempt at the test. The study only found that listening to Mozart immediately helped with cognition. However, businesses capitalized on this and began marketing to parents that the “Mozart Effect” can help with mental development in young children, so millions of cassette tapes and CDs were sold to parents under the false pretenses of helping children, when it is a confusion between correlation and causation. Over 70% of Americans including average and psychology students believe that the Mozart effect would increase your intelligence. This belief was so popular that some state governors directed funding to have Mozart played in daycares and other places were infants are heavily
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...
Especially in children, the effects of music education can be seen very clearly in the brain. It physically develops the left part of the brain that deals with language processing and can change the flow of the brain’s circuits in ways that cannot be done with any other process. The idea is that the brain links familiar melodies to new information, not only quickening the learning process but also improving short-term memory (Brown, 2011). The whole process of mastering an art is closely related to a greater comprehension of language skills (Do Something, n.d). Students not given the exposure to music or other arts are often left with underdeveloped left hemispheres of the brain, making other components of school later on more difficult (Nuss,
The position that is being argued is that music should stay in schools. This author is making the claim that music makes children excel in their education. This author uses many different sources. The author relies mainly on studies to back up his argument. The article is recent.
Classical music is highly structured, organized and complex. “Classical music may take one melody and wrap, warp, invert, rephrase and re-tempo it all in one take, all at the same time” (Campbell, 2014). As a result, in order to understand a classical piece, one must be equipped with the proper theoretical and analytical skills. Because these are composed by geniuses, music theorists up to this day still continue to study and analyze how these composers wrote their music; how they can accomplish a piece that lasts for more or less an hour or how they can write a piece that requires more than a hundred instrumentalists. Thus, such a feat requires a God-given talent and skill. Another thing is the commonly known “Mozart Effect” that “suggests the improvement on the performance of spatial-temporal reasoning and short-term memory through the listening of complex music, such as Mozart’s two piano concertos” (Maglione, 2006). Also, some say that there are other tools that develop our brain, but it is classical music that lets us think and enjoy music at the same time. All of these suggest that classical music can help us in terms of improving our analytical
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...
Music has been psychologically tested many times to determine whether or not it is a positive influence on memory. The Mozart effect has become a very popular theory, in which the belief that listening to Mozart’s classical music can improve one’s memory. This well known theory has become very influential, people are listening to Mozart while they study for tests and parents are even purchasing videos for their babies that supposedly use Mozart’s music to improve their child’s metal abilities at an early age. If calming Mozart symphonies can improve cognitive memory then does distracting more upbeat music harm the abilities of the brain to record information? Unpleasant music does effect the outcome of people’s scores on cognitive tasks, compared to people listening to pleasant music, like Mozart, who tend to do much better (Hallam, Price & Katsorou, 2002). The world’s fascination with Mozart and his music’s supposed ability to enrich people’s learning abilities is incredible, if it can ever truly be proven.
First of all, arts and music improve children's learning skills and IQ levels. Music improves learning because it makes connections between brain cells during musical training so that helps one to advance speaking, reading and understanding (Rettner). This impacts children’s academic achievement substantially. Furthermore, arts have a power to activate children's brains. According to art therapist Anna Reyner, “Musi...
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.