The correlation between music and individuals is a very heavily researched topic. This literature review will critically evaluate the claim made by Don Campbell (1997, p.24) that ‘playing Mozart makes babies smarter’. This review will look at the history of the Mozart effect and also look at a range of sources that support and also go against the claim that the Mozart effect makes babies smarter. These claims will be analysed through the three main measurements in relation the Mozart effect these are spatial reasoning, arousal and also mood. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...(3), 248-251. Retrieved from http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3psygs/Thompson2001.pdf Husain, G, Schellenberg, G & Thompson, W. (2002). Effects of Musical Tempo and Mode on Arousal, Mood, and Spatial Abilities. Music Perception, 20(2), 151-171. Retrieved from http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3psygs/Husain.pdf Jones, S & Zigler E. (2002). The Mozart Effect: Not learning from history. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23(3), 355-372. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0193397302001132 Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365(6447), 611. doi:10.1038/365611a0 Sack, K. (1998, January 15). Georgia's Governor Seeks Musical Start for Babies. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/us/georgia-s-governor-seeks-musical-start-for-babies.html
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...
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., Ky, K. N. (1993). Musical and Spatial Task Performance. Nature, 365, 661.
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...
The Mozart Effect is a phenomenon taking both the scientific world and public eye by storm. The controversy over the Mozart Effect has allowed the spread of a misconception that listening to Mozart can enhance general intelligence. The term “Mozart Effect” relates specifically to the neuropsychology research paper, carried out by Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky in 1993, that reported temporary increases in college students’ ability to perform spatial reasoning tasks after briefly listening to Mozart’s sonata K. 448 (Taylor & Rowe 2012). Although spatial reasoning is important for generating and theorising solutions to problems, this alone does not mean that listening to Mozart’s music will make babies, or anyone smarter.
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...
Campbell, Don G. The Mozart Effect for Children: Awakening Your Child's Mind, Health, and Creativity with Music. New York: William Morrow, 2000. Print
Martin, Roy P. “Does Music Education Enhance the Developing Brain and Academic Achievement”. College of Education at the University of Georgia. 17 November 2011. Web. 22 May 2013.
Neuroimaging studies have proven that the ability to formulate words into sentences and notes into a melodies involve the same parts of the brain. In music class children learn these important skills: complex auditory pattern-processing mechanisms, attention, memory storage and retrieval, motor programing, and sensory motor integration (Moreira). These skills support children in their education and help secure their academic success.
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. .
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
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 and the Brain. (n.d.). Music and the Brain. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://tdlc.ucsd.edu/research/highlights/rh-music-and-brain-2011.html
"The Mozart Effect." Index Page - PositiveHealth.com - United Kingdom. Web. 24 Feb. 2010. .
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3
Weinberger, Norman M. “Music and the Brain.” Scientific American Special Edition 16.3 (2006): 36-43. Health Source- Consumer Edition. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.