Does Classical Music Have An Effect On Infants Brain Development?

This article reveals how Don Campbell, the author of “The Mozart Effect,” believes that listening to music can

In Joanne Lipman’s “A Musical Fix for U.S. Schools”, she describes the benefits music can bring to a student’s IQ that allows them to perform superior in school. Music forces a person to think differently than how they usually may in other classes. This allows for new thinking strategies to form, improving the cognitive side of the mind. This positive difference is shown when a canadian study was done with music training where the results showed an increase in IQ in the group of people children studied (Lipman). With that study, the favorable results of music is clear for children. An IQ measures the intelligence of people, which is related to the cognitive abilities of the mind, and therefore the person. People may think that music may

In order to understand, one must understand the history of the myth. The term “Mozart Effect” is commonly used to discuss the general correlation between Mozart and increased intelligence. However, this term is applicable to many different tests and relationships. For example, the Mozart Effect can be used to describe the relationship between listening to Mozart while in the womb and increased intelligence. While this is a common myth, it is not the myth discussed in this paper. I will be addressing the “Mozart Effect” based on Dr. Gordon Shaw’s theory of the Mozart Effect, which states “listening to classical music makes you smarter.” After conducting a study in which college students took an IQ test before and after listening to Mozart’s famed “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major,” Shaw claimed that the student’s IQ increased by “as much as 9 points.” This conclusion sparked many tests, ranging from

Aheadi, Dixon, and Glover were able to identify the benefits of musical training in a study involving the Mozart effect. Aheadi et al. state that, “Evidence suggests musical training can lead to long term enhancement of intelligence” (Aheadi, Dixon, and Glover, 2009, pg. 1). The results in this study showed that musicians had a higher overall performance compared to non-musicians. In a 1998, study completed by Overy, they were able to show that musical training tends to lead to increased intellectual abilities. They extrapolated that musical training improves cognitive functioning in attention, coordination, language, and concentration (Overy,

This information leads me to believe that the Mozart’s Effect is not at all what it claimed to be. It is true that all styles of music activates the auditory cortex (this is the area of the brain that processes sound) and often times triggers parts of the brain that are connected to our emotions. There are other studies that have found there is no statistically significant “Mozart Effect”. It is disappointing that the media and commercial ventures have used unverified studies to promote the sale of a product to the public. All of the false claims stating that Mozart’s music increases one’s intelligence

The ‘Mozart Effect’ is an anomaly which suggests that Mozart’s music provides intellectual benefits to individuals under certain circumstances. It is a widely researched topic because of the many controversies. Scientists, psychologists and sociologists have examined the “effect” from multiple viewpoints to come to a concluding consensus. Based on the many scientific and psychological experiments and investigations, the Mozart Effect can be shown to be more of a sociological occurrence rather than a developmental benefit.

The results of early studies on the subject popularized the idea that listening to Mozart may improve mental functioning, and that exposure to specific passages of music could benefit brain development in infants. This has led many parents to begin exposing their children to classical music to help foster mental development. Coverage of this theory in the media has led to a number of products claiming to improve learning and development in infants, and has had notable political impacts, such as Georgia governor Zell Miller’s proposal to allocate $105,000 a year to provide every child in the state with classical music on tape or compact disc. This may be an example of confirmation bias about a long running assumption. However, this claim remains controversial, as studies exploring the relationship of sound and music (including both classical music and lullabies) to brain functioning and physiological metrics have yielded mixed results. Given the importance of nurturing proper cognitive development in children to better prepare them for adulthood, it is necessary to review the scientific

Research shows that a musician’s brain is not any different from that of a non-musician's, but rather it is what parts of the brain that enhance musicians’ ability to be “smarter”

The baby mozart theory suggests that letting infants soak in the sunniness of Mozart’s classicism will make them smarter somehow. The page on it says that some studies suggest that “early childhood exposure to classical music is beneficial.” Indeed it is. I don’t know about raising IQ points, but my experience with music has instilled in me certain values, creating and molding a character who strives to be a perfectionist, dogged in his pursuit of all things perfect. I do not and could not imagine the person I would be had I not picked up the violin at the age of four.

It has long been believed that music can evoke specific thoughts and feelings from the listener. But can music –specifically the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart- summon hidden intelligences within the human brain? That is the question scientists are trying to answer. In the mid-nineties, scientists, Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky, claimed that music could boost the listener’s intelligence up to 9 points (Steele 2). To many, this allegation seemed a bit far-fetched and soon other researchers began recreating the Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky experiment in hopes of discrediting their findings. The conclusions that resulted confirmed that the skeptics were right: the evidence was inconclusive and revealed that music did not make the

Millions of individuals around the globe regularly devote time to practice an instrument. The vast majority sees playing music as a form of entertainment. However, only a small number of these musicians are aware that musical training has effects on their brain. Recently, more and more researchers have begun to investigate further. Not only do their results conclude that musical training does, indeed, affect the brain, but they have also found that it strengthens it. Musical training benefits the brain physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

The Mozart effect is a study which showed that listening to classical music such as Mozart’s stimulates the brain and can have a positive effect on social, cognitive, and physical skills (“10 Benefits”). In 1993, Frances H. Rauscher had 36 college age students listen to either: Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, a relaxation tape, or silence. He then tested their spatial task performance (Smith). The results showed that students who listened to Mozart's music score increased by 8-9 points. The media had a field day with this and the news spread like wildfire. After the first study was released, exaggerated claims that Mozart's music increased IQ spread throughout the news. Soon, it became popularly understood that listening to Mozart would make you smarter (Smith).

From the moment a child is conceived, the world they enter into is playing a role in every aspect of their lives. One-thing children are almost immediately exposed to is music. Music is being played on the car ride home from the hospital, lullabies are sung before a child goes to sleep, and every toy they play with seems to play a different tune with every touch. The songs played may cause the child to dance, laugh, smile, or become sleepy, but music has many more effects than those that can be easily observed. One of the impacts that music has on individuals in general is the improvement in IQ scores. Music has allowed people to receive a higher verbal IQ as well as better visual abilities

Although many, one positive way music education is beneficial to students is that it has a large impact on brain stem growth. With the incorporation of music in a student’s daily life, the brain stem’s responses become more robust (Brown). Therefore, the amount of brain stem growth correlates with recent musical training. As stated by Brown, an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore, “student’s that are involved with a large amount of music will see more gains in brain stem growth”. Furthermore, the neural changes that occur in students as adolescents stay with them into adulthood (“Music Matters”). This allows students to be more prepared once they go into the workforce as adults. Along with the brain stem’s responses being more robust, it’s sensitivity to sound increases (“The Benefits” 1). This is abundantly evident from early on, as mother’s sing to their infants to facilitate brain stimulation and development. Enrichment through music, starting at a young age, seems to improve individuals speech sound development and use of more advanced vocabulary. Adolescents’ language also improves with the use of music in a student’s academics (Miller 46). Luehrisen

The Mozart-Effect is the concept that listening to classical music at an early age helps make children smarter. It has long been held that learning a musical instrument also helps develop the brain differently, and can improve math ability specifically. Over the past two decades people have wondered whether or not the Mozart-effect really works. Will listening to classical music or learning how to play an instrument increase a person’s intelligence? If so, how does it affect a person’s intelligence? Dean Keith Simonton presented a chart in “The Science of Genius,” both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven were considered geniuses and they are both composers of classical music. This article made me think what if listening to classical music affects a person’s intelligence, or could learning to play an instrument help a person’s intelligence? Also, what led me to this area of investigation was that my dad always played classical music for me since I was born, and when I had to take an IQ test I scored a 132, so I wanted to know if listening to classical music over the years has helped me to become smarter. The Mozart-effect can improve a person’s spatial memory after listening to classical music for about fifteen minutes a day, every day.