Essay on Psychology: The Mozart Effect

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

The human mind is constantly processing and picking up information. Music is an ordered and predictable sequence of sounds. When the brain hears music, it tries to decode it. In decoding those symbols and patterns, it sets up “neural highways, or synapses” , to receive and examine data. These pathways then can be used for remembering other symbol-oriented information, such as language and math. Like a muscle, the brain becomes stronger the more it is worked, and these workouts are achieved by listening to classical music. Mozart’s music is exceptionally difficult to decode, therefore the brain must work harder, thus making one smarter.

Music can have multiple positive effects on the brain. One such example is what is known as the Mozart Effect. The Mozart Effect is the change in brain

This paper discusses Mozart's life, his compositions and his importance to the world and the world of music. It explains how Mozart's music is still some of the most popular classical music played today and his life is still studied because his music is so well known and liked.

In a study done by Jennifer L. Lilley, Crystal D. Oberle, and Jon G. Thompson, Jr. at Texas State University, they tested the effects of grade consequences and music on test anxiety and performance. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of the participants grades if there were consequences and how music effects the participates anxiety and their test performances. There were previous works cited on how people improve their spatial cognitive task performances after listening to Mozart (Ho, Mason, & Spence, 2007). They also included studies where there were no benefits to people’s spatial cognitive task performances after listening to Mozart (Hui, 2006).

If something as common as music has a significant effect on development, research can be extremely important for people trying to make informed decisions for their children. Referencing the title, I know The Incredibles made a remark insinuating that playing Mozart for a baby can make them smarter. Though the research on the Mozart Effect and IQ has shown no significant discovery, the inspiration behind this is brilliant. Music has to have some sort of effect on the brain, further than slight stimulation. There must be a reason that many kids toys, tv shows, books etc. use a lot of music; especially educational media. I know it can be very influential, but the effect it has on a child mentally and developmentally I feel can be further

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

However when the two group’s SAT test scores were compared it was found that there was no significant difference between effects on the cognitive abilities of adolescents. This suggests that listening to Mozart only produces short-term increased cognitive abilities. Both these sources refute Don Campbell’s claim that listening to Mozart can have a powerful impact on the creative and intellectual development in children (Taylor & Rowe, 2012). Any cognitive enhancement that occurs is normally minimal and is not lasting as it does not show any change in IQ or reasoning ability (Helder, 2014). Helder states that a basic principle showing that learning has occurred is proven by its repeatability. As the ‘Mozart effect’ was considered only to have a short term effect on cognitive abilities of students then it is unlikely that students could repeat what they had been taught any better than without the music as the effect only lasted 10-15 minutes (Helder, 2014). Pietschnig, Voracek and Formann (2010) state that exposure to music stimulates the section of the cortex that is responsible for spatial awareness. However this stimulation does not result in long-term change in the intellectual and creative development of humans so therefore this refutes Don Campbells claims (Pietschnig, Voracek & Formann, 2010). Sources arguing that listening to Mozart produces only short-term effects on

In modern society intelligence is highly competitive and subject to scrutiny; therefore, it is understandable that a child’s intelligence is a primary concern for many parents. The Mozart effect, popularised in the 1990s, resulted in many parents believing that simply exposing their child to music composed by Mozart would improve their intelligence (Campbell, 1997). The claim was founded by research published in the journal Nature, which suggested that spatial reasoning could be temporarily enhanced by listening to one of Mozart’s compositions for ten minutes (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). It will be argued that there is not sufficient evidence to support the claim that playing Mozart to babies will increase their intelligence. Firstly, the

(2001) explained that the “Mozart effect” is due to arousal and mood improvement. The arousal-mood hypothesis proposes that listening to music, affects people’s level of arousal and mood, which in turn influence performance on different cognitive tasks (Husain, Thompson, & Schellenberg, 2002).

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,

The “Mozart effect” was a study that was conducted at the University of California in Irvine, California. The “Mozart effect” was developed by Dr. Gordon Shaw in the early 1990's. Dr. Shaw's theory was that if you listen to classical music the resultant would be a smarter you. (Fowers, 2000). The study was conducted by gathering students to volunteer to take part in an experiment. The volunteers were given headsets to listen to either white noise, relaxation music, or Mozart for ten minutes. (Jensen, pg. 25). Once the ten minutes had passed the volunteers were asked to perform a variety of spatial skills. The results were that the students who were listening to Mozart were more proficient on the spatial skills test than the other two groups. (Jensen, pg. 25).

From prior research, most experimenters chose to use the Mozart Effect. In this experiment, the genres of music chosen did not include classical music of any type. It has been thought that listening to classical music, particularly Mozart, enhances performance on cognitive tests. However, recent findings show that listening to any music that is personally enjoyable has positive effects on cognition (EMedExpert, 1). For the beginning of this experiment, instead of swabbing places for bacteria, the bacteria used was

As mentioned in Nedra Floyd-Pautler’s “Playing music keeps your hearing sharp” published on April 2, 2012; due to the brains’ elasticity, instrumentalists and those with musical talent posses the ability to shape their brain to develop positive cognitive skills. In a recent study disclosed by Nina Kraus, PhD, and her team at Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, it was concluded that musical training optimizes the physiology and biology of the human brain. Musicians advance in a selection of advantages allowing them to better articulate speech, language, and emotion. Another being the capability to distinguish time changes in another’s pitch. The positive outcome of a musically trained brain demonstrates a rapid process

Research and conducting experiments is the most effective way possible to gain an answer. The type of research is based on the situation, the hypothesis, and the resources the individual or group has on hand. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the Mozart Effect from two different journals and answer questions based on the research materials. The first article for examination is Music and spatial task performance.