The Mozart Effect and Infant Intelligence

And they took a group of 6 year olds and gave them weekly singing and piano lessons for 9 months. And in this study they took a baseline IQ score at the before the 1st grade and then taken again at the beginning of 2nd grade with the time in between provided for the experiment. And they found that on average the kids that received the lesson IQ was 3 points higher than it was 9 months earlier. This might be in part because when learning to play an instrument much like learning a new language you brain is required to build new connections and remap the network of the brain to work faster. Another study that was published from Christopher Johnson at the University of Kansas was out to prove if this raise in IQ also would affect the testing scores of children. And they found that in an elementary school with good education in the arts scored 20% higher in both English and Math standardized test, than an elementary school with little to no music education. Johnson sums it up by saying, “Schools that have rigorous programs and high-quality music education and arts teacher probably have high-quality teachers in other areas. If you have an environment where there are a lot of people doing creative, smart, great things, even people who aren’t doing that have a tendency to go up and do better.”

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

He randomly assigned 132 first-graders to keyboard, singing or drama lessons, or no lessons at all. He figured that at the end of the school year, both music and drama students would show bumps in IQ scores, just because of "that experience of getting them out of the house." But something unexpected happened: The IQ scores of the music students increased more than those of the other groups. (Lipman 2).

Throughout history there have been demonstrations of grit and the correlation to cognitive ability developing strongly through childhood. Mozart, was most commonly related to being a “child prodigy”, having an extremely high IQ and musically based talent (Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely 2007, p. 3). What is not universally known about the development of his ability

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

Each theory of intelligence has not only a different method of testing intelligence, but also a different definition of intelligence, which each creator ascribes to. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (Terman, 1916), or IQ tests as they are commonly referred to as, are currently one of the most widely used tools for intelligence measurement, however, research suggests they are a poor predictor of future academic success for particular cultural groups (Gardner, 1993). In one of the largest neurocognitive-based intelligence studies performed to date, it was revealed through the observation of neuroimaging data that IQ scores alone were not likely to indicate a fundamental intellectual ability because intelligence is composed of multiple anatomically distinct components (Hampshire, Highfield, Parkin, & Owen, 2012). Considering this development, it would appear that IQ tests are only measuring one subsection of intelligence, located in the frontoparietal cortex (Gray, Chabris, & Braver, 2003; Hampshire, Highfield, Parkin, & Owen, 2012). In order to provide analogous statistics to base research upon, it is vital to create multifaceted, culturally sensitive measurements because cultures differ greatly in the emphasis they place on certain aspects of intelligence (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Kidd, 2005).

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

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

Hi Frank, I agree with you that the article The Musical Infant is fascinating and I would like to add some information to it. It's recognized that when an infant is in the womb and is exposed to music they can recall this music after they are conceived. To be exact, studies propose that playing music to a baby in the womb, and in early youth years, helps the brain to develop. Some believe that exposure to music while in the womb additionally adds to expand intellectual capacity. Be that as it may, others doubt this and the subject stays questionable. Similarly, there's a lot of research indicating how classical music stimulatingly affects the body and psyche, which thus can prompt enhanced physical and enthusiastic wellbeing, and can help

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

While the intelligence quotient can be shaped from a variety of sources ranging from biological to environmental influences, the correlation between an increase of IQ with classical music cannot be implied with a cause and effect relationship without consideration for other variables or a different interpretation of the relationship. Since the research did not specify the control variables within the experiments done on mothers, it is important to consider third variable problems in situations where the parents of the fetus may have an influence on the development of the baby based on their actions and genetics. For example, while all of the mothers were subjected to the same classical music, the variations between the habits of each individual may have effected the results through differences in the development of each infant (e.g. drugs, unhealthy diet, lack of eating).

“Music Games to Bring Out Children’s Inner Mozart” published by Denise Blostein sets the tones of admiring and benevolent. The article talks about a game called Compose Yourself that can help children ages 6 and up compose music without any type of musical instrument or music knowledge.