Mozart effect
Encyclopedia
The Mozart effect can refer to:
The term was first coined by Alfred A. Tomatis
who used Mozart's music as the listening stimulus in his work attempting to cure a variety of disorders. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in Nature
suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted scores on one portion of the IQ test. As a result, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller
, proposed a budget to provide every child born in Georgia with a CD of classical music
.
in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart? (Why Mozart?). He used the music of Mozart in his efforts to "retrain" the ear, and believed that listening to the music presented at differing frequencies helped the ear, and promoted healing and the development of the brain.
, and the results were published in Nature
. They gave research participants one of three standard tests of abstract spatial reasoning after they had experienced each of three listening conditions: a sonata
by Mozart, repetitive relaxation music, and silence. They found a temporary enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Shaw and Rauscher claim that their work has been misrepresented. What they have shown is "that there are patterns of neurons that fire in sequences, and that there appear to pre-existing sites in the brain that respond to specific frequencies."* This is not quite the same as showing that listening to Mozart increases and weight intelligence in children.
Rauscher et. al. show that the enhancing effect of the music condition is only temporary: no student had effects extending beyond the 15-minute period in which they were tested. The study makes no statement of an increase in IQ in general, but in participants' spatial intelligence scores.
as "the world's greatest composer." A 1997 Boston Globe article mentioned some of the Rauscher and Shaw results. It described one study in which three- and four-year-olds who were given eight months of private piano lessons scored 34% higher on tests of spatio-temporal reasoning than control groups given computer lessons, singing lessons, and no training.
The 1997 book by Don Campbell, "The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit", discusses the theory that listening to Mozart (especially the piano concertos) may temporarily increase one's IQ and produce many other beneficial effects on mental function. Campbell recommends playing specially selected classical music to infants, in the expectation that it will benefit their mental development
. These theories are controversial. The relationship of sound and music (both played and listened to) for cognitive function and various physiological metrics has been explored in studies with no definitive results. After The Mozart Effect, Campbell wrote a follow-up book, The Mozart Effect For Children, and created related products. Among these are collections of music that he states harness the Mozart effect to enhance "deep rest and rejuvenation", "intelligence and learning", and "creativity and imagination". Campbell defines the term as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being. It represents the general use of music to reduce stress, depression, or anxiety; induce relaxation or sleep; activate the body; and improve memory
or awareness
. Innovative and experimental uses of music and sound can improve listening disorders, dyslexia
, attention deficit disorder
, autism
, and other mental and physical disorders and diseases".
, governor of Georgia
, announced that his proposed state budget would include $105,000 a year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. Miller stated "No one questions that listening to music at a very early age affects the spatial-temporal reasoning that underlies math and engineering and even chess." Miller played legislators some of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy
" on a tape recorder and asked "Now, don't you feel smarter already?" Miller asked Yoel Levi
, music director of the Atlanta Symphony
, to compile a collection of classical pieces that should be included. State representative Homer M. DeLoach said "I asked about the possibility of including some Charlie Daniels
or something like that, but they said they thought the classical music has a greater positive impact. Having never studied those impacts too much, I guess I'll just have to take their word for that."
On efforts like Miller's budget proposal, and the press attention surrounding the effect, Rauscher has said, "I don't think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences. But I do think the money could be better spent on music education programs."
Research performed at School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, published in 2010 suggests limitations: "Listening to Mozart does not improve children's spatial ability: Final curtains for the Mozart effect".
s of varying complexity. The students were given eight minutes to complete as many mazes as possible. If the Mozart effect is replicable, then the participant's performances on the mazes should be enhanced after listening to Mozart's music relative to the other two listening conditions. Of the 22 volunteers, the average student completed 2.68 mazes in 8 minutes after listening to Mozart's music. After listening to different types of music, the average student only completed 2.2 mazes, and after being in silence, the average student completed 1.73 mazes.
Other researchers argue that the "Mozart Effect" is only an artifact of the short-term effects of music listening on mood and arousal. William Forde Thompson
, Gabriela Husain, and Glenn Schellenberg (2001) tested the Mozart effect on 24 graduate and undergraduate students with a range of musical background (average of 2.75 years of formal music lessons). The participants listened to either Mozart's Piano Sonata in D major (K.448)
, or to "Albinoni's Adagio In G Minor". The Mozart sonata contrasts with the Adagio in being more upbeat and energetic than the slower, sadder Adagio. The participants then performed the same spatial-temporal task that was administered in the original study by Rauscher and colleagues, called the "Paper Folding and Cutting" task, or PF&C. Participants then completed a standard battery for evaluating mood and arousal, called the "Profile of Mood States". They also provided simple ratings of their mood and energy levels on a scale from 1 to 7. Finally, they also rated how much they enjoyed the music that they heard.
The participants performed significantly better on the spatial-temporal task after listening to Mozart's sonata than after listening to the Adagio. However, this apparent benefit disappeared when differences in mood and arousal were held constant by statistical means.
Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major K.448
has also been known to reduce the number of seizure
s that people with epilepsy
have. The University of Illinois Medical Center
did an experiment on 29 epileptic patients. After listening to the piece for up to 300 seconds, 23 of the 29 patients experienced significant decreases in epileptiform activity, even from patients in comas. They are not certain if this effect is immediate or if it requires 40–300 seconds to become apparent.
Music has different effects on different people and because of this, researchers continue to test if the Mozart effect is real, and if any other pieces have the same effect.
In addition, music has been evaluated to see if it has other properties. The April 2001 edition of Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine assessed the possible health benefits of the music of Mozart. John Jenkins played Sonata K.448 to patients with epilepsy and found a decrease in epileptiform activity. According to the British Epilepsy Organization, research has suggested that apart from Mozart's K.448
and Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488)
, only one other piece of music has been found to have a similar effect; a song by the Greek composer Yanni
, entitled "Acroyali/Standing in Motion" (version from Yanni Live at the Acropolis
performed at the Acropolis
). It was determined to have the "Mozart effect", by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine because it was similar to Mozart's K.448 in tempo
, structure, melodic and harmonic consonance and predictability.
, and Kenneth M. Steele et. al.
in a pair of papers published together under the title "Prelude or Requiem for the 'Mozart Effect'?" Chabris stated that his meta-analysis
demonstrated "that any cognitive enhancement is small and does not reflect any change in IQ or reasoning ability in general, but instead derives entirely from performance on one specific type of cognitive task and has a simple neuropsychological explanation", called "enjoyment arousal". For example, he cites a study that found that "listening either to Mozart or to a passage from a Stephen King
story enhanced subjects' performance in paper folding and cutting (one of the tests frequently employed by Rauscher and Shaw) but only for those who enjoyed what they heard". Steele et. al. found that "listening to Mozart produced a 3-point increase relative to silence in one experiment and a 4-point decrease in the other experiment".
), minimalist music
(a Philip Glass
composition), white noise
or silence, and were then tested for five days, three trials per day, in a multiple T-maze
. By Day 3, the rats exposed to the Mozart music completed the maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than the rats in the other groups. The difference increased in magnitude through Day 5. This suggests that repeated exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporal learning in rats.
) suggests that the Mozart effect can be attributed to temporary changes in mood and arousal that result from prolonged exposure to music (e.g., 8–10 minutes). Not all music generates the Mozart effect, however. The music must be perceived as having an energetic and positive emotional quality.
plant plays Mozart music to break down the waste faster, reports the UK Guardian
. Anton Stucki, chief operator of the Treuenbrietzen
plant., is quoted as saying, "We think the secret is in the vibrations of the music, which penetrate everything—including the water, the sewage and the cells."
- A set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal reasoningSpatial-temporal reasoningSpatial–temporal reasoning is used in both the fields of psychology and computer science.-Spatial–temporal reasoning in psychology:Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to visualize spatial patterns and mentally manipulate them over a time-ordered sequence of spatial transformations.This...
;" - Popularized versions of the theory, which suggest that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter," or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development;
- A US trademarkTrademarkA trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
for a set of commercial recordings and related materials, which are claimed to harness the effect for a variety of purposes. The trademark owner, Don Campbell, Inc., claims benefits far beyond improving spatio-temporal reasoning or raising intelligence, defining the mark as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being."
The term was first coined by Alfred A. Tomatis
Alfred A. Tomatis
Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis was an internationally known otolaryngologist, and inventor. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from the Paris School of Medicine...
who used Mozart's music as the listening stimulus in his work attempting to cure a variety of disorders. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted scores on one portion of the IQ test. As a result, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller
Zell Miller
Zell Bryan Miller is an American politician from the US state of Georgia. A Democrat, Miller served as Lieutenant Governor from 1975 to 1991, 79th Governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999, and as United States Senator from 2000 to 2005....
, proposed a budget to provide every child born in Georgia with a CD of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
.
Alfred A. Tomatis
The concept of the "Mozart effect" was described by French researcher, Dr. Alfred A. TomatisAlfred A. Tomatis
Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis was an internationally known otolaryngologist, and inventor. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from the Paris School of Medicine...
in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart? (Why Mozart?). He used the music of Mozart in his efforts to "retrain" the ear, and believed that listening to the music presented at differing frequencies helped the ear, and promoted healing and the development of the brain.
Rauscher et. al. 1993 study
Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky (1993) investigated the effect of listening to music by Mozart on spatial reasoningSpatial-temporal reasoning
Spatial–temporal reasoning is used in both the fields of psychology and computer science.-Spatial–temporal reasoning in psychology:Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to visualize spatial patterns and mentally manipulate them over a time-ordered sequence of spatial transformations.This...
, and the results were published in Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
. They gave research participants one of three standard tests of abstract spatial reasoning after they had experienced each of three listening conditions: a sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
by Mozart, repetitive relaxation music, and silence. They found a temporary enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Shaw and Rauscher claim that their work has been misrepresented. What they have shown is "that there are patterns of neurons that fire in sequences, and that there appear to pre-existing sites in the brain that respond to specific frequencies."* This is not quite the same as showing that listening to Mozart increases and weight intelligence in children.
Rauscher et. al. show that the enhancing effect of the music condition is only temporary: no student had effects extending beyond the 15-minute period in which they were tested. The study makes no statement of an increase in IQ in general, but in participants' spatial intelligence scores.
Popularization
While Rauscher et. al. only showed an increase in "spatial intelligence", the results were popularly interpreted as an increase in general IQ. This misconception, and the fact that the music used in the study was by Mozart, had an obvious appeal to those who valued this music; the Mozart effect was thus widely reported. In 1994, New York Times music columnist Alex Ross wrote in a light-hearted article, "researchers [Rauscher and Shaw] have determined that listening to Mozart actually makes you smarter", and presented this as the final piece of evidence that Mozart has dethroned BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
as "the world's greatest composer." A 1997 Boston Globe article mentioned some of the Rauscher and Shaw results. It described one study in which three- and four-year-olds who were given eight months of private piano lessons scored 34% higher on tests of spatio-temporal reasoning than control groups given computer lessons, singing lessons, and no training.
The 1997 book by Don Campbell, "The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit", discusses the theory that listening to Mozart (especially the piano concertos) may temporarily increase one's IQ and produce many other beneficial effects on mental function. Campbell recommends playing specially selected classical music to infants, in the expectation that it will benefit their mental development
Neural development
Neural development comprises the processes that generate, shape, and reshape the nervous system, from the earliest stages of embryogenesis to the final years of life. The study of neural development aims to describe the cellular basis of brain development and to address the underlying mechanisms...
. These theories are controversial. The relationship of sound and music (both played and listened to) for cognitive function and various physiological metrics has been explored in studies with no definitive results. After The Mozart Effect, Campbell wrote a follow-up book, The Mozart Effect For Children, and created related products. Among these are collections of music that he states harness the Mozart effect to enhance "deep rest and rejuvenation", "intelligence and learning", and "creativity and imagination". Campbell defines the term as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being. It represents the general use of music to reduce stress, depression, or anxiety; induce relaxation or sleep; activate the body; and improve memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
or awareness
Awareness
Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of...
. Innovative and experimental uses of music and sound can improve listening disorders, dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, attention deficit disorder
ADHD predominantly inattentive
ADHD predominantly inattentive is one of the three subtypes of Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder . While ADHD-PI is sometimes still called "attention deficit disorder" by the general public, these older terms were formally changed in 1994 in the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...
, autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
, and other mental and physical disorders and diseases".
Political impact
The political impact of the theory was demonstrated on January 13, 1998, when Zell MillerZell Miller
Zell Bryan Miller is an American politician from the US state of Georgia. A Democrat, Miller served as Lieutenant Governor from 1975 to 1991, 79th Governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999, and as United States Senator from 2000 to 2005....
, governor of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, announced that his proposed state budget would include $105,000 a year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. Miller stated "No one questions that listening to music at a very early age affects the spatial-temporal reasoning that underlies math and engineering and even chess." Miller played legislators some of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy
Ode to Joy
"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller, enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind...
" on a tape recorder and asked "Now, don't you feel smarter already?" Miller asked Yoel Levi
Yoel Levi
Yoel Levi is a musician and conductor. Born in Romania, he grew up in Israel. He studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, earning a Master of Arts degree with distinction. He also studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music under Mendi Rodan. Levi won the 1978 International Besançon Competition...
, music director of the Atlanta Symphony
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Robert Spano has been its music director since 2001...
, to compile a collection of classical pieces that should be included. State representative Homer M. DeLoach said "I asked about the possibility of including some Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels
Charles Edward "Charlie" Daniels is an American musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He is known primarily for his number one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and multiple other songs he has performed and written. Daniels has been active as a singer...
or something like that, but they said they thought the classical music has a greater positive impact. Having never studied those impacts too much, I guess I'll just have to take their word for that."
Limitations of the effect
Popular presentations of the "Mozart effect", including Alex Ross's comment that "listening to Mozart actually makes you smarter" and Zell Miller's "don't you feel smarter" query to the Georgia legislature, almost always tie it to "intelligence." Rauscher, one of the original researchers, has disclaimed this idea. In a 1999 reply to an article challenging the effect, published along with the article, she wrote (emphasis added):On efforts like Miller's budget proposal, and the press attention surrounding the effect, Rauscher has said, "I don't think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences. But I do think the money could be better spent on music education programs."
Research performed at School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, published in 2010 suggests limitations: "Listening to Mozart does not improve children's spatial ability: Final curtains for the Mozart effect".
Other research
Another experiment that agrees with the claim was made by Bellarmine College. To make sure the Mozart effect was consistent, The Department of Psychology at Bellarmine College tested the spatial reasoning of the participants in a study by having them complete pencil-and-paper mazeMaze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
s of varying complexity. The students were given eight minutes to complete as many mazes as possible. If the Mozart effect is replicable, then the participant's performances on the mazes should be enhanced after listening to Mozart's music relative to the other two listening conditions. Of the 22 volunteers, the average student completed 2.68 mazes in 8 minutes after listening to Mozart's music. After listening to different types of music, the average student only completed 2.2 mazes, and after being in silence, the average student completed 1.73 mazes.
Other researchers argue that the "Mozart Effect" is only an artifact of the short-term effects of music listening on mood and arousal. William Forde Thompson
William Forde Thompson
William Forde "Bill" Thompson is a Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University, where he conducts research on music, emotion, and performance. He is Director of the .From 2007 to 2009, he was President of the...
, Gabriela Husain, and Glenn Schellenberg (2001) tested the Mozart effect on 24 graduate and undergraduate students with a range of musical background (average of 2.75 years of formal music lessons). The participants listened to either Mozart's Piano Sonata in D major (K.448)
Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (Mozart)
The Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 is a piano work composed in 1781 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at 25 years of age. It is written in strict sonata-allegro form, with three movements. The sonata was composed for a performance he would give with fellow pianist Josephine von Aurnhammer...
, or to "Albinoni's Adagio In G Minor". The Mozart sonata contrasts with the Adagio in being more upbeat and energetic than the slower, sadder Adagio. The participants then performed the same spatial-temporal task that was administered in the original study by Rauscher and colleagues, called the "Paper Folding and Cutting" task, or PF&C. Participants then completed a standard battery for evaluating mood and arousal, called the "Profile of Mood States". They also provided simple ratings of their mood and energy levels on a scale from 1 to 7. Finally, they also rated how much they enjoyed the music that they heard.
The participants performed significantly better on the spatial-temporal task after listening to Mozart's sonata than after listening to the Adagio. However, this apparent benefit disappeared when differences in mood and arousal were held constant by statistical means.
Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major K.448
Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (Mozart)
The Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 is a piano work composed in 1781 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at 25 years of age. It is written in strict sonata-allegro form, with three movements. The sonata was composed for a performance he would give with fellow pianist Josephine von Aurnhammer...
has also been known to reduce the number of seizure
Seizure
An epileptic seizure, occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of "abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain". The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement or as mild as a brief loss of awareness...
s that people with epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
have. The University of Illinois Medical Center
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
did an experiment on 29 epileptic patients. After listening to the piece for up to 300 seconds, 23 of the 29 patients experienced significant decreases in epileptiform activity, even from patients in comas. They are not certain if this effect is immediate or if it requires 40–300 seconds to become apparent.
Music has different effects on different people and because of this, researchers continue to test if the Mozart effect is real, and if any other pieces have the same effect.
In addition, music has been evaluated to see if it has other properties. The April 2001 edition of Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine assessed the possible health benefits of the music of Mozart. John Jenkins played Sonata K.448 to patients with epilepsy and found a decrease in epileptiform activity. According to the British Epilepsy Organization, research has suggested that apart from Mozart's K.448
Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (Mozart)
The Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 is a piano work composed in 1781 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at 25 years of age. It is written in strict sonata-allegro form, with three movements. The sonata was composed for a performance he would give with fellow pianist Josephine von Aurnhammer...
and Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488)
Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)
The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major is a musical composition for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own catalogue, on March 2, 1786, around the time of the premiere of his opera, The Marriage of Figaro...
, only one other piece of music has been found to have a similar effect; a song by the Greek composer Yanni
Yanni
Yanni , born Yiannis Hrysomallis is a Greek self-taught pianist, keyboardist, and composer who has spent most of his life in the United States.He earned Grammy nominations for his 1992 album, Dare to Dream, and the 1993 follow-up, In My Time...
, entitled "Acroyali/Standing in Motion" (version from Yanni Live at the Acropolis
Yanni Live at the Acropolis
Yanni Live at the Acropolis, is the name of both an album and video by contemporary instrumental musician Yanni, recorded live at the Herodes Atticus Theatre, Athens, Greece, on September 25, 1993, and released in 1994. . This album peaked at #1 on "Billboard's "Top New Age Albums" chart and at...
performed at the Acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
). It was determined to have the "Mozart effect", by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine because it was similar to Mozart's K.448 in tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
, structure, melodic and harmonic consonance and predictability.
Chabris and Steele
The existence of the Mozart effect was challenged by two teams of researchers in 1999: Christopher F. Chabris, and Kenneth M. Steele et. al.
in a pair of papers published together under the title "Prelude or Requiem for the 'Mozart Effect'?" Chabris stated that his meta-analysis
Meta-analysis
In statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses. In its simplest form, this is normally by identification of a common measure of effect size, for which a weighted average might be the output of a meta-analyses. Here the...
demonstrated "that any cognitive enhancement is small and does not reflect any change in IQ or reasoning ability in general, but instead derives entirely from performance on one specific type of cognitive task and has a simple neuropsychological explanation", called "enjoyment arousal". For example, he cites a study that found that "listening either to Mozart or to a passage from a Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
story enhanced subjects' performance in paper folding and cutting (one of the tests frequently employed by Rauscher and Shaw) but only for those who enjoyed what they heard". Steele et. al. found that "listening to Mozart produced a 3-point increase relative to silence in one experiment and a 4-point decrease in the other experiment".
Bridgett and Cuevas
Even if music improves performance in some settings and on some tasks, there is evidence that the effect is not general in the sense that it does not apply in other tasks. Bridget and Cuevas (2000) found that, when compared to a no-music condition, listening to music by Bach or Mozart for 10 minutes produced no effect on subsequent mathematical problem solving performance.German Research Ministry
A report published by the German Research Ministry in 2006 and analyzing over 300 published articles on music and intelligence concluded that "... passively listening to Mozart — or indeed any other music you enjoy — does not make you smarter. But more studies should be done to find out whether music lessons could raise your child's IQ in the long term".University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Department of Psychology
A study of rats indicated a tangible demonstration of musical enjoyment versus a physical response to the Mozart Sonata. A number of rats were exposed in utero plus 60 days post-partum to one of the following: complex music (Mozart Piano Sonata in D major (K.448)Sonata for Two Pianos in D major (Mozart)
The Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 is a piano work composed in 1781 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at 25 years of age. It is written in strict sonata-allegro form, with three movements. The sonata was composed for a performance he would give with fellow pianist Josephine von Aurnhammer...
), minimalist music
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
(a Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
composition), white noise
White noise
White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
or silence, and were then tested for five days, three trials per day, in a multiple T-maze
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
. By Day 3, the rats exposed to the Mozart music completed the maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than the rats in the other groups. The difference increased in magnitude through Day 5. This suggests that repeated exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporal learning in rats.
Thompson, Schellenberg, Husain
Research by William Forde Thompson, Glenn Schellenberg, and Gabriela Husain (University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
) suggests that the Mozart effect can be attributed to temporary changes in mood and arousal that result from prolonged exposure to music (e.g., 8–10 minutes). Not all music generates the Mozart effect, however. The music must be perceived as having an energetic and positive emotional quality.
Other uses of Mozart's music
A German sewage treatmentSewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
plant plays Mozart music to break down the waste faster, reports the UK Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Anton Stucki, chief operator of the Treuenbrietzen
Treuenbrietzen
Treuenbrietzen is a town in the Bundesland of Brandenburg, Germany.-History:The town has existed since the Middle Ages and the first written evidence about it is from 1217. During the Reformation, Martin Luther came in 1537 to preach in the town, but his way to the church was blocked...
plant., is quoted as saying, "We think the secret is in the vibrations of the music, which penetrate everything—including the water, the sewage and the cells."
External links
- Dowd, Will. (2008-02-06) ISSN 15565696. The myth of the Mozart effect
- Skeptic's Dictionary - The Mozart Effect
- http://www.ruo.dk/mozartsymphonies/index.php?id=28&l=ukExtensive collection of articles and links - Danish Radio SinfoniettaDanish National Chamber OrchestraThe Danish National Chamber Orchestra is a small symphony orchestra consisting of 42 players...
] - Frequently asked questions on the Mozart Effect