Hi. im nichole and im from the philipinnes. im a 2nd year highschool student and i got this project in school. im just curious... is it true that a person who listen to classical music is the type of people who is calm??? Do the type of music a certain person listens to affects his or her attitude??? Why sometimes pregnant people listen to classical music??do their babies will be smart or witty if they listen to classical music. Why not ROCK or POP??? Does it affect?? I hope you can answer those many questions of mine. Thank you..

-- Nichole Verder (nichole031988@yahoo.com), June 28, 2002

Answers

There is some evidence that there is a small effect on intelligence and personality if young children listen to classical music (it often now goes under the name of the "Mozart effect"). This effect, as I understand it, is not very reliable and rather small in any case. Why not pop or rock? Who knows. I think the assumption is that classical music is structually more sophisticated and so helps the brain develop in certain ways. It is often claimed that the effect is primarily on later math skills. There is also some evidence that cows give more milk when Mozart is played in their barns. Go figure!

The size a reliability of these effects are often blown way out of proportion by the media and by politicians.

For some examples of this kind of research, see:

Wingert, M. Lucille (1972). Effects of a music enrichment program in the education of the mentally retarded. Journal of Music Therapy, 9(1), 13-22.

Laczo, Zoltan (1985). The nonmusical outcomes of music education: Influence on intelligence? Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Fal No 85, 109-118.

RAUSCHER FH, SHAW GL, KY KN (OCT 14 1993). MUSIC AND SPATIAL TASK-PERFORMANCE. NATURE 365 (6447): 611-611.

Steele, Kenneth M.; Ball, Tamera N.; Runk, Rebecca (1997). Listening to Mozart does not enhance backwards digit span performance. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 84(3, Pt 2), 1179-1184.

Rauscher FH, Shaw GL (1998). Key components of the Mozart effect. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 86 (3, pt 1), 835-841.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), June 29, 2002.

Nature magazine published the first report on the enhancing effects of Mozart's music on spatial temporal processing in 1993. Rauscher, Shaw and Ky reported college students that listened to an excerpt (10 min) of Mozartz's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major had significantly better performance on a spatial IQ task (i.e., Stanford-Binet's paper folding and cutting items test)than a control group who listened to a relaxation tape. This became known as the "Mozart Effect." They argued that the average enhancement on cognitive performance was about 8 to 9 points. Although there is considerable scientific controversy over whether the Mozart Effect exists (see Steele et al., 1999 - below) it is often cited by school boards for increased funding towards music education in grade school. Some of the controversy revolves around whether the Mozart Effect is too weak, refers to an increase in spatial-temporal task performance, abstract reasoning or whether improvements in these areas are limited to Mozart's music. For example, Nantias and Schellenberg (1999) in Psycological Science, replicated Rauscher, Shaw and Ky's (1993) study, but utilized a narative story (non-musical stimuli) that proved just as effective as Mozart's music.

Some studies that have replicated the Mozart Effect include:

Nantais, K.M. & Schellenberg, G. E. (1999). The Mozart Effect: An artifact of preference. Psychological Science, 10, 370-373.

Rauscher, F.H., Shaw,G.L. & Ky, J.N.(1995). Listening to Mozart enhances spatial temporal reasoning: towards a neurophysilogical basis. Neuroscience letters, 185, 44-47.

Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L. (1998). Key components of the Mozart Effect. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 86, 835-841.

Rideout, B.E. & Laubach, (1996). EEG correlates of enhanced spatial task performance. Nature, 365, 611.

Rideout B.E. & Taylor, J.(1997). Enhanced spatial performance following 10 minutes exposure to music: a replication. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 112-114. Rideout, B.E., Dougherty, S. & Wernert, L.(1998). Effect of music on spatial performance: a test of generality. Perceptual and Motor skills, 86, 512-514.

Studies that have failed to replicate the Mozart Effect include:

Keanealy, P. & Monseth, A. (1994). Music and IQ tests. The Psychologist, 7, 345.

Steele et al., (1999). Prelude or requiem for the Mozart Effect? Nature, 40, 827.

-- Pete Economou (peteecon@yorku.ca), June 29, 2002.