The year 1993 saw the most astounding claim when Rauscher et al. (1993) argued that once individuals listen to the sonata of Mozart for ten minutes, they would show better results regarding spatial reasoning skills. Rauscher claimed that prolonged listening to relaxation music and instruction, designed to lower the blood pressure, would not produce a similar effect as that created through the listening of Mozart’s classics. His studies indicated an increase in the mean spatial IQ score by 8 to 9 points after listening to Mozart’s classics than in subjects who did not listen to the music. While these results proved controversial for quite some time, the overall enhancing effect did not exceed 10-15 minutes. Investigators were unable to reproduce Rauscher’s findings (Chabris, 1999). However, other researchers confirmed that listening to Mozart’s piano sonata K488 augmented the performance of the spatial-temporal region of the mind, as intricately measured by a variety of tests derived from a scale called the Stanford-Binet (Newman, Rosenback & Burns, 1995). This test is also used in measuring paper cutting and folding tasks together with other IQ determination tests such as the pencil and paper maze tasks (Wilson & Brown, 1997).
In the study of music and the performance of spatial tasks, Rauscher premises that there is an anecdotal, historical and even co-relational relationship between higher brain functions and the cognition of music (Rauscher, 1993). However, while co-relational relationships exist between the cognition of music, casual relationships are almost non-existent in both music cognitions and those cognitions that pertain to abstract operations such as spatial reasoning and mathematical understanding. In his investigations, Rauscher gave students three identical sets of IQ spatial reasoning tasks. However, it is worth pointing out that the students were exposed to various conditions prior to these tests. Here, representation of independent variables was through the three sets of tasks given to each student while the dependent variable was the outcome of the spatial IQ. In this study, thirty-six college students participated in all the three listening variables. They underwent a test of their spatial reasoning skills promptly after being in the varied environments. In order to maintain a consistent standard age score (SAS), these three variables representing the various conditions in which participants were placed had to have a uniformed exposure of ten minutes.
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As a test of hypothesis, Rauscher offers evidence in the results of the uniform standard age score (SAS). The determination of the mean standard age relating to all the conditions of listening was accomplished using the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale. A mean SAS score of 57.56, 54.61 and 54.00 was achieved for those listening to classical music, those in relaxation condition and those whose condition was silence respectively. To evaluate the weighted effect of the scores, they were converted to spatial scores of 119, 111 and 110 irrespective of the varied conditions participants were placed in (Rauscher, 1993). Following this experimentation, the IQ of participants who were placed in music conditions displayed an increase of 8 to 9 points higher than those of the other two conditions. Therefore, the justification of this hypothesis was intrinsically evident owing to the fact that it used empirical substantiations and explanations. As such, this research is characteristically valid. Further, this study explains their findings in the form of repeated measures and analysis of variance. Justifications lie in the results of variance performed on SAS and reveal that the performance of participants was noticeably augmented while listening to Mozart than after listening to other conditions.
In his studies, Rauscher was puzzled by the limited ability of the Mozart effect in influencing and enhancing the general intelligence of individuals. In his perspective, inappropriate test procedures were the inherent cause of inconsistencies in relating the Mozart effect to general intelligence. Overall, the initial generality of this premise in the original findings of Rauscher has been disparaged on the basis that any occurrence of the Mozart effect is innate as a result of the experience of a form of “enjoyment and arousal” majorly occasioned through this specific music. Moreover, criticism extends to the fact that the Mozart effect would be mitigated not only in the absolute absence of its enjoyment but also in dissimilarities of individual spatial abilities. While this may be the case, animal experiments countered skepticism. In a study whereby rats were exposed to different levels of music and noise such as songs by Philip Glass, Mozart’s piano sonata K488, white noise or silence, the results were markedly varied (Jenkins, 2001). After exposure to these music modalities, the rats were placed in mazes, and the group that listened to Mozart was able to complete the maze in the fastest time possible with fewer recorded errors than the other groups. This study conclusively indicated that enjoyment and arousal were not part of the basis for improvement.
Overall, music possesses the power of leaving longstanding effects on the brain. Initial tests performed on adults exposed to the music of Mozart were only of short duration. In experiments that relate long-term implications of music investigated on groups of pre-school children, tremendous augmentation in music understanding was shown and subsequently, higher brain functions. The children received training in music lessons for six months during which they intensely studied fingering techniques, sight-reading, playing from memory and musical notations. Following this training, the children gained skills necessary to perform melodies from Mozart and Beethoven. After this, the children took on the task of taking spatial-temporal reasoning tests recalibrated for their age. The results revealed a 30 percent increase than children of a similar age given either a lesson on computers or other strategic augmentative activities (Jenkins, 2001). While improvements were only limited to reasoning in the spatial-temporal area of the mind, little effect was recorded in spatial recognition. Nonetheless, this study shows that experiments on the Mozart effect can take on modifications, which further supplement results making these studies easily generalized.
Ultimately, enhancements of the performance of spatial-temporal reasoning after listening to music by Mozart for ten minutes or less has always been reported by most investigators as effective (Jenkins, 2001). Moreover, in studies, which show positive results and enhancements, the Mozart effect lasts for less than twelve minutes. These effects vary among individuals and rely on spatial tasks chosen in which general intelligence does not have a tangible effect. Other studies indicate that there is concrete evidence in which the Mozart effect makes a difference in patients with epilepsy. While tangible results are not specified to compositions of Mozart, additional music criteria that are needed are not defined completely. Moreover, practical use of observations in these studies remains ambiguous, especially, the fact that numerous such experiments relate only to listening periods that are short term. Moreover, the limitation of music to Mozart’s piano sonata K448 indicates inherent limitations that some researchers feel do not fully support the hypothesis that music can cause empirical changes in the mind’s thinking process (Jenkins, 2001). Overall, more studies are needed and are necessary, particularly, comprehensive researches that examine the effect of long-term exposure to not only Mozart but also to a wide range of other selections of composers, prior to assessing the full results of the Mozart effect.
References
Chabris, C. (1999). Prelude or requiem for the `Mozart effect'?. Nature , 400 , 826-827.
Jenkins, J. (2001). The Mozart effect. Journal Of The Royal Society Of Medicine , 94 (4), 170-172.
Newman, J., Rosenback, J., & Burns, I. (1995). An experimental test of “the Mozart effect”: does listening to his music improve spatial ability?. Percept Motor Skills , 81 , 1379-87.
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature , 365 , 6447-6611
Wilson, T., & Brown, T. (1997). Re-examination of the effect of Mozart's music on spatial task performance. J Psychol , 131 , 365-370.
