The Mozart Effect: A Controversial Study on Music's Impact on Spatial Reasoning | Slides World Music

2Psychology Teacher Network November-December 2001

TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Students have difficulty understanding and appreciat-

ing the value of the scientific method in dealing with

issues in psychology. Typically, students see conclusions

from a study or two about a complex question. The

problem is that the student must accept or reject these

conclusions because they come from a particular

source, whether teacher or textbook. This is reasoning

by the method of authority, which was not the method

used to obtain the original results and is not how re-

search psychologists think about such results.

Some outcomes may be so universal that we can

treat them as “facts.” Other findings are equivocal or

enigmatic. The scientific method is a process of

empirical evaluation of all findings. Research on the

Mozart effect exemplifies this process for two reasons.

First, the effect is relatively simple to understand.

Students do not have to learn much about equipment

or deep issues of research design. Second, a sequence

of experiments appeared in rapid enough order that

students can appreciate the process.

The Original Finding

The original article appeared in Nature (Rauscher,

Shaw, & Ky, 1993). It reported that 36 college

students showed an increase on spatial reasoning

scores from subtests of the Stanford-Binet Scale of

Intelligence after listening to a Mozart piano sonata

relative to listening to a relaxation tape or silence. The

effect occurred only if the subjects were tested imme-

diately. The size of the effect was the equivalent of 8

to 9 IQ points.

The music selection was from the Sonata for

Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448). It is lively and

emphasizes the virtuosity of the performers. It is not a

central piece in the Mozart canon.

The spatial reasoning measures consisted of a pat-

tern analysis task, a multiple-choice matrices task, and

a multiple-choice paper-folding and cutting task. Fig-

ure 1 shows an example matrices item. The task is to

choose the geometric figure from the lower line which

should be inserted in the empty cell to complete the

pattern. Figure 2 shows an example paper-folding and

cutting item. The top row shows a piece of paper un-

dergoing a fold and a pair of cuts, proceeding from left

to right. The task is to pick the illustration in the bot-

tom row that represents the paper when it is unfolded.

Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky (1995) reported a replica-

tion of their discovery using only the paper-folding

and cutting test.

Why did the effect become famous?

The authors contended that this was the first experi-

ment to demonstrate that listening to music caused

an increase in spatial reasoning. The issue of cause is

important. Many people believe there is a positive

correlation between academic success (like high

school grade point average) and musical experience

(like participation in a band) although the research

literature is ambiguous.

The “Mozart Effect”:

An Example of the Scientific Method in Operation

Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D., Appalachian State University

Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D.

Figure 1. Practice Stanford-Binet Matrices Item. The

correct answer is 'B' for the item illustrated here.

Figure 2. Practice Stanford-Binet Paper Folding

and Cutting Item. The correct answer is 'C' for

the item illustrated here.

Partial preview of the text

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TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Students have difficulty understanding and appreciat- ing the value of the scientific method in dealing with issues in psychology. Typically, students see conclusions from a study or two about a complex question. The problem is that the student must accept or reject these conclusions because they come from a particular source, whether teacher or textbook. This is reasoning by the method of authority, which was not the method used to obtain the original results and is not how re- search psychologists think about such results. Some outcomes may be so universal that we can treat them as “facts.” Other findings are equivocal or enigmatic. The scientific method is a process of empirical evaluation of all findings. Research on the Mozart effect exemplifies this process for two reasons. First, the effect is relatively simple to understand. Students do not have to learn much about equipment or deep issues of research design. Second, a sequence of experiments appeared in rapid enough order that students can appreciate the process.

The Original Finding

The original article appeared in Nature (Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993). It reported that 36 college students showed an increase on spatial reasoning scores from subtests of the Stanford-Binet Scale of Intelligence after listening to a Mozart piano sonata relative to listening to a relaxation tape or silence. The effect occurred only if the subjects were tested imme- diately. The size of the effect was the equivalent of 8 to 9 IQ points. The music selection was from the Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448). It is lively and emphasizes the virtuosity of the performers. It is not a central piece in the Mozart canon. The spatial reasoning measures consisted of a pat- tern analysis task, a multiple-choice matrices task, and a multiple-choice paper-folding and cutting task. Fig- ure 1 shows an example matrices item. The task is to choose the geometric figure from the lower line which should be inserted in the empty cell to complete the pattern. Figure 2 shows an example paper-folding and cutting item. The top row shows a piece of paper un- dergoing a fold and a pair of cuts, proceeding from left to right. The task is to pick the illustration in the bot- tom row that represents the paper when it is unfolded. Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky (1995) reported a replica- tion of their discovery using only the paper-folding and cutting test.

Why did the effect become famous?

The authors contended that this was the first experi- ment to demonstrate that listening to music caused an increase in spatial reasoning. The issue of cause is important. Many people believe there is a positive correlation between academic success (like high school grade point average) and musical experience (like participation in a band) although the research literature is ambiguous.

The “Mozart Effect”:

An Example of the Scientific Method in Operation

Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D., Appalachian State University

Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D.

Figure 1. Practice Stanford-Binet Matrices Item. The correct answer is 'B' for the item illustrated here.

Figure 2. Practice Stanford-Binet Paper Folding and Cutting Item. The correct answer is 'C' for the item illustrated here.

People often assume that a correlation suggests a causal connection. However no firm conclusion can be drawn as to why this relationship exists. For exam- ple, students from wealthy homes may have the added time and opportunity to succeed more than average in both mathematics and music. The authors’ causal interpretation was that exposing a person to that specific sonata was the sole factor that explained the increased reasoning scores. There was no explanation in the original article of why the Mozart effect should have occurred. In later publications, Rauscher and Shaw suggested that this particular sonata was activating brain regions required by the spatial reasoning tasks, and that this overlap of activation could be related to a mathe- matical model of neural activity by Shaw, a physicist by training. Later, their interpretation was transformed into the global generalization that participation in music activities would produce increases in mathematical performance and that the existence of the Mozart effect demonstrated the academic necessity of music education in the school curriculum. Mass marketers sold books and CDs to worried parents with the promise that early exposure to the right music would speed intellectual development. Rauscher and Shaw contributed to the frenzy by adding that listening to this sonata could reverse the effects of senile dementia, epileptic seizures, and improve the maze-learning ability of rats.

How to approach research results

A startling claim is made and repeated widely in the press. How is the claim evaluated? First, one must differentiate between the results of the experiment and the interpretation that was applied to the results. The results were that students showed increased scores on specific problems after hearing a portion of piano sonata relative to their scores after listening to a relaxation tape or sitting in silence. The interpretation was that some property of the music, perhaps a certain pattern of notes, increased the activity of brain regions involved in spatial problems and that this increased brain activity produced increased accu- racy of solution of visual puzzles. One can see a large gap between the results and the interpretation. A purpose of the scientific method is to determine whether the gap can be filled successfully by a series of experiments which succes- sively extend the original finding. To do this researchers needed a description of the critical prop- erties of the music, the means by which the music produced its effect, the range of activities that would be affected, and the expected duration of the effect. But the first step is that you need to be able to produce the effect.

Early attempts to produce a Mozart effect

Several experiments appeared after the initial study and reported negative results. Carstens and colleagues (1995) had students listen to the original Mozart sonata and then answer 64 multiple choice items from the Minnesota Paper Form Board Test. Partici- pants viewed two-dimensional parts and selected the figure that indicated the appearance of the final unit when the parts were assembled. Carstens and colleagues found no difference in performance between the Mozart group and a control group who meditated in silence. No difference, or a null result, is tricky to interpret. The lack of difference could be due to the lack of effect of listening to the sonata or due to other conditions which interfered with the subjects. Carstens and colleagues found that the subjects’ SAT scores predicted Form Board scores but the addition of information of whether the subject listened to Mozart changed the size of the prediction score by a trivial amount. The important point is that the lack of a Mozart effect became meaningful in the context of the other expected finding. A second study worthy of note was by Newman and colleagues (1995). They increased the number of participants so that detecting the effect would be more likely, and they obtained background informa- tion on the musical training and preferences of their subjects. Subjects listened to the Mozart sonata, a relaxation tape, or sat in silence and were tested on items from Ravens Progressive Matrices. The task is very similar to that illustrated in Figure 1. Newman, like Carstens, found no Mozart effect. Additionally, the effect of musical background was not consistent with what would be expected from Mozart-effect advocates. Subjects who had extensive music training (M = 8 years) performed no differ- ently than subjects who had no musical training. Moreover, subjects who indicated a preference for classical music scored significantly worse on the matrices problems compared to those who preferred “other” music.

The Reply of Rauscher and Shaw (1998)

The purpose of Rauscher and Shaw’s reply was to explain the difficulties that other researchers were having in producing the Mozart effect. Their major point was that previous experiments did not test the right type of spatial reasoning. The original 1993 article had reported improve- ment on the combined measure of the three Stanford- Binet tests because scores on the tasks were well correlated. Rauscher and Shaw (1998) explained that the improvement reported in the 1993 article had occurred only with the paper-folding and cutting task, so the lack of effect observed by Carstens et al. See Mozart, page 5

The Mozart Effect: A Controversial Study on Music's Impact on Spatial Reasoning, Slides of World Music

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Partial preview of the text

Download The Mozart Effect: A Controversial Study on Music's Impact on Spatial Reasoning and more Slides World Music in PDF only on Docsity!

TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGY

The Original Finding

Why did the effect become famous?

The “Mozart Effect”:

An Example of the Scientific Method in Operation

Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D., Appalachian State University

How to approach research results

Early attempts to produce a Mozart effect

The Reply of Rauscher and Shaw (1998)