The Mozart Effect

                               [It wouldn't be a bad idea to have this playing as you read.]

I found this in the psychology textbook I was reading last week. Since the Mozart effect has been a little bit of a trend lately, I figured I'd look into it some more.

One widely publicized but now-discounted finding, dubbed the "Mozart effect," suggested that listening to classical music boosted cognitive ability. Other research has, however, revealed small but enduring cognitive benefits to either keyboard or vocal music training (Schellenberg, 2005, 2006). The music-training effect appears unexplained by the greater parental income and education of music-trained children; it may result from improved attention focus or abstract thinking ability. Other researchers hold out hope that targeted training of specific abilities (rather like a body builder doing curls to strengthen biceps and sit-ups to strengthen abdominal muscles) might build mental muscles (Kosslyn, 2007).

I wanted to know more, so I Googled it. Here's what I found:

Researchers at the University of Vienna (Pietschnig, Voracek, & Formann, 2010) performed a meta-analysis of nearly 40 studies. Guess what? They found no evidence that listening to Mozart's music "enhanced" cognitive abilities in any way. Now this doesn't mean you should throw out every classical CD, DVD, and toy you own. It just means you just can't expect brilliant results from your child by simply having him or her listen to or play with those materials. However, there IS evidence that learning music and being involved in music helps improve a child's math and language abilities. Additionally, there are tangible social benefits to being involved in music, as well as                                                                     emotional and self-expression rewards.

These are "ways to incorporate music in your child's life that have some real benefit": 

          1. Sing to your child.

          2. Purchase child-friendly musical instruments.

          3. Enroll in an early childhood music class.

          4. Pay for formal music lessons.

          5. Encourage participation in band, orchestra, or choir.

Moral of the story: Take piano lessons! Simply listening to music will not improve your "cognitive abilities", as the experts say. You have to put your brain to work.