Some professors, researchers and parents believe that listening to Mozart’s music will improve their cognition and learning capabilities.
Ohio State hosted a series of lectures related to the “Mozart Effect” Saturday at Weigel Hall, co-sponsored by the Center for Cognitive Science, Department of Psychology and School of Music. The session was part of MusicCog/2001, the third annual music cognition research symposium.
David Huron, coordinator of the symposium, said professors and graduate students from around the United States and Canada came together to deepen their knowledge of music cognition – the study of music as a product of human minds and brains.
Huron said that the two presentations by Bill Thompson and Eugenia Costa-Giomi that covered short-term and long-term cognitive development from music experience were two of the highlights of the conference.
“Mozart Effect is something that people are very interested in, and there are tremendous amounts of press on that,” Huron said.
Amid the ongoing research to try to identify what specifically happens between music and human minds, their studies are very interesting, he said.
Some of the research suggests that music stimulates specific neuron connections in the center of the brain and enhances a listener’s ability to solve problems in time, space and sequence. Critical skills in math, science and languages might also be improved by the music, especially by certain types of music. It has been suggested that classical music improves learning. Since some of the related studies have been published, the media has shown as much of an interest in the Mozart Effect as researchers or scientists have shown.
However, some other researchers remain cautious about the Mozart Effect because data is unclear about whether it has been scientifically proven or not.
Costa-Giomi, a McGill University professor, said her three-year study does not indicate any significant effect by the music on children’s cognitive ability, test score or self-esteem. In her lecture, “The Nonmusical Effects of Music Instruction,” she warned about the manipulation by the media without any proven evidences. She showed an advertisement from a company that makes pianos that said, “Why do some children do better than other in school? Because they play the piano!”
“My study is making us aware that there is no magical way of changing things,” she said. “I would suggest parents think very carefully of providing their children with piano lessons, they should be much more cautious about the effect.”
Costa-Giomi said there are so many factors that seem to affect the improvement of non-musical tasks besides the music. She said that she would be very reluctant to make a conclusion that piano lessons would make significant change to a child’s intelligence or learning capabilities. “So my study puts a little bit of warning in this topic,” Costa-Giomi said.
Thompson, a York University professor, disagreed with Costa-Giomi in his lecture, “Variations on the Mozart Effect.” His study shows music has a positive effect on learning.
Thompson compared the effects of two different types of music: a Mozart sonata, which is happy and lively music, and an Albinori adagio, which is sad and slow music. His study indicates what people listen to would affect their mood and arousal for a short period of time.
“I pretty much believe in the positive effect of music, but about specific claims like Mozart Effect, it seems too premature to draw those conclusions,” he said.
Thompson also said people have to be cautious about making claims about the effects of music. It’s very unlikely that being exposed to music will directly link into those parts of the brain that house spatial skills or other nonmusical skills.
“I don’t disagree that the effect exists, or music enhances certain skills,” he said. Thompson emphasized that although his study shows some changes in mood and arousal by music, those changes do not prove a unique connection. “Music is one of many kinds of stimulation,” he said. “It changes the mood and arousal, which in turn might lead to enhance non-musical skills.”
Did Mozart’s music affect Mozart himself? Thompson said many composers making their music are deeply and strongly affected by it, and that’s the best way to compose what they really want to hear. “I think Mozart was affected by his music deeply and probably experiencing the changes of mood and arousal in response to his music,” he said.
