The Mozart Effect
by bofengc
Most music scholars would agree that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most precocious and influential musical composers of all time. Having been a piano player for seven years, I felt a wave of nostalgia when in class we listened to his Sonata No. 16 in C Major and Alla Turca, two pieces that I played in the past. As the music played, I couldn’t help but allow my muscle memory to guide my fingers to play the original notes on the imaginary keyboard on my desk. But to what extent was Mozart’s influence on the world today? Of course, thousands of pianists today still play the two above-mentioned pieces for fun, but his music in fact goes beyond a simply recreational purpose. As I was browsing Mozart’s music online, I came up across an incredibly interesting phenomenon that I had actually heard about before but never really explored in detail. That phenomenon is “The Mozart Effect.”
The story begins sometime in the 1950s. An ENT doctor named Alfred Tomatis claimed that listening to Mozart’s music could help people with speech or auditory problems. Fast forward to 1990. A psychiatrist named Dr. Gordon Shaw conducted a study at the University of California at Irvine on 36 students who listened to a Mozart sonata (Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos) before taking an IQ test. The students’ average IQ increased by 8 points, and thus, the “Mozart effect” was introduced. However, many people were still skeptical about this discovery. Could simply listening to Mozart’s classical pieces increase IQ?
In 1993, Shaw, along with 2 more scientists (Rauscher and Ky), decided to conduct another experiment to determine whether the Mozart Effect really lived up to its name. However, this time, subjects were given standard tests of abstract spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is the ability to visualize spatial patterns and manipulate them. The scientists found that the subjects exhibited a temporary 15-minute enhancement of their spatial reasoning abilities, but no definitive increase in IQ.
Although the 1993 experiment debunked the theory that listening to Mozart increases IQ, the Mozart Effect gained significant popularity. In 1998, Zell Miller, the governor of Georgia, stated that he would propose a budget of over $100,000 to provide every child born in Georgia with a CD of classical music. Some critics, however, blasted Miller and argued that the money should rather go towards music education programs.
Mozart’s music has also been found to have additional health benefits. Patients with epilepsy have been played the same Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos, with the effect of having a decrease in epileptic activity in the brain. Studies have also found that some rats perform more efficiently through mazes after exposed to Mozart’s music.
So do you believe in the Mozart effect? Although it may not actually augment IQ, is it worth listening to Mozart’s music for the increase in spatial reasoning ability? Or maybe we should just leave science out of it and listen to Mozart for the sake of listening to beautiful sonatas?
The Thousand-Year Ears 
How does the influence of Mozart’s music compare with music by other classical composers, or even modern bands? I think that I do my best job of learning while I read when I’m listening to my instrumental shred playlist. Should I be listening to classical music, instead, even though I would get more enjoyment from listening to John Petrucci playing his guitar? Should I even take it a step further and restrict that classical music to only Mozart?
I believe “The Mozart Effect” exists to some degree; however, I also believe that other musicians and modern bands have the capability of stimulating intellectual development as well. I’de be curious to see how many studies have been conducted on the mind-nurturing capabilities of music, and if so, what their results have been, with who, etc.
If other music can have that same effect, then the “Mozart Effect” as described is a sham. It has nothing to do with Mozart, then.
What I would find interesting is how something like Mozart compositions effect the brain when they are played on different instruments. We have a version of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” that is arranged for an orchestra. Someone posted a version where it’s just a solo guitarist. I’d be interested in knowing how brains react to the different arrangements.
Guitar version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtsAWMT-1sQ
I don’t know whether I would call it the “Mozart Effect”. I think it’s more of “working brain” effect. Listening to music or, better yet, playing music works your brain. I believe that the “enhanced IQ” is due to continual thinking. Playing music, or even imagining that one is playing music, requires thinking about the melody and thinking ahead about what notes come next. I think this strengthens the neuron connections. Music does make you smarter, but indirectly. Music makes you use your brain, which in turn strengthens your neural connections.
To draw an analogy, I see this “Mozart Effect” as someone discovering that a person’s cardio strength increases after they swim for a while and then going “WOW, THEY’RE HEARTS ARE GETTING STRONGER AND THEY DON’T EVEN WORKOUT AT THE GYM!” Then, you go add call it the “Michael Phelps Effect”. They are getting stronger because they are working their muscles and making their heart pump, not because Michael Phelps somehow helps. Same thing with music.
We studied this in Psych. I might be wrong, but I believe the results with IQ were never replicated. The company that created a baby chair specifically for listening to Mozart actually had to refund money to anyone who bought it when they lost a lawsuit. This is still something fun to talk about though. In any case, Mozart’s music could prime a certain type of thinking but since there isn’t a prolonged IQ difference it probably isn’t useful for babies.
I believe the Mozart effect doesn’t exist. It is just a myth that causes parents to expose their children to classical music at an early age so that hopefully they are get smarter. While it’s not clear if it is effective in terms of IQ, exposure to classical music is certainly positive overall.
I think the effect doe exist. However, it could hardly be the magic of Mozart. As we all know, most people are more able to make reasoning decisions when they are lighthearted, joyful rather than stressed and angry. Hence, I think the Mozart’s effect is simply the effect of any beautiful music will have on people’s mood.
Music is a global process. In regards to spatial reasoning, it helps because it activates both the left and right brain hemisphere. however while it does this, it also slows down the rate at which decisions are made and acted upon. Therefore it is extremely unlikely that the initial claims made were accurate about augmenting IQ. The best investigations to this study would be to play music to a series of patients using a fMRI and compare the baseline to when the music is playing.
I think you would need to be deeply engaged in music, or Mozart, to truly reap its benefits. Considering the structured nature of classical music, it forces you to think within a framework that, much like learning math, helps with spatial thinking. Simply hearing Mozart while in the womb seems like quack science – a matter of correlation over causation.