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PJ makes us smarter - NPR article
From NPR: (OK, it's not huge, but PJ gets a mention at the end!)
"The newest issue of the journal Intelligence has the largest review ever of research on the so-called Mozart Effect, the popular idea that listening to classical music can enhance the intelligence of people in general and babies in particular.
The review is titled "Mozart Effect, Schmozart Effect," which should give you some idea of its conclusion: there ain't no such thing.
But even if listening to Beethoven won't make us smarter, the history of how the Mozart Effect ultimately became fashionable does have something to teach us. It's a story about careful science, less careful journalism, and of course, death threats.
How It All Began
In the spring of 1993 a psychologist named Francis Rauscher played 10 minutes of a Mozart Piano Sonata to 36 college students, and after the excerpt, gave the students a test of spatial reasoning. Rauscher also asked the students to take a spatial reasoning test after listening to 10 minutes of silence, and, after listening to 10 minutes of a person with a monotone speaking voice.
And Rauscher says, the results of this experiment seemed pretty clear. "What we found was that the students who had listened to the Mozart Sonata scored significantly higher on the spatial temporal task."
Now Rauscher is quick to emphasize that the test she gave measured only a certain kind of spatial intelligence. "It's very important to note that we did not find effects for general intelligence," Rauscher says, "just for this one aspect of intelligence. It's a small gain and it doesn't last very long."
In fact the cognitive gains produced by the so-called "Mozart Effect" lasted only about 10 to 15 minutes.
And this is what Rauscher wrote in the single page paper she subsequently published in the journal Nature. She reported that listening to Mozart's music improved spatial reasoning for about 10 minutes.
And though Rauscher personally thought the finding was neat, she never really expected other people to be interested.
Then, came the call.
A Molehill Becomes A Mountain
The first call came from Associated Press before Rauscher had even realized that her paper was due to be published. Once the Associated Press printed its story the Mozart Effect was everywhere.
"I mean we were on the nightly news with Tom Brokaw. We had people coming to our house for live television," Rauscher says. "I had to hire someone to manage all the calls I had coming in."
The headlines in the papers were less subtle than her findings: "Mozart makes you smart" was the general idea. And for some reason, Rauscher says, this notion completely gripped the imagination of the American public.
"I mean we walked into Virgin Records one day and there was a whole kiosk of Mozart music and quotations from our paper," Rauscher says.
At first, all the attention was fun, but then things started to go south. For example, Rauscher says she got misquoted by a TV program which aired a segment that made her seem like she believed rock music wasn't cognitively good.
"When that happened I started getting phone calls," Rauscher says. "Literally death threats from people that were so offended that I would say that rock music was bad for the brain ... which is not what I had said at all. So I had to get an unlisted number. It was crazy."
But worse, says Rauscher, was that her very modest finding started to be wildly distorted.
"Generalizing these results to children is one of the first things that went wrong. Somehow or another the myth started exploding that children that listen to classical music from a young age will do better on the SAT, they'll score better on intelligence tests in general, and so forth."
In fact after hearing about the research, in 1998, Georgia's then Gov. Zell Miller decided to distribute free classical music CDs to every baby born in the state of Georgia. Tennessee followed suit. Eventually a small cottage industry of Mozart CDs for toddlers and babies sprung up.
Why is it that all of this came from such a modest study?
It's probably a couple of things, Rauscher says. Americans believe in self-improvement, but also are fond of quick fixes. And as Rauscher points out, parents care desperately about their children.
"I mean they want to do everything they possibly can for their children, and if there's a possibility that this might help in some way and give their child an advantage when they get to school, then that is what they are going to do."
Rauscher still stands by her original finding, but says subsequent research has shown that it's not really about Mozart. Any music that you find engaging will do the same thing, because compared to something like sitting in silence, the brain finds it stimulating.
"The key to it is that you have to enjoy the music," Rauscher says. "If you hate Mozart you're not going to find a Mozart Effect. If you love Pearl Jam, you're going to find a Pearl Jam effect."
There's something to contemplate: the Christina Aguilera Effect. Sure to be a hit with the toddler set."
"The newest issue of the journal Intelligence has the largest review ever of research on the so-called Mozart Effect, the popular idea that listening to classical music can enhance the intelligence of people in general and babies in particular.
The review is titled "Mozart Effect, Schmozart Effect," which should give you some idea of its conclusion: there ain't no such thing.
But even if listening to Beethoven won't make us smarter, the history of how the Mozart Effect ultimately became fashionable does have something to teach us. It's a story about careful science, less careful journalism, and of course, death threats.
How It All Began
In the spring of 1993 a psychologist named Francis Rauscher played 10 minutes of a Mozart Piano Sonata to 36 college students, and after the excerpt, gave the students a test of spatial reasoning. Rauscher also asked the students to take a spatial reasoning test after listening to 10 minutes of silence, and, after listening to 10 minutes of a person with a monotone speaking voice.
And Rauscher says, the results of this experiment seemed pretty clear. "What we found was that the students who had listened to the Mozart Sonata scored significantly higher on the spatial temporal task."
Now Rauscher is quick to emphasize that the test she gave measured only a certain kind of spatial intelligence. "It's very important to note that we did not find effects for general intelligence," Rauscher says, "just for this one aspect of intelligence. It's a small gain and it doesn't last very long."
In fact the cognitive gains produced by the so-called "Mozart Effect" lasted only about 10 to 15 minutes.
And this is what Rauscher wrote in the single page paper she subsequently published in the journal Nature. She reported that listening to Mozart's music improved spatial reasoning for about 10 minutes.
And though Rauscher personally thought the finding was neat, she never really expected other people to be interested.
Then, came the call.
A Molehill Becomes A Mountain
The first call came from Associated Press before Rauscher had even realized that her paper was due to be published. Once the Associated Press printed its story the Mozart Effect was everywhere.
"I mean we were on the nightly news with Tom Brokaw. We had people coming to our house for live television," Rauscher says. "I had to hire someone to manage all the calls I had coming in."
The headlines in the papers were less subtle than her findings: "Mozart makes you smart" was the general idea. And for some reason, Rauscher says, this notion completely gripped the imagination of the American public.
"I mean we walked into Virgin Records one day and there was a whole kiosk of Mozart music and quotations from our paper," Rauscher says.
At first, all the attention was fun, but then things started to go south. For example, Rauscher says she got misquoted by a TV program which aired a segment that made her seem like she believed rock music wasn't cognitively good.
"When that happened I started getting phone calls," Rauscher says. "Literally death threats from people that were so offended that I would say that rock music was bad for the brain ... which is not what I had said at all. So I had to get an unlisted number. It was crazy."
But worse, says Rauscher, was that her very modest finding started to be wildly distorted.
"Generalizing these results to children is one of the first things that went wrong. Somehow or another the myth started exploding that children that listen to classical music from a young age will do better on the SAT, they'll score better on intelligence tests in general, and so forth."
In fact after hearing about the research, in 1998, Georgia's then Gov. Zell Miller decided to distribute free classical music CDs to every baby born in the state of Georgia. Tennessee followed suit. Eventually a small cottage industry of Mozart CDs for toddlers and babies sprung up.
Why is it that all of this came from such a modest study?
It's probably a couple of things, Rauscher says. Americans believe in self-improvement, but also are fond of quick fixes. And as Rauscher points out, parents care desperately about their children.
"I mean they want to do everything they possibly can for their children, and if there's a possibility that this might help in some way and give their child an advantage when they get to school, then that is what they are going to do."
Rauscher still stands by her original finding, but says subsequent research has shown that it's not really about Mozart. Any music that you find engaging will do the same thing, because compared to something like sitting in silence, the brain finds it stimulating.
"The key to it is that you have to enjoy the music," Rauscher says. "If you hate Mozart you're not going to find a Mozart Effect. If you love Pearl Jam, you're going to find a Pearl Jam effect."
There's something to contemplate: the Christina Aguilera Effect. Sure to be a hit with the toddler set."
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Comments
That story really was distorted.. I always read Mozart makes you smarter. While it can be relaxing, I've never been a fan of classical music, let alone Mozart. All due respect, but I find it kind of boring.
I would argue that Pearl Jam writes much more challenging music for the mind than Mozart.
I feel it every day
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Why not (V) (°,,,,°) (V) ?
Auditory therapy uses Mozart music to permanently make auditory and neurological changes to the brain and is used by occupational therapists, speech therapists, and psychologists. So, while the "Mozart effect" has been deemed to be false, the use of Mozart to create behavioral change in people with ADHD, dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, etc is quite real.
this is why i think smart people listen to more classical music...high school and college orchestras and symphonic bands and those types of performance groups are mostly made up of straight A (or close to it) students who make the honor roll, the deans list, are in all or mostly AP classes, etc. They listen to it, because their after school time is devoted to practice both at home and at rehearsals. many also perform outside of school, some even offer private lessons in which classical music is strongly a part of and so classical music takes up most of their playlists. now, 10, 20, 30 years later, they've been bread to love this music and surely they do love it. these smart people are listening to classical music and are successful businessmen, scientists, lawyers, doctors, etc.
so now an entrepreneur notices this and say...hey, all these smart people listen to classical music, perhaps that's what makes them smart. let me sell a product and make millions making parents believe the same thing and they'd buy my product to let their kids listen to classical music.
ok sorry about my rant...my apologies.
p.s. everything said above is general, of course it's not true in some cases.
I'm a violinist in an orchestra, & I like classical... but I LOVE PJ & listen to them every day! They make you smarter... AND happier!
Now guys, hit me up to play Lukin with you!
Oh, & here's the link to the article in case anyone wants to write a comment on it:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... c=fb&cc=fp
* Oops - now I see that somebody had posted this article this morning already!
All in all, I've listened to massive amounts of pearl jam and feel dumber since ive wasted so much time doing so.
8/7/08, 6/9/09
Yeah, it did! Check it out right at the end...