Anatomy Shared Article Research

This blog exists for the Anatomy students at Tree of Life Christian School. We will be reading various scientific articles, summarizing our research, and then commenting on others' summaries. We hope to broaden our view of the current research surrounding the human body, and to help others see how truly amazing the design of the human body is.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Fact or Fiction? Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter

The Mozart effect invokes the image of a pregnant woman playing classical music over her belly in hopes to improve her unborn child’s intelligence. In one study scientist used thirty-six college-aged kids to perform several spatial reasoning tasks after listening to one of Mozart’s relaxing sonatas. One of these tasks was to determine what a paper ,that had been folded several times and then cut, might look like when unfolded. The students that had listened to Mozart displayed a significant improvement in their performance by eight to nine spatial IQ points.

In sixteen studies related to the Mozart effect, it shows the only task that showed significant improvment was the paper-folding task. One scientist attributes it to the natural variability a person experiences between two test settings.

Scientist, Rauscher, doesn’t see how the two are connected saying, “I think parents are very desperate to give their own children every single enhancement that they can.” On the other hand, others still argue for the power of music saying that music has tremendous organizational quality to the brain. Some physicians use music therapy to aid children with dyslexia, ADD, and autism because they believe that music that is not very emotional or rhythmic can modulate mood and alleviate stress. They also believe it improves our ability to be intelligent. In Georgia and Florida, daycare centers went as far as to required classical music to be played while the children slept.

Rather than passively listening to music, Rauscher advices putting instuments into childrens hands to improve cognitive abilities. Phychologist Chabris goes even further to say that just playing the symphonies of a long-dead Austrian composer takes away from beneficial interaction that may be truly beneficial for the children.



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-babies-ex



Response:

I had always heard that listening to classical music can improve our intellegent. After thinking about it, I do not think it is true, but I do believe that playing an intrument can. Since I am in band, I know that to play music you must actively think about what each notes is, how it will sound, and how to play it. When it comes down to it, I believe it is being the type of parent that would play the music for their child. The type of parent that would care enough to try. I guess you could say, it really is the thought that counts.

5 Comments:

Blogger Kayla said...

It is understandable for parents to want the best for their children. If they thought that it would give their child a better and brighter future by letting them listen to music it, as you said, the thought that counts. If only one of the tests had a different test result, then that most likely would conclude that it does not work. Playing an instrument challenges people mentally and intellectually. I would recommend that everyone play an instrument at some point in their life. It is a rewarding experience.

Monday, January 12, 2009 7:06:00 PM  
Blogger Nick said...

I agree with the theory that getting your children to play an instrument is more beneficial to them than having them listen to Mozart. Since the tests don't all point to the same conclusion, you cannot conclude that this method works. Making a child sit down and listen to classical music takes away from their social life which I believe is more important than a higher IQ. I did like the article though, it was very interesting!

Monday, January 12, 2009 8:36:00 PM  
Blogger Jessica said...

I think it's good that parents want the best for their children and want them to be smart, but I don't think that listening to classical music will help. I agree that by making a child play an instrument is more effective. This way they're actually experiencing the music.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:23:00 AM  
Blogger Brian E. said...

This is intresting in the sense of its still a debate among scientists weather or not this actually works. The evidence is small for the classical music helping kids become smarter but it is there. But at the same time it might just be that certain kids respond to that kind of a brain stimulus better then other kids. It will be intreguing to see if scientists can find out anything more with this.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:15:00 PM  
Blogger sarahjihyeonkim said...

I had heard that listening to classical music can improve our intellegent too and classical music are good and helpful to women who pregnant. I always listening classical music because i play piano and i was getting better. But i think just listening is not helpful to improve our intellegent and play instrument is very helpful because when we play instrument, we have to think rhythm and note(tone) and we used our hand(fingers).

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:16:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home