Everybody wants the best for their children and many parents dream of their child becoming the next Einstein or Elon Musk. But is there actually a way to help our children become a prolific genius? This question seems especially important right now, as many parents find themselves with the daunting task of educating their own children! According to recent research, the answer may lie in music.
Some of you may remember the ‘Mozart Effect’, a controversial proposition that listening to the classical works of Mozart for 10 minutes a day could significantly increase intelligence. This stemmed from research by Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky (1993), who found that college students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart per day had improved spatial-temporal intelligence and an improved IQ score, equivalent to an average 8-9 point increase. This remarkable finding resulted in parents going out in droves to purchase Mozart CDs. Unfortunately, the findings of the study weren’t as revolutionary as they first appeared (subsequent studies failed to replicate the research) and this led to the proposition falling by the wayside (McKelvie & Low, 2002). However, is it possible that contemporary research could reinvigorate these ideas?
Well, research by Kaviani, Mirbaha, Pournaseh and Sagan (2014) would suggest that this may be the case, albeit with a more active participation. In their study, 60 pre-school children aged between 5 and 6 were randomly assigned to one of two groups; one group received 75-minute weekly music lessons for a 3-month period, while the other group did not receive any musical tuition. No children in either group had any previous music education and the groups were matched based on sex, age and mother’s educational level, to control for confounding variables.
The music training was conducted by an experienced teacher who used the ‘Orff method’, which utilises aspects of music children typically engage with, such as singing, chanting rhymes, clapping, or keeping a beat on anything near at hand. The children were encouraged to listen to what others were playing, singing or dancing to in order to teach the children to be conscious of the ensemble sound, promoting teamwork and cooperation. Furthermore, the children were also encouraged to improvise and compose so that they could experience the happiness associated with musical creativity.
The intelligence of each child was measured for both groups prior to, and after the music lessons using an adapted Tehran-Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. It was found that the children who participated in the music lessons showed a significant increase in IQ compared to those who did not receive any music tuition, specifically on the verbal reasoning and short-term memory subtests of intelligence.
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| Bar chart from Kaviani et al. (2014) |
So why is this? It has been proposed that learning music entails long-term involvement in daily practice. As such, this study suggests participation in music lessons can lead to enhanced intellectual functioning and increased abilities in verbal and non-verbal skills, as well as enhanced memory capacity and performance. This may be due to a ‘transfer effect’ in which skill acquisition in one domain impacts on skills and intellectual performances in other domains. A number of studies have demonstrated a transfer effect between music lessons and language skills and one group of researchers showed that musically trained children performed better than those without music training on a verbal memory test (Ho, Cheung, & Chan, 2003).
So, should we be rushing out to buy a musical instrument for our kids? Not necessarily. Kaviani and colleagues put forward some compelling evidence that music tuition leads to increased intelligence, at least in some domains, but can we be sure music was the sole contributor to that change? What of other creative outlets? Perhaps including another group, such as one that participated in drama or dance lessons, would allow us to observe how factors like social learning or the emotional impact of being in a peer group affect intelligence. Therefore, music lessons may improve certain aspects of intelligence but maybe don’t expect your children to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics too soon after picking up the Oboe.
Regardless of whether or not learning music is a fast-track to superior intelligence, both listening to music and learning it seem to impact cognitive functioning and wellbeing (Schellenberg & Hallam, 2006; Schellenberg, 2004). In the words of Plato, “music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” An endeavour worth pursuing for its own sake, many would agree.
Ps: Don’t worry; the children from the control group were given the same music tuition as the experimental group immediately after the experiment!
References
Kaviani, H., Mirbaha, H., Pournaseh, M., & Sagan, O. (2014). Can music lessons increase the performance of preschool children in IQ tests?. Cognitive processing, 15(1), 77-84.
McKelvie, P., & Low, J. (2002). Listening to Mozart does not improve children's spatial ability: Final curtains for the Mozart effect. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20(2), 241-258.
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, C. N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365(6447), 611-611.
Schellenberg, E. G. (2004). Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological Science, 15(8), 511-514.
Schellenberg, E., & Hallam, S. (2006). Music listening and cognitive abilities in 10 and 11- year-olds: The blur effect. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060, 202-209.