Summary
This newspaper article, published on March 19, 1999, brings
attention to the latest point of public interest and money-making craze within
the music industry, “Baby Mozart”, and questions whether prolonged listening to
classical music does indeed enhance brain development. The article shows how seriously the public
is invested in the idea by describing the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller’s,
decision to guarantee each child born in state hospitals a free cd of music by
Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, based on the notion that it will help with brain development,
specifically logic and spatial reasoning skills essential for mathematics.
Various
companies are attempting to capitalise on the recent research with varying slogans
on the benefits of classical music for infants.
For example, the internet company, Genius Babies, says its Baby Mozart
videos “increase brain capacity”, Don Campbell supplies cds to “Tune Up Your
Mind”, and Rhino Record’s cds feature “baby – friendly instruments and
arrangements” of Mozart’s music.
However, it is unclear exactly how
listening to Mozart helps develop the mind.
The
article briefly describes several studies that have been done. Several studies
show that children who study music score higher on standardised intelligence
tests, and pre-schoolers who learn to play musical instruments improve spatial
reasoning abilities. One study showed
that college students scored better on spatial reasoning tests after listening
to 10 minutes of Mozart vs. 10 minutes of silence and 10 minutes of rock
music. A second study showed that mice
increased their ability to navigate through a maze after being exposed to
classical music for 10 hours a day for 3 weeks.
Response
A third study showed that British children listening to Blur and Oasis (non-classical music)
before spatial reasoning tests scored slightly higher than children who
listened to Mozart and children who listened to oral instructions. These findings seem to disprove the idea that
it is solely classical music which has the ability to improve spatial reasoning
skills or performance on tests. Regardless
of the type of music, it is worthwhile to note that this improvement has so-far
been proven to be temporary. This is not helpful for babies who will be
writing math tests in 6-12 years. In
these studies, participants have been tested directly after the listening takes
place, and, in my opinion, there needs to be a distinction between temporary
improvement and actual brain development in the research. I think an interesting study would be to test
children who have developed a routine of listening to classical music for a
reasonable amount of time (30 minutes) each day for a few months. However, these students would not be tested directly
after having listened to the music. Their
results would be compared with those who developed a routine of listening to
light rock or some other musical genre that is somewhat relaxing but not
classical. The reason why I suggest this is that it’s difficult to know, as Dr.
Susan Hallam states in the article, if classical music stimulates the brain,
causing it to further develop and function better, or if classical music is
“stimulating children emotionally, perhaps putting them in a relaxed state of
mind”, helping them to focus for the tests.
If this is the case, other genres of music could be just as effective.
Another
test I read about in Judy Taylor and Beverly Rowe’s article The “Mozart Effect” and Mathematical
Connection describes a study in which aviation students listened to a
Mozart cd for the entire duration of a math test, and the results of their
tests were compared to those of students who completed the test in
silence. The study concluded that
playing Mozart during mathematics outcome assessments improves student scores. This, to me, seems much more plausible than
the claim that prolonged listening to classical music enhances brain
development. Still though, it is
difficult to believe since listening to music is often a passive activity. In the context of a test or prior to a test,
it is not likely that the student is paying close attention to the music and
actively listening. Nor is it likely
that a baby will be actively listening when a parent plays Mozart for their
child. Therefore, it’s hard to measure
how effective listening to music is in stimulating the brain. I do believe that taking music lessons and
actively learning to play a musical instrument or sing could enhance brain
development since it is this active involvement with the music which requires a
higher level of brain activity. However,
I would not invest in Zell Miller’s classical CD for babies.
