Does Classical Music Make You Smarter?
2-2-16
Don't you just feel cultured when you tune in to a classical music station, take in an opera, or see a symphony by a great composer? Baby Einstein, a company that makes videos and other products for babies incorporating the classical art of Picasso, the music of Bach, and poetry of Shakespeare, is a million-dollar franchise. But is this commonly shared factoid actually true?
In the 1950s, an ENT doctor named Albert Tomatis began the trend, claiming success using Mozart's music to help people with speech disorders. In the 1990s, 30+ students in a study at the University of California at Irvine listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart before taking an IQ test. According to Dr. Gordon Shaw, the psychologist in charge of the study, the students' IQ scores went up by about 8 points. The "Mozart effect" was born.
However, the original University of California at Irvine study has always been controversial in the scientific community. Dr. Frances Rauscher, a researcher involved in the study, stated that they never claimed it actually made anyone smarter; it just increased performance on certain spatial-temporal tasks. Other scientists have been unable to replicate the original results, and there is currently no scientific information to prove that listening to Mozart, or any other classical music, actually makes anyone smarter or improves their IQ level.
A new study, just completed this year at the University of Brussels has concluded with a study of over 900 particpatnts that listening to classical music does not make you necessarily smarter, but it does help you relax. This relaxation during period of stress, such as studying for an exam, allows you to absorb more information. They did conclude that people that play classical musical instruments on level 3 or higher, do score better at math on exams. So don't worry about spending 19.95 on the Baby Einstein DVD set but it won't hurt you or the kids to listen to a classical YouTube channel once in a while... and maybe your mom was right about practicing your violin...
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