Music has lots of strange properties, and can even be beneficial to your health as I discussed in a previous blog post, but can classical music make infants smarter? The rumored “Mozart’s Effect” claims that playing classical music when you’re pregnant will make your baby smarter, but there’s no actual evidence that this does anything. (In addition, they use this effect to describe the short-term improvement derived from listening to classical music, regardless of age) Is this all myth, or is there some fact to this saying?
“I also brought Mozart to play while he sleeps to make him smarter because leading experts say Mozart makes babies smarter.”
Many studies have been conducted and shown that listening to classical music can help improve test results, for an example this is seen in one study where students who listened to Mozart before a test scored an average of 8 to 9 points higher to than those who didn’t. (It is important to note that the effect wore off after 15 minutes.) But those are college students, so what kind of effect does music have on babies, or even infants who haven’t been born yet?
One study was conducted where 12 mothers played a particular song for three months, and then when the children were one year old they placed them in a room and played three songs: one of which was the song their mother selected. The children seemed to have a clear preference for the song that was played to them while in the womb. This makes some logical sense, considering that babies can recognize their parent’s voices when they’re born. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume they could recognize other sounds if they heard them enough. Although, you could argue that this is all due to chance, especially with such a tiny sample size. Still, it’s not too far out there to suggest that these babies are, at some level, processing sounds. But do these sounds have any real effect?
An analysis of sixteen different studies found that while there was a brief improvement, it was only temporary and doesn’t actually increase your intelligence. This sentiment is resounded by other articles, and the general consensus is that classical music gives you a temporary boost in performance, but doesn’t increase your intelligence – and the same goes for your babies. You can play classical music for your babies, but there’s currently no evidence to prove that will have any significant effect on your child’s intelligence.
I’m curious as to whether or not listening to classical music will have a long term effect (longer than what these studies accounted for) on learning. Of course soothing, non-lyrical stimulates performance in the moment and helps with focus, but if that’s all someone is exposed to, it would make sense that it would develop the brain more than exclusively listening to pop songs all in the same key.
Either way, I was curious about the blending of science and music, and wrote a blog post it. Marconi Union and a team of scientists created what’s technically considered the most relaxing song ever: “Weightless” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySNhHVAokQ). Definitely worth a listen to achieve that “temporary boost.”
I have heard that listing to Mozart does make a student preform better, and I have played Mozart while studying for an exam before but I don’t think that it affects the students grade by 8 or 9 points. I listened it while studying for my Econ 102 final this summer and I think that if I was listening to pop, rock, or rap I would have gotten the same grade on the test. I get that Mozart’s music is soothing, but I can’t see it having that big of an affect on a students outcome.
I found one study that indicates that Mozart doe snot increase intelligence. What they are saying is that listening to any kind of music will help your stimulus, that doesn’t mean that is Mozart, the only thing that is going to help you in you exam. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7707157/Listening-to-Mozart-does-not-increase-intelligence.html I still think they should definitely do more studies, in order to see what about music helps your stimulus, when you have to study.
This is a fascinating article! It was very interesting to read about the different studies, however like you said, “There’s absolutely no evidence yet to prove that will have any significant effect on your child’s intelligence.” I also read about one study of rats that listened to Mozart. According to Parents, the online parenting advice, “Rats who listened to Mozart before and after birth were able to find their way to the end of a maze more quickly than those that didn’t.” However, we must remember correlation does not equal causation.