New York, NY (Top40 Charts) In 1993 people all over the world started talking about the "Mozart effect". According to the authors of the study published that year, listening to Mozart's music increases the intelligence quotient and improves cognitive abilities. In recent years, the existence of the Mozart effect has been questioned more and more. However, it is thanks to this phenomenon that the question arose about what kind of influence music in general and classical music, in particular, has on our brain.
When the Mozart effect became popular, researchers began to assume that the underlying results of this theory indicate that classical music raises the mood, rather than the intelligence quotient. And indeed, listening to classical music while studying does not make you smarter, but only improves your mood. In turn, if you are in a good mood, then learning can be more effective. Students benefit not only from classical music but also from using paper writing service on the web. Studies have also shown that classical music has other beneficial properties — for example, it improves sleep patterns, stimulates the immune system, and reduces stress levels.
The results of an experiment conducted by French scientists, where two groups of students listened to the same one-hour lecture, were published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences.
The first group listened to the lecturer to the accompaniment of classical music, the second — without. After the lecture, students were asked to take a test and choose the correct answer from several options. Students from the first group coped with the questions noticeably better than students from the second group.
Bach's "Third Brandenburg Concerto", Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" and Mozart's "Little Night Serenade" were chosen for the experiment. Scientists have suggested that this music will cause students to have a state of emotional uplift so that they will perceive information better.
Researchers from the University of San Diego have found even more evidence that music in general and classical music, in particular, is uplifting. They studied the influence of music on the process of restoring the cardiovascular system. It turned out that those who listened to classical music had significantly lower blood pressure levels than those who enjoyed the silence. Scientists also found out that everything also depends on the musical style: for example, jazz and popular music differed little in effectiveness from silence. The results of the study allow us to conclude that with the help of music of certain genres, it is possible to help the cardiovascular system recover from stress.
Background music can also motivate students to study. Music can be a source of new strength for you, and during your studies, it can be very useful. Listening to classical music improves mood and energizes, which indirectly improves the process of memorizing information.
Yes, classical music improves mood and allows you to study with greater efficiency, but it is important to note that not all works are equally helpful. Serious works for symphony orchestras should be set aside, choosing piano parts for solo performances, works for string quartets, and music for guitar.
Listen and be smarter: does the "Mozart effect" work?
Victoria Williamson, a psychologist at the University of Sheffield in the UK, believes that listening to classics is far from a super tool for brain development. She draws attention to what the authors of the original study themselves talked about: the intellectual uplift after listening to the classics lasts no longer than 15 minutes — but when the idea of the "Mozart effect" went to the masses, they began to remember it less and less. Later, other scientists received similar results. Music did improve certain skills, but only for a short time.
Let's say it won't work for a long time to increase IQ with the help of piano concerts. But how to explain the fact that in the first minutes after listening, a person shows the best result? The authors of the first article assumed that it was Mozart's compositional gift and the complexity of his music: perhaps the intricate interlacing of melodic lines somehow stimulates thinking and makes us more creative. But modern researchers, including Victoria Williamson, believe that everything is much simpler.
Music improves mood and invigorates and this surge of strength is just enough to solve a small test.
This is confirmed by several experiments. For example, Canadian psychologist Glenn Schellenberg recalled his youth and experience playing in a synthpop band for the sake of science. He took the same Mozart sonata as the authors of the 1993 study and recorded several new versions of it — in fast and slow tempo, in major and minor. The mood and tempo turned out to be important. In the same spatial thinking test, those who listened to the fast major version scored an average of 16 points, while those who got the slow minor version scored only 8. In another experiment,
Schellenberg and colleagues confirmed that sad music reduces test results. The effect of Mozart's sonata was compared with the effect of the famous Albinoni Adagio, and it turned out that, although this work could not be called simple, it did not help solve problems better.
Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, the effects of which Schellenberg studied
So, it's not so many melodies that make us smarter, but a good mood. This is indicated by another experience of the same scientists. This time, one group of volunteers included Mozart, and another — an audiobook by Stephen King. It turned out that the stories of the King of horrors also increased test results quite well, especially among King's fans.
So if you want to listen to music with benefit for yourself, choose anyone, as long as you like it, and the positive effect — a good mood — will not keep you waiting.
Play as you can: how music lessons help in self-development
So, did the "Mozart effect" bring any value to the scientific society? Not at all. Discussions around this problem helped those who considered the classics boring or too complicated to become interested in them and hear familiar melodies in a new way. But, more importantly, thanks to the talk about the benefits of classics, many parents have thought about giving their children at least the rudiments of musical education. Music lessons are not mandatory everywhere, but in vain: science does not doubt their effectiveness.
Many scientists believe that music lessons (this includes singing, playing instruments, and other forms of learning) also help to develop many skills that are not directly necessary for extracting sounds. For example, researchers from Harvard Medical School noticed a link between education and successful completion of tasks.
59 ten-year-old children participated in their experiment, and two-thirds of them learned to play keyboards or stringed instruments for at least three years. As expected, those who studied music performed better on tests of fine motor skills and recognition of the difference in pitch of sounds. But in addition, they beat non-musical peers in other tasks.
The vocabulary of young pianists and violinists turned out to be larger on average, and the results of tests for visual and imaginative thinking were higher.
How do music lessons develop these abilities? There are several versions. Firstly, playing instruments is a complex process that requires a lot of skills. For example, the need to read notes trains the ability to decode any text, so it becomes easier to build up a rich vocabulary. On the other hand, parents who send their children to study music may generally be more involved in parenting. Perhaps they are more careful not only to ensure that the child regularly rehearses but also how he does school homework or reads.
