Mozart's IQ

[Laura Cohen]

Here's an interesting article reprinted in my local newspaper (Albany Times
Union) on October 14.


Music to their ears, food for their brains:
Study finds Mozart boost IQs of listeners

by Robert Lee Hotz
Los Angeles Times


Those who hope to seem smarter by listening to Mozart may be on to
something. At least temporarily.
Researchers at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and
Memory at the University of California, Irvine, have determined that 10
minutes of listening to a Mozart piano sonata raised the measurable IQ of
college students by up to 9 points.
The effect on the intelligence of the college students in the study,
however, barely lasted longer than the echo of the piano chords
themselves. The IQ boosts dissipated within 15 minutes, the team reported
today in the journal Nature.
The researchers suggested that classical music may enhance abstract
reasoning, such as that involved in mathematics or chess, by reinforcing
certain complex patterns of neural activity. They suspect that the
complexity of the music itself is the key. Simpler, repetitive rhythms of
grunge rock or minimalist New Age jazz may actually interfere with
abstract reasoning.
Moreover, making music, rather than simply listening to it, may have a
more permanent impact on intelligence, they said.
"Everybody is intrigued by this study because it fits everyone's
intuition about music and mathematics," said Frances H. Rauscher, a
research fellow at the UC Irvine center involved in the study.
However provocative the new music study seems, other psychologists
warned it is still inconclusive and, the researchers themselves acknowledged
sheepishly, open to misinterpretation or abuse by overanxious parents and
educational hucksters.
In the study, described in a letter to Nature, 36 college students were
given standard IQ tests after listening to Mozart, a recorded relaxation
tape, or meditating in silence for 10 minutes. Each student was tested after
each listening exercise.
Each student's test score was higher after listening to the classical
passage from Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major.

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Laura Cohen comments:

I'm not a huckster, but I sure like the idea of Mozart piped into my school
environment all day long!


LC0...@ALBNYVMS.BITNET

[matt labarge]

i wish they had tried beatles, jane's addiction, husker du, steve reich, john
adams, and miles davis in similar experiments before proselytizing. how can
such an article NOT be misinterpreted? so much for the scientific method.

imagine if they had listened to milton babbit or jacob obrecht!

mattimus

[David Wilson]

< Each student's test score was higher after listening to the classical
<passage from Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major.

On the other hand, bad performances, especially on modern instruments, have
been known to produce psychotic episodes...

Reminds me of something I heard recently, that after the fourth year of
graduate school, one's short-term retention actually decreases.

David Wilson

[Elizabeth Randell]

On Fri, 15 Oct 1993, David Wilson wrote:

> Reminds me of something I heard recently, that after the fourth year of
> graduate school, one's short-term retention actually decreases.

Is THAT what it is? I'm so relieved, I thought it was just ME...

Now, what was I supposed to be doing?

--Elizabeth R.

[Roger Lustig]

Or Dittersdorf or Vanhal.

the function of the Mozart piece is probably to cue the students: put on
your thinking caps, we're doing something academic here.

Roger

[mary virginia burke]

In <01H45LR08...@albnyvms.BITNET> Laura Cohen <LC0...@ALBNYVMS.BITNET> writes:

>
> Music to their ears, food for their brains:
> Study finds Mozart boost IQs of listeners
>

> Each student's test score was higher after listening to the classical

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>passage from Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major.

>^^^^^^^

As opposed to what--the medieval passages?

Obviously this guy waited too long after listening to the piece before he wrote
this sentence. :-)

Cheers--MVB

[Laura Cohen]

Hi, All:

Hmmm. There seem to be lots of serious-minded folks out there. I
posted the Mozart article as a bit of amusement, not as an endorsement
of the study's findings. I've taken enough courses in research methods
to understand the limitations of the study. I was just having a bit
of fun, guys...

Laura Cohen

LC0...@ALBNYVMS.BITNET

[Mr. Kim Pineda, CARPE PER DIEM]

Laura,

PLEASE keep having fun. Some of us really enjoy it when folks have fun.
Not everyone on this list is terribly serious. Those of us actually
engaged in full-time pursuit of early music study/performance/careers
are exceptionally prone to being fun.

Kim Pineda
Early Music Institute
Indiana University
kpi...@ucs.indiana.edu

[ED ROSENFELD]

Not serious?? Posting the Mozart article was a great public service and
to prove it I was just admitted to the Mensa Society by taking the test
after listening to a 24 hour marathon of Mozart CDs.

*******************************************************************************
*ED IN SUNNY SOUTH FLORIDA *

*SE MERDA TIVESSE VALOR OS POBRES NAO TINHAM CU' *

*If shit were to have value then the poor would be born without assholes *
*******************************************************************************



>DATE: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 12:35:09 -0400
>FROM: Laura Cohen <LC0...@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>

[David Wilson]

Kim Pineda writes,

>Some of us really enjoy it when folks have fun.

True, true! Besides, anything is an improvement over, "Does anyone know a
good recording of..."

David Wilson

[matt labarge]

sorry laura-

mine was not intended as an entirely serious reply- should've added some :-)'s.

when i imagine using babbit in the experiment, i see Enquirer headlines:
"Normal Students Become Idiot Savants in Bizarre Psychology Experiment!!"

{ see? :-) }

matt