Music and intelligence: A guide for the science-minded parent

[Groenewolf]

Pareting Science

© 2008 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

Is there is link between music and intelligence?

Yes, there is.

Forget the Mozart effect.

The real action seems to occur when children learn to play a musical instrument.
Music and intelligence:
The Mozart effect doesn’t cause lasting improvements in IQ
Everybody’s heard of the Mozart effect -—the notion that you can increase your intelligence by listening to Mozart’s music.

Experiments have revealed that people sometimes enjoy a brief improvement in visual-spatial skills immediately after listening to a Mozart sonata (Rauscher et al 1993; Hetland 2000).

However, the results have been inconsistent, with some labs reporting that they were unable to reproduce the effect.

It's also unclear if it’s really the music that is responsible for the temporary enhancement of intelligence. It seems more likely that people improve their performance because listening to music elevates their mood and leaves them feeling more alert (Schellenberg 2005).

Most importantly, the effects do not appear to last more than 10-15 minutes.

So if you’re looking for a way to boost your child’s intelligence, the Mozart effect is a bust.

Music might help prime people for concentrating on spatial tasks, and

there is evidence that kids who listen to music while they draw produce more creative artwork.

But that’s about it.

Taking music lessons, though...that’s another matter entirely.

(...)

Rest at the above link.

[Liffrea]

Hmmm

I listen to classical when I'm writing, painting or relaxing, metal when I'm working out. The music does affect behaviour and output, intellectual ability…..well I’m still inept at playing the violin, I nearly had a note once.

[Svipdag]

As far as I'm concerned, it works the other way around. High intelligence enables one to understand and appreciate serious sophisticated music. I have an IQ of 180 (I'm NOT bragging.) and I have always enjoyed good music, the more intricate and complex, the better. Yet, owing to very poor instruction in the public schools, I thought that I had no aptitude for it.

Our instruction was based on sight singing which I have never been able to do and still can't. I was shocked when a friend who was a professional violist, told me "But, Martin, I can't do that either." Astonished, I said "Jan, you're kidding.". She replied "No. I have to play the music to find out what it sounds like." I was then about forty years old.

I taught myself to read music with the aid of a used Auto-Harp. Six months later, I was composing bad chamber music. (I don't have any real talent as a composer.) I now can play the mountain dulcimer, the clavichord, and the harpsichord, albeit none of them really well. I appreciate much better music than I'll ever be able to play.

As a child, I was not exposed to the type of music which I prefer, nothing more sophisticated than popular music, in fact. (Though the popular music of the 1930's and 40's was far superior in melody and harmony to anything of the sort created since 1950.) It was not, then, music which influenced my intelligence, but rather, my intelligence which shaped my taste in music.

[Grumpy Cat]

It's been proven that playing an instrument boosts math skills.

As for IQ and musical taste, well, I have an IQ of 140 and I like a little bit of everything in all genres. I mentioned in another thread, though, I have synesthesia and the songs I like are usually ones that produce the most pleasant images, and said songs range from Mozart to Mayhem to 2Pac.

There are really only two songs I can say I hate:

"Soak up the Sun" by Sheryl Crow
"Crank Dat" by Soulja Boy

Those songs just make me want to poke out my eardrums.