Mozart Effect

Three Problems

This view is problematic for three reasons. First, although it is well established that a word can prime itself, a related word, or a similar-sounding word, there is no evidence of priming between unrelated domains (e.g., music listening and spatial skills). Second, the notion that spatial-temporal skills are distinct from other spatial abilities is inconsistent with common wisdom about the structure of intelligence. Performance on different types of spatial tests tends to be highly correlated, just as it was in the original study. In other words, people who perform well (or poorly) on a test of mental rotation (i.e., not spatial-temporal) also tend to perform well (or poorly) on a test that requires them to envision what a piece of paper that has been folded and cut will look like when it is unfolded (i.e., spatial-temporal).

Third, the link between listening to music and cognitive performance is mediated by arousal levels and mood. In line with this view, follow-up studies revealed better performance on a spatial test after listening to music composed by either Mozart or Franz Schubert than after sitting in silence. Presumably, listening to music made participants feel better than sitting in silence. When the control condition involved listening to a narrated story, however, the advantage for Mozart disappeared. Rather, participants who preferred the music showed a Mozart effect, but participants who preferred the story showed a story effect.

A subsequent study confirmed that participants were more alert and in better moods after listening to Mozart than after sitting in silence, such that they also performed better on tests of spatial abilities. When differences in arousal and mood were held constant statistically, the Mozart effect disappeared. After listening to a sad-sounding piece of music (slow tempo or minor key), however, participants had lower levels of arousal and sadder moods, and performance on the spatial test was no better than after sitting in silence. In general, fast-tempo music tends to make listeners [Page 718]feel more alert than slow-tempo music, whereas major-key music tends to make listeners feel happier (or more pleasant) than listening to minor-key music. Thus, the relatively fast tempo and major key of the Mozart piece used in these studies had a positive effect on the listener's arousal level and mood, respectively, which explains why cognitive performance was enhanced after hearing the piece.

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