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Originally Posted by balderdash111
Mozart effect:
I don't claim to be a friend of the researchers (Warrrreagle, you have a very interesting life!), and I have never read the study, but from what I understand from other scholars (e.g., Stephen Pinker - an MIT professor who studies how the mind works), an awful lot about this study that is reported in the media is simply not true.
For example, as Warrrrr.. points out, the effect has only been found with college students. Mozart does not make babies smarter. (I hadn't heard about the first two studies Warrr.... cited, though that seems to be about musical training rather than listening to music)
It is temporary. I think I read it lasted about 10 minutes
It does not occur simultaneously. In other words, the subjects took a test, listened to some mozart, then took another test (I assume not the same test again b/c that would be a very poorly designed study) with no music playing. They did measuringly better on the second test, but then would revert to "normal."
Why is this? No idea. Maybe they had time while listeing to the music to think about the types of questions asked on the test. Maybe listening to music makes you more conscious of certain kinds of logical structures and relationships. No idea.
My points on this are twofold:
1) Don't believe everything you read about the "Mozart Effect"
2) Even the Mozart Effect does not indicate that playing music while working enhances your ability.
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I absolutely agree with every caveat you've mentioned. I met Fran Rauscher in 1994 when I was an ass't prof at Iowa State. We brought her in to replicate her first study in the Ames Community Schools, but the local school board rejected our request. She was a very attractive, very cool woman who was a child prodigy on cello in a previous life. Look at an episode of "Desperate Housewives" on ABC Sunday evenings and notice a character named "Susan;" that's exactly what Fran looked like and acted like.
When the media dubbed her research as "The Mozart Effect," then hundreds of charlatans across the globe began marketing tons of crap and passing it off as verified by her research. This plus the fact that no other researcher EVER replicated her original results led to a controversial "debunking" of her claims. Fran spent the next few years defending research that was NOT incorrect (therefore couldn't be technically debunked), but simply was taken to a context she didn't intend.
However, I do believe in her original results. My experience with Mozart is that the music is incredibly organized and structured, and would seem to be the perfect vehicle in order to focus one's mind on a math-related task.