> On 20 Sep 2006 at 11:11, Christopher D. Green wrote:
> 
> > Let the reflexive hole-poking being!!
> > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/09/20/music-brain.html

As a follow-up to my own post, I've located the study on-line at
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/awl247v1

As Ken Steele deduced, the participants were not randomly assigned. They 
only mention the matter at the very end of their discussion, where they 
say:

"...enhanced performance in digit span gives additional evidence for 
transfer effects between music and non-musical abilities such as...IQ 
(Schellenberg, 2004). In particular, Schellenberg (2004) randomly 
assigned children to either music lessons or drama lessons. This design 
eliminates differences between groups that could pre-exist between 
children whose parents enrol them in music classes compared with those 
who do not. It should be noted in this regard that although we did not 
have random assignment, and the groups differed at the first measurement 
on one of the AEF components, they changed differently over the course of 
the year, which strongly suggests the effect of musical training."

What they did not note was that in Schellenberg's study, no comparisons 
between music groups and drama group were significant. I guess they 
missed that.

Stephen

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Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.          
Department of Psychology     
Bishop's University                e-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Canada

Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
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