On Thu, 26 Aug 1999 12:23:27 -0500 Jean Edwards
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hmmmmmm.. very interesting given the following quoted from February 19, 1996
> Newsweek:
>
> "At UC Irvine, Gordon Shaw suspected that all higher-order thinking is
> characterized by similar patterns of neurons firing. 'If you're working with
> little kids,' says Shaw, 'you're not going to teach them higher mathematics
> or chess. But they are interested in and can process music.' So Shaw and
> Frances Rauscher gave 19 PRESCHOOLERS (emphasis added) piano or singing
> lessons. After eight months, the researchers found the children
> 'dramatically improved in spatial reasoning,' compared with children given
> no music lessons, as shown by their ability to work mazes, draw geometric
> figures and copy patterns of two-colored blocks. The mechanism behind the
> "Mozart effect" remains murky, but Shaw suspects that when children exercise
> cortical neurons by listening to classical music, they are also
> strengthening circuits used for mathematics. Music, says the UC team,
> 'excites the inherent brain patterns and enhances their use in complex
> reasoning tasks.'"
>
> I thought it was from this study that policies regarding music for
> infants/preschoolers were based, not from a brief effect shown in ADULT
> populations. As well, there IS at least this study which provides scientific
> evidence that such experiences may be beneficial IF initiated early in life.
>
Mike was right. The "Mozart effect" has only been tested with
adults. Rauscher and Shaw used the effect they reported in
adults as the theoretical justification for their experiment
with preschool children. Notice that the experimental
intervention is very different in the preschool study,
piano-keyboard-training and singing, and they used different
dependent measures.
On the other hand, Rauscher did report a Mozart effect in rats.
Rats exposed in utero and 60 days postpartum to the same Mozart
piano sonata, as used with the college students, showed a
significant increase in solution time in 6-unit T-mazes.
And for those who have followed this literature, the control
music was the same, Philip Glass' "Music with changing parts."
Poor Philip Glass...
Ken
----------------------
Kenneth M. Steele [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Associate Professor
Dept. of Psychology
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
