The relationship between music and cognitive abilities was studied by observing the cognitive development of children provided (n = 63) and not provided (n = 54) with individual piano lessons from fourth to sixth grade. There were no differences in cognitive abilities, musical abilities, motor proficiency, self-esteem, academic achievement, or interest in studying piano between the two groups of children at the beginning of the study. It was found that the treatment affected children's general and spatial cognitive development. The magnitude of such effects (omega squared) was small. Additional analyses showed that although the experimental group obtained higher spatial abilities scores in the Developing Cognitive Abilities Test after 1 and 2 years of instruction than did the control group, the groups did not differ in general or specific cognitive abilities after 3 years of instruction. The treatment did not affect the development of quantitative and verbal cognitive abilities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barret, H., & Barker, H. (1973). Cognitive pattern perception and musical performance. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 36, 1187–1193.
2.
Besson, M., Faita, F., & Requin, J. (1994). Brain waves associated with musical incongruities differ for musicians and non-musicians. Neuroscience Letters, 168, 101–105.
3.
Bever, T., & Chiarello, R. (1974). Cerebral dominance in musicians and non-musicians. Science, 185, 537–539.
4.
Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. (1978). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Center.
5.
Canadian Achievement Tests. (1992). (2nd ed.) Markham, ON: Canadian Test Centre.
Developing Cognitive Abilities Test. (1990). Iowa City, IA: American Testronics.
8.
Duke, B., Flowers, P., & Wolfe, D. (1997). Children who study piano with excellent teachers in the United States. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 132, 51–84.
9.
Gromko, J. E., & Poorman, A. S. (1998). The effect of music training on preschoolers' spatial-temporal task performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 173–181.
10.
Hassler, M. (1992). Creative musical behavior and sex hormones: Musical talent and spatial abilities in the two sexes. Psychoneouroendocrinology, 17 (1), 55–70.
11.
Hassler, M., Birbaumer, N., & Feil, A. (1985). Musical talent and visual-spatial abilities: A longitudinal study. Psychology of Music, 13, 99–113.
12.
Hassler, M., & Nieschlag, E. (1989). Masculinity, femininity, and musical composition: Psychological and psychoendocrinological aspects of musical and spatial faculties. Archives of Psychology, 141, 71–84.
13.
Hurwitz, I., Wolff, P., Bortnick, B., & Kokas, K. (1975). Nonmusical effects of the Kodaly music curriculum in primary grade children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 8 (3), 45–52.
14.
Johnson, J. K., Petsche, H., Richter, P., von Stein, A., & Filz, O. (1996). The dependence of coherence estimates of spontaneous EEG on gender and music training. Music Perception, 13, 563–582.
15.
Karma, K. (1979). Musical, spatial and verbal abilities. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 59, 50–53.
16.
Keppel, G. (1982). Design and analysis: A researcher handbook (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc.
17.
Manturzewska, M. (1978). Psychology in the music school. Psychology of Music, 6, 36–47.
Newman, J., Rosenbach, J., Burns, K., Latimer, B., Matocha, H., Rosenthal, E. (1995). An experimental test of “The Mozart Effect”: Does listening to his music improve spatial ability?Perceptual and Motor Skills, 81, 1379–1387.
20.
Pilbrick, K., & Mallory, M. (1996, April). Music and the hemispheres: Stimulating brain development through music education. Paper presented at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference, Kansas City.
21.
Rauscher, F., Shaw, G., Levine, L., Ky, K, & Wright, E. (1994, August). Music and spatial task performance: A causal relationship. Paper presented at the 102nd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA.
22.
Rauscher, E, Robinson, K., & Jens, J. (1997). Spatial performance as a function of early music exposure in rats. In A. Gabrielsson (Ed.), Proceedings of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (pp. 688–692). Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University.
23.
Rauscher, R., Shaw, G., & Ky, N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365, 611.
24.
Rauscher, R., Shaw, G., & Ky, N. (1995). Listening to Mozart enhances spatial-temporal reasoning: Towards a neurophysiological basis. Neuroscience Letters.185, 44.
25.
Rauscher, R., Shaw, G., Levine, L., Wright, E., Dennis, W., & Newcomb, R. (1997). Music training cause long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 2.
26.
Rideout, B. E., Dougherty, S., & Wernert, L. (1998). Effect of music on spatial performance: A test of generality. Perceptual and Motor Skills.86, 512–514.
27.
Rideout, B. E, Taylor, J. (1997). Enhanced spatial performance following 10 minutes' exposure to music: A replication. Perceptual and Motor Skills.85, 112–114.
28.
Sarnthein, J., vonStein, A., Rappelsberger, P., Petsche, H., Rauscher, F., & Shaw, G. (1997). Persistent patterns of brain activity: An EEG coherence study of the positive effect of music on spatial-temporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 107–116.
29.
Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., and Hung, Steinmetz (1995). In vivo evidence of structural brain asymmetry in musicians. Science, 267, 699.
30.
Schlaug, G., Amunts, K., Janke, L., & Zilles, K. (1996). Hand motor covaries with size of motor cortex: evidence for macrostructural adaptation in musicians. In B. Pennycook & E. Costa-Giomi (Eds), Proceedings of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (p. 433). Montreal: QC, Canada.
31.
Stough, C., Kerkin, B., Bates, T., & Mangan, G. (1994). Music and spatial IQ. Personality and Individual Differences, 17, 695.
