Does Playing Mozart to Babies Make Them Smarter Essay

The Mozart Effect Resource Centre website, music educator Don Campbell made the claim that â€Å"classical music has a powerful effect on the intellectual and creative development of children from the very youngest of ages.† (Campbell, n.d.). To critically evaluate this claim a number of sources have been analysed. Through this analysis it was found that the claim cannot be supported by reliable empirical research and that classical music only produces short-term cognitive enhancement. This effect can be achieved by listening to any type of music. The first main theme found in the literature was that listening to classical music such as Mozart produced only short term increased cognitive abilities and did not aid the intellectual development of†¦show more content†¦However when the two group’s SAT test scores were compared it was found that there was no significant difference between effects on the cognitive abilities of adolescents. This suggests that listenin g to Mozart only produces short-term increased cognitive abilities. Both these sources refute Don Campbell’s claim that listening to Mozart can have a powerful impact on the creative and intellectual development in children (Taylor Rowe, 2012). Any cognitive enhancement that occurs is normally minimal and is not lasting as it does not show any change in IQ or reasoning ability (Helder, 2014). Helder states that a basic principle showing that learning has occurred is proven by its repeatability. As the ‘Mozart effect’ was considered only to have a short term effect on cognitive abilities of students then it is unlikely that students could repeat what they had been taught any better than without the music as the effect only lasted 10-15 minutes (Helder, 2014). Pietschnig, Voracek and Formann (2010) state that exposure to music stimulates the section of the cortex that is responsible for spatial awareness. 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