What is the Mozart Effect?

What if there was a way to increase your intelligence, make sure that you scored higher on evaluations, and generally increased your overall capacity to reason? Although that miracle method has not quite been found, many have suggested that there is a way to at least partially and temporarily accomplish some of the before mentioned goals. It is interesting to note however, that this method was discovered not by itself, but suggested as the side effect of something else entirely. In fact, the catalyst for this supposedly revolutionary bump in intellectual capacity is nothing other than the music of Mozart.

It is often said that letting a child listen to classical music, or listening to classical music as an adult has the capacity and the potential to increase intelligence and open the spatial and temporal areas of the mind to higher cognitive processing and deeper levels of thinking. The idea that music, especially classical music, can accomplish these chosen goals is often known as the Mozart Effect.

In theory, the Mozart Effect is the idea that the if one listens to the music of Mozart, for a period of time following the listening, that individual will be opened up to higher levels of thinking. This is generally considered to be the most impacting on the spatial and temporal levels of the brain, although increased abilities and understanding in comprehension and higher level reasoning have also been suggested as possible effects as well. Following this, after listening to the music of Mozart (or, essentially, any other classical artist) one should be able to score higher on certain tests, and the brain should be stimulated to more advanced levels.

However, how could this happen? Is classical music really infused with the ability to open our minds and increase our mental capacity? Even more importantly, how does this music come to affect the brain in such a powerful manner? Although it cannot be pinned down for sure, there are many ideas circulating as to why exactly this effect occurs. One of the most commonly held beliefs is that classical music forces the brain to "organize" and interpret the sounds that are coming into it. Remember that audio processing is a critical part of the spatial and temporal areas of the mind, and when something as advanced and complex as classical music is being encountered, the brain must respond accordingly, acting as a sort of head start, and increasing thinking capacity as if the individual had already been presented with some sort of mentally arousing task. The various creative aspects that come with classical music have also been suggested; which goes along with the basic idea that classical music forces the mind to do several things on it's own, functions which are seemingly not a requirement of modern music.

Even though we may not completely understand the Mozart Effect, perhaps the most important element to discuss is whether or not it is actually true. In recent years, as more information has become available, testing has also increased in order to try and determine if the effect is a real thing or simply the imagination playing tricks on the mind. Although a great variety of different tests and experimental set ups have been used, most of them adhere to roughly the same pattern: Two groups of individuals are taken, one group is exposed to Mozart's music for a period of time (often between ten to twenty minutes), the other group is left to sit in silence or have a short story read to them (the same amount of time elapses as in group one). After the initial periods of exposure, the groups are then given identical tests. Although the exact content of the tests changes from experiment to experiment, they generally contain a variety of questions that test the spatial and temporal arousal of the brain, as well as other general factors and representations of intelligence. However, while these experiments may all be different, they do seem to always come out to roughly the same results.

Shockingly, the music of Mozart has been shown to increase the capacity of the brain. However, this has only been proven to occur in the spatial and temporal areas of intelligence. Which, sadly, means that although listening to classical music before your big test may help you organize your thoughts better, it does not mean that you are going to ace that exam without studying. Another drawback here is the time frame. The Mozart Effect generally only lasts for about twenty minutes or so after listening to the music. Interestingly enough, it is not Mozart alone that has been proven to have this effect. In fact, similar results were reported when the second group was exposed to other classical music, or read a short story that engaged the mind in a similar way.

So, the Mozart Effect definitely does exist, even though it may not be the answer that many have been searching for. More than anything else, perhaps we can look towards Mozart and different types of classical music as a way to jump start and engage our minds. Even though Mozart and his music along will not help to raise our intelligence, there are definitely positive affects that can result from listening, and, after all, does one really need another reason to enjoy great classical music?