SUMMARY

Music, Relaxation, or Silence: What Facilitates Optimal Spatial-Reasoning?

Author : Jacqueline Lasser, Department of Psychology Year : 2006 In UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research IX, 1-4

Author as in-text citation Lasser (2006)

Author in References Lasser, J. (2006) Music, Relaxation, or Silence: What Facilitates Optimal Spatial-Reasoning? UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research, IX, 1-4.

Objectives of the study:

- to explore three aspects

1) to examine spatial reasoning ability, i.e. does listening to techno music has the same effect as listening to Mozart?2) to examine if Mozart has influence on the relaxation state?3) to examine if there is a correlation on performance of the test between those with musical background and those with no musical background.

Hypothesis of the study:

- the study hoped to find three results

1) Performance on spatial-reasoning will improve with Mozart music.2) There will be equal score for those listening to vocal relaxation and those listening to Mozart. Also, there will be an improved score over silence and techno music.3) Participants with music training (4 years) will perform differently compared to non-musicians.

Methodology: - 123 students from University of Wisconsin-Las Crosse were assigned randomly to four conditions: Mozart music, techno version of Mozart, vocal relaxation and silent.- exposed to the condition for five minutes.- assigned 8 minutes to complete the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale matrix reasoning task- 22 items in the three matrix box and participants to determine the last box by choosing from multi-choice answers.

Results of the study: 1) No significant difference between Mozart, techno, relaxation and silent (One-Way Anova).

2) An interaction effect on group with musical training.

Discussion & Conclusion There was no improvement on the spatial reasoning task. This does not support the hypothesis of the Mozart Effect. Musicians however performed slightly better than non musicians, supporting the hypothesis that musical training does have different effect on performance.

Lasser (2006) conducted a study among 123 undergraduate students from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to investigate if music, relaxation and silent could affect optimal spatial reasoning ability and if there is a correlation on performance between musicians and non-musicians. Her study follows Brander and Rammayer’s (2003) study which found musicians do better on intuitive thinking. Her hypothesis for the study are threefold: firstly, that there would be enhanced performance on spatial-reasoning with equal score between vocal relaxation and Mozart music, secondly, there will be better performance over silence and techno music and third, performance between musicians with more than 4 years experience and those with less experience will be different. Before the study, the participants completed a survey on their musical training and then randomly exposed for five minutes each to four conditions: Mozart music, techno version of Mozart, vocal relaxation and silent. Another 8 minutes were allocated for them to complete the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scare matrix reasoning task. The task using 22 items required them to select from a-three boxes of a pattern, and using multi-choice answers, to identify the last box of the pattern. The One-Way ANOVA test shows no significant difference was found between Mozart, techno, relaxation and silent. However the Univariate Analysis of Variance test shows an interaction effect found between the musicians. Although there was a slight difference between musicians and non musicians, the study does not support previous hypothesis that Mozart music enhanced spatial reasoning tasks and there was no significant difference when compared to silence, vocal relaxation and techno music. More studies on the effect of Mozart music on task performance are still needed and perhaps future studies looking at the four conditions on spatial task performance may consider physiological research on the brain to understand this “Mozart effect” mystery.

References

Lasser, J. (2006) Music, Relaxation, or Silence: What Facilitates Optimal Spatial-Reasoning? UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research, IX, 1-4.