According to the neuroscience article, "Does listening to Mozart really boost your brainpower?" written by Claudia Hammond on BBC Future, the worldwide believe that Mozart songs can help baby or children more clever is a big misunderstanding issue since the study which spread this believe was taken in young adult students. However, listening to any kinds of music -- even if pop music -- can help adults raise short-term abilities to solving problems due to the pleasantness from beautiful rhythm.
In my childhood around three years old, I listened to a plenty of tale stories from cassette tapes. In each story, it was inserted with varied classical music, which I know their name later, such as "The Four Seasons" composed by Vivaldi, "Symphony No. 40" of Mozart, "Symphony No. 9" of Beethoven and more which I cannot remember. In that time, I though that these songs make me interested in the story and can imagine a clear scene without any picture books. Moreover, the tone of the music can impact on my mood; for example, the "Spring" (one of "The Four Seasons") encourage me in the action scene. On the other hand, "Fall" depress my emotion when it comes to the dramatical climax.
In these days, I still listen to classical music but not frequently. While I am working or reading, I always listen to music from Youtube. It allows me relieve my tension and can be more concentrated with smooth mood. Therefore, now, I use music to improve my working potential.
Do classical musics raise my intelligence owing to my childhood familiarised with them? Probably not, I think that it is not a direct effect. I have more concentration while I listen to them. That makes me can understand more easily.
Although music cannot improve our cleverness scientifically, music is one of the most beautiful creation of humanity which can, at least, delight one's mind.
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References
Swaminathan, N. (2007, September 13). Fact or Fiction?: Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter. Scientific American. Retrieved January 8, 2013 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-babies-ex
There were a couple of related things in Ob's thoughtful post that I wanted to comment on. The first is his pointing out that very common beliefs, sometimes called "common knowledge", are certainly common, but much less often actually knowledge - as the Mozart effect shows. It's a nice idea, and sounds sort of plausible, but it's a factual claim about the world, and the only thing that can be solid support is the results of research, and that research shows that it's wrong. Listening to Mozart does not make babies more intelligent.
ReplyDeleteThe related point occurred to me when I read Ob's response comment that "now, I use music to improve my working potential" (¶ 4). This sounds very unlikely to me. I know many people believe this, like many believe in the Mozart effect, or that watching mega-violent video games turns kids into violent people, but I'm sure it's also wrong. I haven't checked, but I remember seeing the result of studies which report that such multi-tasking, or simply distracting the brain, results in lower levels of performance across all tasks being done simultaneously. Like the Mozart effect claim, the idea that listening to music helps concentration is a factual claim about the world, and it needs some factual support from reliably constructed and performed research.
I think it's better to listen to music when you want to listen to music, and to when you're, for example, reading, it's better to read, not half-read and half-listen to music.
But I might be wrong. You are certainly welcome to present evidence and reasons to persuade me to change my mind.
The ability of multi-tasking is still problem in my family. I don't belive it is possible and also have some expereince, but my daughter insists that young generations are different. Moreover, some math teachers allow student to listen to music when they do practice. I can remember the story where an able surgeon does operation while he is listening to classic.
DeleteFor multitasking as Peter mentioned, I agree with you that it can reduce our work efficiency. I search for it and found "Does Listening to Music While Working Make You Less Productive?" (http://ideas.time.com/2012/09/12/does-listening-to-music-while-working-make-you-less-productive/).
DeleteIt was mentioned that it is better to turn off music for passive skill--absorbing and remembering--;however, it shows a positive result for active skill; in that case, the surgeon operation was more accurate when the doctor was listening to music than turning it off due to relaxation. Moreover, music without lyrics, which is my favorite song, can raise our mental performance better than one with lyrics.
Therefore, I think whether music can improve our potential depends on which kind of activity is.
For Kitie, I think that our learning skill depends on our brain which, in my view, is not different from our generation. As you can see, today children who are familiar with multitasking surroundings like computer game are prone to have a shorter concentration--they cannot focus on doing something for a long period. So, I still believe that multitasking can decrease our performance.
Ob,
DeleteThanks for doing some research to get solid supporting evidence. I like the article you found.
So, it's OK, and likely helpful, to listen to music when your making an omelette, removing an appendix, or cleaning your bathroom - all routine tasks that are well practised; but don't listen to music when you are reading for a class, planning it or writing an essay - all "cognitively demanding tasks" (Paul, Time, 2012, ¶ 2).
Thanks for your advice. You point me out which part in the article is definitely important for our writing and reading class. So, I will try to turn off music first and compare the result--better essay writing.
DeleteCould you tell me how to add a URL link in the comment? Thank you in advance.
Ob,
DeleteThank you for bringing the article to our attention. I had read similar studies, which I had in mind when I wrote my first comment above, but it's much better if you do the research for yourself, rather than me just giving it to you. And you did it very well.
Thanks also for asking how to add URL link in a comment. If you look over on the far right of the blog, there is a set of links called "AEP CLASS BLOG - INFORMATION PAGES". Click on "Comments - italics, bold, links and ¶". The page that opens contains instructions on how to do the following in comments:
- add a URL link,
- add italics
- add bold and
- insert the ¶ symbol = paragraph.
I listened to those bedtime story casette too. I love them but the true reason that I have to listen to them is that my mom was getting boring of telling me the same bedtime story over and over again.lol. She said that I always request her the same story, my favourite one about a rat in an old lady house. I have chance to read it again when I am a grown up. It (almost) does not contain any story line. I wonder why I love this stroy more than other classic fairy tale. How children judge the value of their "literature" is the question keep poping in my mind. This might be one of the reason why now I am still a children picture book fan.
ReplyDeleteDespite of having lstened to classical music during pregnancy, any of my children isn't interested in classical music. When they were younger I had tried to let them hear music for children even in the car but few years later I was sick of that kind of music, one day I announced to my children I would listen to the music for me. After then we became enjoy the music toghether, they have same taste to the music with me.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that musics can increase human's intelligence. I think that they can boost our EQ but not IQ. Music yields benefits for my life in some occasions. For example, after studying very hard or suffering from any problems in my life, listening to music is one of the best ways that help me feel more relaxed. I love listening to the radio when I am in a car since it fills a gap of silence. Nonetheless, I don't like to listen to music while I am working because it is quite hard for me to concentrate on many things at the same time. So music is sometimes an obstruction of my works and studies.
ReplyDeleteLast semester, I studied a module which is called "Music Appreciation". I had opportunities to listen to Mozart's and Beethoven's music and the professor gave assignments to me and my classmate to write explanations and feelings about some of those songs. It was difficult for me since I couldn't imagine and understand the real meaning of the songs. This may be because I am not into classical musics.
In the second year of my program, I chose to study that module too. ^O^ I cannot get the meaning of each song because I think it is sensitive. It relies on your mood, background and listening environment. No matter how hard it is, I am happy to attend the class and listen to beautiful music from each era. In Baroque era, I like "Cannon".
DeleteMusic appreciation is one of my core course(I cant avoid it if I want to graduated). I think it is a useful subject because it provide basic knowledge about classical music for academic, who is expected to know Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and so on. However, I am not appreciate with the class itself . My professor's teaching style focusing on the small detailed imformation of classical music history cant make me truly appreciate it.
Deletemaybe we should have done the chapter in Quest on poetry after all.
DeleteAlthough students are often a bit hesitant, most do end up enjoying it as we study them and write essays on some great poems.
I can't listen to music while I'm reading, because it interfere my meditation. Like you said in our class that surgeon always listen to music during operation. In my case, I used do like that; but I actually didn't hear anything because I focused on the surgery. So I'm not sure why many doctors do like that. Maybe it make their assistance less bored. lol
ReplyDelete