The Issues of the Mozart Effect Essay

Listening to Mozart’s music can improve the persons’ intellectual abilities, increase IQ, and improve individuals’ learning and creativity significantly. This controversial claim is actively developed and supported by Don Campbell in his work The Mozart Effect. In this book, the author develops the specific theory according to which those persons who listen to Mozart’s music demonstrate significant increases in IQ and creativity in comparison with those individuals who do not pay attention to listening to Mozart’s works and choose the other music genres to enjoy.

Campbell’s theory became widely known as the ‘Mozart effect’ which supports the idea that the process of listening to Mozart’s music increases the person’s mental function and intellectual abilities greatly (Campbell 24). On the one hand, Campbell describes the Mozart effect while referring to many researches in the field of cognition and mental development. On the other hand, Campbell’s statements about the significant role of particular Mozart’s works for the person’s intellectual development are not supported with the further researches concentrated on the concrete idea of the Mozart effect.

Thus, the research shows that the Mozart effect theory is based on the false interpretation of the previous studies and on irrelevant assumptions, and it should not be discussed from the perspective of the specific role of Mozart’s music for increasing persons’ intellectual abilities because there are no credible evidences to support this claim.

In his book, Campbell builds the argument to support the idea that listening to Mozart’s music can improve people’s intellect and creativity with references to the findings of Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky’s study. In 1993, the researchers published their results on the Mozart music’s effect on the persons’ spatial reasoning. The findings attracted the attention of many researchers in the field because Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky found that persons could cope with the abstract spatial reasoning tests more effectively while listening to Mozart’s music.

The authors of the article also compared the results of the listeners with the results of the persons who conducted tests in relation to different listening conditions (Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky 611). Campbell used Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky’s findings as the support to develop his Mozart effect theory. However, the author of the theory misinterpreted the researchers’ results because he chose to generalize the findings and apply them to the discussion of the overall increase in persons’ intellectual abilities as a result of listening to Mozart’s music (Campbell 58).

Thus, Campbell’s conclusions cannot be discussed as supported with Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky’s findings because the researchers noted only temporary effect of listening to Mozart’s music on the persons’ spatial reasoning, and they did not provide any generalized conclusions about the effect of Mozart’s music on the persons’ IQ and mental development (Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky 611). From this point, Campbell not only misinterpreted the facts, but he also generalized the findings without supporting them with factual evidences.

Campbell draws the audience’s attention to the fact that the process of listening to Mozart’s music has significant effects on people’s mental development, creativity, memory, and learning abilities as well as on increases in IQ. Moreover, listening to concrete Mozart’s works, people can also overcome depression, fears, psychological disorders, and contribute to recovery while speaking about mental disorders (Campbell 26-34). Nevertheless, the problem is in the fact that all the mentioned statements and conclusions about the positive impact of Mozart’s music on the people’s intellectual abilities and mental health depend only on irrelevant generalizations which are not supported with the further researches in the field.

Thus, McKelvie and Low focused on checking the results associated with Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky’s findings. The authors found that the process of listening to Mozart did not have any impact on the children’s spatial reasoning. The changes in the children’s spatial ability were insignificant to speak about any improvements related to the children’s IQ or memory (McKelvie and Low 241). Thus, Campbell’s generalizations associated with the role of Mozart’s music to improve the intellectual capacity can be discussed as rather unreasonable. In addition, there are controversies associated with discussing the role of Mozart’s music in comparison with the works of the other famous composers.

Campbell’s argument is discussed widely because of the author’s focus on the specific role of Mozart’s music for the learning and mental development while distinguishing between Mozart and other composers’ works. As a result, the Mozart effect is considered as the particular phenomenon in the context of studying the general role of the classical music for the persons’ mental development (Campbell 56). However, the research shows that the focus on the particular effects of Mozart’s music on persons’ IQ and learning is not supported with adequate evidences.

That is why, the Mozart effect cannot be considered as the unique phenomenon. In spite of the fact that Wilson and Brown supported the idea of the positive effect of Mozart’s music on the people’s spatial ability, the authors state that such an effect is expected as a result of listening to any form of the classical music (Wilson and Brown 365). Furthermore, Schellenberg and Hallam provided many evidences to speak about the positive effect of listening to all the forms of the classical music, without references to the specific composers. The authors present the arguments to state that the positive effect depends not on the genre of the music work, but on the factor of children’s reaction to the music.

Thus, if children enjoy the music they listen to, this process contributes to increasing their moods and, as a result, intellectual and cognitive abilities (Schellenberg and Hallam 203). From this perspective, the appropriateness of Campbell’s focus on the important role of Mozart’s music was not explained with references to the conducted researches.

The most provocative part of Campbell’s argument is the role of Mozart’s music for coping with different types of psychological disorders because the author determines the important role of Mozart’s works while ignoring the other popular debates in the field. Schellenberg and Hallam state that the positive effect on people’s mental and physical health is expected with the focus on discussing the arousal and mood hypothesis.

The researchers state that “the type of music needed to generate cognitive benefits depends on the particular listener”, and this music can contribute to improving the person’s health state significantly (Schellenberg and Hallam 207). Schellenberg and Hallam illustrate their arguments with the following example: when patients choose a specific piece of music to listen to “while undergoing minor surgery, the pain they experience is less than that of patients who listen to white noise or the background sounds of the operating room, and their pain-medication requirements are reduced” (Schellenberg and Hallam 208).

The similar effects are observed while focusing on the role of music for stimulating the mental processes and increasing the persons’ mood. It is important to note that Schellenberg and Hallam do not focus on the particular effect of Mozart’s music, and this fact supports the idea that any classical music can have similar positive effects on people and their moods and behaviors. As a result, Campbell’s argument can be discussed as based on a range of false assumptions and statements which are not supported with facts, credible conclusions, and practical findings.

Don Campbell’s theory known as the Mozart effect is rather provocative and controversial because of being based on many false assumptions and biases. This theory is also not supported with the credible arguments and evidences. From this point, Campbell fails to provide the facts to speak about the unique role of Mozart’s music for increasing people’s IQ and improving mental development.

The author misinterprets the important findings in the field, and he is inclined to make general conclusions which are not supported with the real facts. Campbell also concentrates on discussing the important role of Mozart’s music while ignoring the evidences associated with the role of the other musical pieces to improve the individuals’ mood and mental abilities. From this point, the Mozart effect can be discussed as the controversial phenomenon in contrast to the supported fact that any music which contributes to people’s arousal and positive mood improves people’s mental processes because of providing the positive stimulation. Thus, the positive effect is based on the listener’s attitude to the music instead of focusing on its genre.

Works Cited

Campbell, Don. The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. USA: HarperCollins, 2009. Print.

McKelvie, Pippa, and Jason Low. “Listening to Mozart Does not Improve Children’s Spatial Ability: Final Curtains for the Mozart Effect”. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 20.2 (2002): 241–258. Print.

Rauscher, Frances, Gordon Shaw, and Catherine Ky. “Music and Spatial Task Performance”. Nature 365.6447 (1993): 611-615. Print.

Schellenberg, Glenn, and Susan Hallam. “Music Listening and Cognitive Abilities in 10 and 11 Year Olds: The Blur Effect”. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1060 (2005): 202-209. Print.

Wilson, Thomas, and Tina Brown. “Reexamination of the Effect of Mozart’s Music on Spatial-Task Performance”. The Journal of Psychology 131.4 (1997): 365-370. Print.