This blog is somewhat dry and factual. However, consider it a goldmine of information! It is worth your time to dig out the golden morsels of information. These research results were compiled by Denie Riggs, Spring 1998.
We begin with an older study on music and reading, published by Hurwitz, Wolff, Bortnick and Kokas in 1975. The authors asked whether music training improved reading performance in first grade children. The experimental group received Kodaly training, which uses folk songs and emphasizes melodic and rhythmic elements. The control group consisted of children who were matched in age, IQ, and socioeconomic status at the beginning of the study and who received no special treatment. The music instruction was extensive, five days a week for 40 minutes each day, for seven months. Students were tested on reading ability at the start of the school year and then re-tested at the end of the year. After training the music group exhibited significantly higher reading scores than did the control group, scoring in the 88th percentile vs. the 72nd percentile. Incidentally, the benefits for the music group were not due to the better teaching of reading because students who had the same teacher before, during and after music training showed greatly improved reading performance. Moreover, continued music training was beneficial; after an additional year of Kodaly training, the experimental group was still superior to the control group. These findings clearly support the view that music education facilitates the ability to read." (Hurwitz, I., Wolff, P.H., Bortnick, B.D. & Kokas, K. (1975) Nonmusical Effects Of The Music Curriculum In Primary Grade Children.) (Italics mine.)
"At what age do musical capabilities first appear? Perhaps at birth or even soon after the functional development of the auditory system in utero. Research results show that babies studied at 2-4 days of age who had been exposed to the theme song of a popular TV program while their mothers were pregnant. When the same tune was presented after birth, they exhibited changes in heart rate and movements. More remarkably, fetuses of 29-37 weeks gestation age also showed specific behavioral responses to tunes played earlier in pregnancy. In both experiments, behavioral responses were specific to the tune to which they had been exposed. These results would seem to indicate that the learning and remembering of a melody can occur not only before birth but actually before or at the beginning of the third trimester." (Irish Journal of Psychology, Peter G. Hepper, 1991, 12, pp 95-107) (Italics mine.)
In 1994, a research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reports that music training–specifically piano instruction–is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science.
The new findings, published in the February 1997 issue of neurological Research, are the result of a two-year experiment with preschoolers, led by psychologist Dr. Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh and physicist Dr. Gordon Shaw of the University of California at Irvine. This team set out to compare the effects of musical and non-musical training on intellectual development.
The experiment involved 78 three-and four-year-old children of normal intelligence from three preschools in Southern California. Thirty-four received private piano lessons, twenty received private computer instruction, ten received singing lessons and fourteen in a control group received no special lessons. None had prior music lessons or computer training. Those children who received piano/keyboard training performed 34% higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than the others. These findings indicate that music uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science and engineering.
These studies show that early experiences determine which brain cells (neurons) will connect with other brain cells, and which ones will die away. Because neural connections are responsible for all types of intelligence, a child’s brain develops to its full potential only with exposure to the necessary enriching experiences in early childhood. What Drs. Rauscher and Shaw have emphasized has been the causal relationship between early music training and the development of the neural circuitry that governs spatial intelligence. Their studies indicate that music training generates the neural connections used for abstract reasoning, including those necessary for understanding mathematical concepts." (Music Beats Computers at Enhancing Early Childhood Development, American Music Conference via PR NEWSWIRE: Neurological Research, February 1997) (Italics mine.)
Scores on a puzzle task, designed to measure spatial reasoning ability, increased significantly during the course of the period they received the music lessons." (Music Increases Intelligence Report, College of Computing, Georgia Tech, August 24, 1994)
Dr. Gordon Shaw, the study’s principal investigator, (physics professor), said the piano was the instrument of choice because its keyboard gave the children both a linear and audible representation of the relationship between sounds. All children in the study were tested to measure their spatial reasoning skills prior to any training, and then again after about six months of lessons. Researchers utilized a standard test used in schools nationwide to score children’s reasoning abilities.
What this means for parents is that they should consider giving their children piano lessons as early as age three or four," said Shaw. " (UCI Journal, Spring 1997) (Italics mine.)
We next consider the effects of training with music on learning and creativity. Mohanty and Hejmadi investigated the effects of various types of training of four- and five-year olds on learning the name of their body parts and on creativity as assessed by the Torrence Test of Creative Thinking, involving picture construction and picture completion. There were four matched groups: non-training control, verbal instruction in the names and uses of body parts, verbal instructions plus acting out movements, and the music/dance group in which instructions were given by song and acting out movements was done in the form of a dance. After twenty days of training, all experimental groups exhibited higher test scores than the control group. The music/dance group showed the greatest improvement in learning about body parts and creativity. Thus, improvement in cognitive abilities can result from a variety of training experiences, but music is the most effective of these treatments. The means by which music and other training produces improvement in the cognitive abilities studied remains to be determined." (Mohanty, B. & Hejmadi, A. (1992). Effects Of Intervention Training On Some Cognitive Abilities Of Preschool Children. Psychological Studies, 37, 31-37.) (Italics mine.)
In summary, we have reviewed several studies that support the conclusion that musical training facilitates cognitive skills, including reading, abstract spatial abilities and creativity. In each case, there is an extramusical positive effect. Thus, it appears that music studied for good and sufficient reasons for its own sake has beneficial ‘side effects’ on cognition."(Rausher, F.H.,Shaw G.I., Levine, L.J., Ky, K.N. & Wright, E.I. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Los Angeles, CA., August 13, 1994.) (Italics mine.)
Notes ee e from Denie Riggs:
Well, there you have it, except that I wanted to add one more thing.
Recently one of my adult students told me that she had done her thesis on this subject. Her research showed that adult women who had suffered a stroke in their later years, recovered faster and further if they had studied music than those who had not.
The brain function is therefore enhanced throughout life.
Come on kids…let’s make music!