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Prelude or requiem for the ‘Mozart effect’?

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Abstract

Rauscher et al.1 reported that listening to ten minutes of Mozart's music increased the abstract reasoning ability of college students, as measured by IQ scores, by 8 or 9 points compared with listening to relaxation instructions or silence, respectively1. This startling finding became known as the ‘Mozart effect’, and has since been explored by several research groups. Here I use a meta-analysis to demonstrate that any cognitive enhancement is small and does not reflect any change in IQ or reasoning ability in general, but instead derives entirely from performance on one specific type of cognitive task and has a simple neuropsychological explanation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Christopher F. Chabris

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  1. Christopher F. Chabris
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Chabris, C. Prelude or requiem for the ‘Mozart effect’?. Nature 400, 826–827 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/23608

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