Listening to Mozart 'does not increase intelligence'

Listening to Mozart 'does not increase intelligence' - Telegraph

The finding is a blow to believers of the so-called “Mozart effect”.

The phenomenon was first suggested by a scientific study published in 1993 in the respected journal Science.

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That showed that teenagers who listened to Mozart's 1781 Sonata for Two Pianos in D major performed better in reasoning tests than adolescents who listened to something else or who had been in a silent room.

The finding, by a group at the University of California whose study involved only 36 students, led crèches in America to start playing classical music to children and the southern US state of Georgia even gave newborns a free classical CD.

However, since then many have suggested that the effect is a myth after further research failed to replicate the findings.

Now a team from Vienna University's Faculty of Psychology has analysed all studies since 1993 that have sought to reproduce the Mozart effect and found no proof of the phenomenon's existence.

In all they looked at 3,000 individuals in 40 studies conducted around the world.

"Those who listened to music, Mozart or something else – Bach, Pearl Jam – had better results than the silent group. But we already knew people perform better if they have a stimulus," said Jakob Pietschnig, who led the study.

"I recommend everyone listen to Mozart, but it's not going to improve cognitive abilities as some people hope," he added.