Tips for Parents!

Is ‘Mozart effect’ able to enhance the intelligence of the infant?

    It has been an increasing trend in the market to use “Mozart Effect” or “Music Effect” as a gimmick for promoting infant products. The majority of them claim that by listening more to (Mozart) music would enhance the intelligent development of infants. But how much do you know about the concept of the Mozart Effect?

    The term “Mozart Effect” comes from a 1993 research conducted in the University of California which investigated the effect of music. The study invited 36 college students as participants and their performance of a spatial intelligence task was measured after listening to 10 minutes of Mozart Sonata. Result found that their performance of the spatial intelligence task was significantly improved after listening to the 10 minutes of Mozart Sonata. The release of this result echoed lots of discussion and research from different related fields were expanding to examine whether different pieces of music from other composers as well as other types of music can exhibit similar music effect. And the term “Mozart Effect” is well-known as a result.

    However, most of the infant products emphasizing the Mozart Effect to lead the public to think that by exposing the infants to music would enhance their intelligent development. In reality, although there are different reports revealing “Mozart Effect” could be found in individual of different age groups, however the age range of the participants were limited to elementary school students to adults. There are no reports demonstrating the influence of “Mozart Effect” on infants yet. Up till now, “Mozart Effect” as mentioned in scientific studies usually represents the temporary effect of music on the participants. There is not yet any research illustrating the long term influence of music on improving one’s intelligence, thus these hypotheses are awaiting to be testified.

    Although there are not enough supporting evidences for “Mozart Effect” on infants, your children to different kinds can cultivate their interest towards music, and helps them to learn how to express one’s emotion through music.

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