Prelude or requiem for the ‘Mozart effect’?

Abstract

Rauscher et al. reported¹ that brief exposure to a Mozart piano sonata produces a temporary increase in spatial reasoning scores, amounting to the equivalent of 8-9 IQ points on the Stanford-Binet IQ scale². Early attempts to confirm this ‘Mozart effect’ were unsuccessful^3,4,5,6. Rauscher et al. subsequently restricted their account to an improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by the Paper Folding and Cutting task⁷. We use procedures modelled on the original report to show that there is little evidence for a direct effect of music exposure on reasoning ability.