MOZART AND MEMORY - The Effect of Mozart on Short-Term Memory

MOZART AND MEMORY - The Effect of Mozart on Short-Term Memory Rhiannon Evans (Year 10) Science Faculty, The Illawarra Grammar School, Western Avenue, Mangerton, 2500

Abstract

“Mozart makes you smarter”. But does it help a person remember? Listening to the complex music of Mozart can improve a person’s intelligence quotient or IQ score temporarily. However, some music, particularly unfamiliar music, can inhibit short-term memory performance. In this experiment, females aged 15-16 completed the University of Washington short-term memory test either in silence or with Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major playing to test whether listening to Mozart effects short-term memory in people who do not study music. Those who were familiar with Mozart or studied music completed the test in silence while those who did not meet these criteria completed the test with sound. The study found that listening to Mozart negatively effects short-term memory.

Introduction

‘The Mozart Effect’ refers to the theory that listening to Mozart’s music can temporarily improve IQ scores (Swartz, n.d.) and has been proven true for spatial-temporal tasks. Test participants that listen to Mozart while completing spatial-temporal tasks showed significantly higher results than those who do not (Kliewer, 1999). However, there have been conflicted outcomes and results regarding the effect of music on memory (Musliu et al. 2017). Listening to both familiarand unfamiliarmusic triggers the part of the brain associated with memory, but different genres have varying effects on performance that have not yet been determined.

For people who study music, listening to familiar music negatively effects concentration and memory because the part of the brain that is engaged to analyse the music is also the same part used to complete the tasks (Mori et al., n.d.) and it can be assumed that unfamiliar music would have a similar effect. In contrast, people who do not study music do not experience such effects with music not noticeably effecting their performance.

This experiment aimed to investigate the effect of Mozart on the short-term memory of people who do not study music, an area of study not commonly addressed. It is predicted that Mozart will have no effect on short-term memory performance.

Method

Six participants were questioned on their familiarity with Mozart’s music and assigned a condition according to their response. Those who were familiar with Mozart’s music completed the test in silence and those unfamiliar with Mozart’s music completed the test with Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major playing. Every test participant wore headphones for the duration of the test. Participants completed the University of Washington short-term memory test which asked them to memorise the letters that appear on the screen for three seconds and write down as many as they could remember when they disappeared, a process that was repeated six times. The results were converted to a percentage and the average calculated to

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prove the negative effect of listening to Mozart on short-term memory.

Results

The study showed that the participants that completed the test while listening to Mozart performed worse than the participants who completed the test in silence. The average result for those completing the test while listening to Mozart was 75% as opposed to the 85% of the participants who completed the test in silence (Table 1). There was a 10% difference in the average result. The range of results was 27% for the participants completing the test listening to Mozart as opposed to 24% for the participants completing the test in silence (Figure 1).

Average Result (%) Range (%)

Mozart 75 27 Silence 85 24 Table 1: The average result and range of each group of participants.

Figure 1: The effect of Mozart vs silence on University of Washington short-term memory test results.

The effect of Mozart on shortterm memory

Result (%)

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Mozart 1 Mozart 2

Mozart 3 Mozart 4 Mozart 5 Mozart 6 Silence 1 Silence 2 Silence 3 Silence 4 Silence 5 Silence 6

Participant

Mozart Average Silence Average

Discussion

It was hypothesised that listening to Mozart would not affect the short-term memory of a person who does not study music. However, the 10% lower average of those that listened to Mozart while completing the test as compared to the average of those that completed the test in silence clearly indicates a negative effect of Mozart on short-term memory. Additionally, the similar ranges in the results for each group means that the effect of differing memory abilities of participants was negated as all results were shifted down 10% as opposed to having a wider range.

An experiment conducted by Cambridge Brain Sciences (n.d.) regarding the effect of music on memory showed that listening to music either had no effect or greatly hindered short-term memory. It was determined that the part of the brain used to process the music was also used for memory, thereby dedicating a smaller percentage of brain regions to completing the memory task. However, a similar experiment regarding the effect of music on concentration concluded that music did not affect the performance of participants that did not study music (Musliu et al. 2017).

The negative effect of music on the short-term memory of a person who does not study music could be caused by using similar regions of the brain to complete the memory test and process the music, thereby reducing the percentage of brain regions dedicated to the task. Regardless of whether a person studies music, listening to unfamiliar music can be expected to cause a person to attempt to process it and commit it to memory using the same brain regions involved in completing the test.

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This study was completed under fair conditions, though a wider sample space would have been ideal to gain a clearer understanding of the difference between the two conditions. Moreover, studies have shown that emotions can impact the effect of music on a person and their memory and concentration (Musliu et al. 2017). Such influences were not accounted for, though the impact was predicted to be negligible and therefore not factored into the method.

Further investigation into the effect of Mozart on people who study music could develop the understanding of the effect of Mozart on memory for most people rather than just the portion that do not study music. It would also highlight any differences between the two groups should they be evident. In addition, investigation into the effect of familiar music on both people who do study music and those who do not could provide further understanding of the effect of music on a person’s short-term memory. A study completed by Dr. Fabiny with Harvard Medical School (2015) concluded that music boosted long-term memory, most notably in elderly people and people who could not speak. Research into the effects of music on long-term memory could provide a greater understanding of long-term influences of music on memory and further develop treatment and management of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and conditions that eliminate the ability to speak.

In conclusion, this experiment has revealed that Mozart negatively impacts short-term memory in people who do not study music. In other words, listening to Mozart does not support short-term memory.

References

Cambridge Brain Sciences n.d., Can Listening to Music Actually Help You Concentrate?, viewed 9 November 2021, <https://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/ more/articles/can-listening-to-musicactually-help-you-concentrate>. Fabiny, A 2015, Music can Boost Memory and Mood, viewed 9 November 2021, <https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-andmood/music-can-boost-memory-and-mood>. Mori, F, Naghsh, F & Tezuka, T n.d., The Effect of Music on the Level of Mental Concentration and its Temporal Change, PDF, viewed 9 November 2021, <https://files.ifi.uzh.ch/stiller/CLOSER%202 014/CSEDU/CSEDU/Information%20Techn ologies%20Supporting%20Learning/Full%2 0Papers/CSEDU_2014_40_CR.pdf. Swartz, L n.d., The "Mozart Effect": Does Mozart Make You Smarter?, PDF, viewed 11 November 2021, <http://xenon.stanford.edu/~lswartz/mozartef fect.pdf>. Musliu, A, Berisha, B, Musaj, A, Latifi, D, Peci, D, 2017, The Impact of Music on Memory, PDF, viewed 11 November 2021, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318 539845_The_Impact_of_Music_on_Memory

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