Can music affect our cognitive abilities? This question has been examined by several psychologists over the past two decades. In 1993, Frances Rauscher and her colleagues published the results of their experiment, which looked at whether listening to the music of Mozart has an effect on college students' performance on spatial tasks. This study sparked the team to continue to conduct more experiments, and also sparked the involvement of other psychologists. In this paper, I will trace the findings of the so-called "Mozart Effect- experiments, examining the link between the music of Mozart and a person's spatial task performance and reasoning abilities. I will also suggest implications and applications for the results of these studies. .
Future Directions .
The media has picked up quickly on the idea of the possible Mozart effect, at times over-exaggerating its reliability. The truth is that no studies have provided definite data, which confirms a strong correlation between listening to Mozart, and increased spatial-task performance. Instead, the studies have only begun to look at this possible effect, and all suggest the need for further examination. .
There is even a degree of uncertainty as to how to classify spatial abilities. (as stated in Rauscher & Shaw, 1998) Rauscher and Shaw (1998) suggest that the Mozart effect is dependent on two components of spatial-temporal tasks "spatial imagery and temporal ordering of spatial components. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that the studies, which tested these two specific subcategories, found that the performance of participants was enhanced after exposure to the music of Mozart. .
The studies discussed in this paper have recognized certain factors, which may influence the demonstration of the hypothesis that listening to Mozart increases spatial-task performance. Rauscher and Shaw suggest in their 1998 journal article that researchers should consider how the order of presentation of listening and task conditions affects the success of the Mozart effect.