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Falling on the 21st of June.
The annual celebration of World Music Day is upon us and, Do You Really Know, is aiming to strike a chord with listeners.
We'll be harping on about music all week long, covering related terms, concepts and famous figures.
Happy listening!
What is the Mozart effect?
Thanks for asking.
What if listening to 10 minutes of Mozart could increase your IQ?
That's exactly what Frances Raucher and her Californian research team appeared to suggest back in 1993.
The theory spread like wildfire around the world, leading to much speculation about the so-called Mozart effect.
Let's cut to the chase.
Does it actually work?
Unfortunately not.
Let me explain.
The myth comes from the publication of an experiment in American scientific journal Nature.
The study required participants to listen to the Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K448, by Mozart.
After just 10 minutes, they were better able to solve spatial intelligence tasks, which are part of IQ testing.
These findings made headlines all over the globe.
Soon Mozart was being played to everyone from pregnant women to newborn babies and rats.
Some American states made it compulsory for kindergartens and nurseries to play Mozart to children on a daily basis.
Needless to say, the market for Mozart audio products exploded, but controversy followed, as a number of subsequent studies contradicted Rausch's findings.
A team in the University of Vienna's psychology department looked at around 3000 cases across 40 studies.
The team's leader, Jacob Piecznig, stated that there is no proof of the Mozart effect, while reminding everyone that the 1993 study was only carried out on a very small sample size of 36 students.
But this myth has now been perpetuated across several decades.
There must be something to it.
As Albert Einstein once said, life without playing music is inconceivable to me.
I live my daydreams in music.
I see my life in terms of music.
I get most joy in life out of music.
The reality is, whether you're listening to Mozart, Michael Jackson, Beyonce or Eminem, there's no real difference.
Music we enjoy improves our cognitive faculties because it stimulates increases in our mood and arousal.
Rauscher herself later disclaimed the idea that listening to Mozart could somehow make a person smarter.
She referred to this as a misconception, underlining that the effect was limited to spatial temporal tasks involving mental imagery and temporal ordering.
However, playing a musical instrument yourself may actually have a positive impact on intellectual levels.
Many studies have shown a correlation between musical training and academic performance.
Learning to play an instrument improves memory and abstract reasoning, which are vital in math and science studies.
That's not only true for children, but also for adults, so it's never too late to reap the benefits.
There you have it.
Now you know what the Mozart Effect is.
In under three minutes, we answer your questions.
What would you like to know about?
Use the comments section to ask your questions on the podcast platform.
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