SUMMARY

Music, Relaxation, or Silence: What

Facilitates Optimal
Spatial-Reasoning?
Author
Year

:
:

Jacqueline Lasser, Department of Psychology

2006 In UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research IX, 1-4

Author as in-text citation

Lasser (2006)

Author in References

Lasser, J. (2006) Music, Relaxation, or Silence:

What Facilitates Optimal Spatial-Reasoning? UW-L
Journal of Undergraduate Research, IX, 1-4.

Objectives of the study:

1) to examine spatial reasoning ability, i.e. does

listening to techno music has the same effect as
listening to Mozart?
2) to examine if Mozart has influence on the
relaxation state?
3) to examine if there is a correlation on
performance of the test between those with
musical background and those with no musical
background.

- to explore three aspects

Hypothesis of the study:

- the study hoped to find three
results

Methodology:

1) Performance on spatial-reasoning will improve

with Mozart music.
2) There will be equal score for those listening to
vocal relaxation and those listening to Mozart.
Also, there will be an improved score over silence
and techno music.
3) Participants with music training (4 years) will
perform differently compared to non-musicians.

- 123 students from University of Wisconsin-Las

Crosse were assigned randomly to four conditions:
Mozart music, techno version of Mozart, vocal
relaxation and silent.
- exposed to the condition for five minutes.
- assigned 8 minutes to complete the StanfordBinet Intelligence Scale matrix reasoning task

- 22 items in the three matrix box and participants

to determine the last box by choosing from multichoice answers.

Results of the study:

1) No significant difference between Mozart,

techno, relaxation and silent (One-Way Anova).
2) An interaction effect on group with musical
training.

Discussion & Conclusion

There was no improvement on the spatial

reasoning task. This does not support the
hypothesis of the Mozart Effect. Musicians
however performed slightly better than non
musicians, supporting the hypothesis that musical
training does have different effect on
performance.

Lasser (2006) conducted a study among 123 undergraduate students from the
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to investigate if music, relaxation and silent could
affect optimal spatial reasoning ability and if there is a correlation on performance
between musicians and non-musicians. Her study follows Brander and Rammayers
(2003) study which found musicians do better on intuitive thinking. Her hypothesis
for the study are threefold: firstly, that there would be enhanced performance on
spatial-reasoning with equal score between vocal relaxation and Mozart music,
secondly, there will be better performance over silence and techno music and third,
performance between musicians with more than 4 years experience and those with
less experience will be different. Before the study, the participants completed a
survey on their musical training and then randomly exposed for five minutes each
to four conditions: Mozart music, techno version of Mozart, vocal relaxation and
silent. Another 8 minutes were allocated for them to complete the Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scare matrix reasoning task. The task using 22 items required them to
select from a-three boxes of a pattern, and using multi-choice answers, to identify
the last box of the pattern. The One-Way ANOVA test shows no significant difference
was found between Mozart, techno, relaxation and silent. However the Univariate
Analysis of Variance test shows an interaction effect found between the musicians.
Although there was a slight difference between musicians and non musicians, the

study does not support previous hypothesis that Mozart music enhanced spatial
reasoning tasks and there was no significant difference when compared to silence,
vocal relaxation and techno music. More studies on the effect of Mozart music on
task performance are still needed and perhaps future studies looking at the four
conditions on spatial task performance may consider physiological research on the
brain to understand this Mozart effect mystery.
References
Lasser, J. (2006) Music, Relaxation, or Silence: What Facilitates Optimal SpatialReasoning? UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research, IX, 1-4.