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The 'Mozart effect', the popular idea that listening to Mozart makes you cleverer, grew from a 1993 study of just 36 college students. After hearing a Mozart sonata, their scores on a spatial-reasoning task rose for only 10 to 15 minutes; later reviews found no lasting boost to intelligence.

Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993

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The story behind the card

Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Catherine Ky published the study in the journal Nature. Students listened to ten minutes of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, a relaxation recording or silence, then did paper-folding-and-cutting puzzles from the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. The Mozart group did better, but only briefly, and the study involved no babies, no children and no measure of general intelligence. Publicity turned it into a promise that classical music makes children smarter: in 1998 the governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed $105,000 a year to give every newborn in the state a classical recording. Later analyses found at most small, short-lived effects, most likely because lively music lifts mood and alertness.

Türkçe oku
Mozart dinlemenin insanı daha zeki yaptığı fikri, yani “Mozart etkisi”, yalnızca 36 üniversite öğrencisiyle yapılan 1993 tarihli bir çalışmadan doğdu. Bir Mozart sonatı dinleyen öğrencilerin uzamsal düşünme puanları sadece 10-15 dakikalığına yükseldi; sonraki incelemeler zekâda kalıcı bir artış bulmadı.
Rauscher, Shaw ve Ky, 1993

Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw ve Catherine Ky çalışmayı Nature dergisinde yayımladı. Öğrenciler on dakika boyunca ya Mozart'ın İki Piyano İçin Re Majör Sonatı'nı ya bir rahatlama kaydını dinledi ya da sessizlikte bekledi; ardından Stanford-Binet zekâ testinden alınmış kâğıt katlama ve kesme bulmacalarını çözdü. Mozart dinleyenler daha iyi sonuç aldı, ama yalnızca kısa bir süre için. Çalışmada bebek ya da çocuk yoktu, genel zekâ da ölçülmedi. Basında ve piyasada bu sonuç, klasik müziğin çocukları daha zeki yaptığı vaadine dönüştü. 1998'de Georgia Valisi Zell Miller, eyalette doğan her bebeğe bir klasik müzik kaydı vermek için yılda 105.000 dolar ayrılmasını önerdi. Sonraki analizler en fazla küçük ve kısa süreli etkiler buldu; bunun en olası nedeni, canlı müziğin ruh hâlini ve dikkati bir süreliğine yükseltmesi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Mozart effect
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