It is believe that high functioning are more prone to take music lessons than other, hence obtaining better test results in any given subject. Because of all the different skills associated with musically trained adults, it is evident that general intelligence is associate with music lessons rather than with only a specific subject. To reason this Schellenberg did a standardized test to approximately 150 children and adults in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale III edition for children and adults separately.
David Wechsler, an American psychologist born in 1986 in Lespedi, Romania and died in 1981 in New York, updated the Wechsler Intelligence Scale in 1991; moreover, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale serves as a standardized test to measure intelligence reflected in verbal and non-verbal abilities in both children and adults. The results of this test showed that among all the children, the children with more months of music lessons had a better cognitive performance than the children who had no music lessons at all or had less months of training.
Evidently, the students with music training perform academically better in school; however, there was not any evidence that a link existed between music lesson and any particular subject at school. However, there is the case where according to the results of this test one would think that musicians are genius, for their long and experienced training in music lessons. Surprisingly, a study found that music students at a university compared to students from other discipline such as psychology, business, or law, scored lower in intelligence tests.
Therefore, cognitive advantages are only present in students who take music lessons for several years, but not for students who study music as a It is believe that high functioning are more prone to take music lessons than other, hence obtaining better test results in any given subject. Because of all the different skills associated with musically trained adults, it is evident that general intelligence is associate with music lessons rather than with only a specific subject.
To reason this Schellenberg did a standardized test to approximately 150 children and adults in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale III edition for children and adults separately. David Wechsler, an American psychologist born in 1986 in Lespedi, Romania and died in 1981 in New York, updated the Wechsler Intelligence Scale in 1991; moreover, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale serves as a standardized test to measure intelligence reflected in verbal and non-verbal abilities in both children and adults.
The results of this test showed that among all the children, the children with more months of music lessons had a better cognitive performance than the children who had no music lessons at all or had less months of training. Evidently, the students with music training perform academically better in school; however, there was not any evidence that a link existed between music lesson and any particular subject at school. However, there is the case where according to the results of this test one would think that musicians are genius, for their long and experienced training in music lessons.
Surprisingly, a study found that music students at a university compared to students from other discipline such as psychology, business, or law, scored lower in intelligence tests. Therefore, cognitive advantages are only present in students who take music lessons for several years, but not for students who study music as a university major. It does sound contradicting, yet the results of the test are there to support this theory; moreover, it can be concluded that the reason for music major students to have less cognitive performance relies on the high academic courses that other majors such as business, psychology, or science may require.
As Schellenberg states, high-functioning children are more likely than other children to make music lessons, but not necessarily to become “real musicians. ” To prove this many studies were made that placed children in musical interventions; however, the results are not trustable, for the children were involved in trainings that were not at all comparable to music lessons, thus making the results of this experiment to evoke an equivocal result.
Concerned and eager to provide a trustable result, Schellenberg embarked in a new study which involved 144 6-years old who could not afford music lessons to be randomly assigned to art lessons for the period of 12 months exactly. The children were randomly divided into two music groups and two controlled groups; furthermore, half of the kids were put in musical training that could either be piano lessons or vocal lessons, and the other half were put into drama lessons or not lessons at all.
Both groups were trained at the largest and oldest music conservatory in Canada according to Schellenberg. To make sure that the results of this study would be sufficient in representing an increase in cognitive levels, all the children took a WISC-III (Wechsler Intelligence Scale) before they were provided with the training and after the training was complete; moreover, they also took an academic test to show their achievements before the training.
Even though there was not any difference in the two music groups or the two controlled groups separately on any cognitive measure, the two music groups showed an increase in FSIQ (Full Scale Intelligence Quotient) and academic achievement. It is inevitably to deny that music lessons cause the increase in cognitive ability, and to this date Schellenberg’s results are still the only study that could prove such theory. Nonetheless, this study was able to be ompleted, for the music lessons were free, but in real life were parents have to pay for each lesson the practice was minimal; furthermore, in Schellenberg’s study there were 12 students that stopped attending to this class, which proves that a study of longer duration would be crucial for the study to have a different result; however, the children who dropped out had the same FSIQ as the ones who stayed for the whole study that lasted 12 months exactly.
One of the questions that Schellenberg had after proving his hypothesis was how can the association between music lessons and cognitive improvement could be explained. Schellenberg states that intelligence as measure by IQ is remarkably stable across the lifespan, which makes it unlikely that a single factor (music lessons) could have such impact in cognitive improvement. Individuals who were given the same IQ test at age 13 and then again at age 80 showed that their IQ had no changed in all those years, thus proving that IQ is in fact stable across the lifespan.
Furthermore, a wide variety of experts in intelligence say that the variance in IQ can be related to genetics which increases by 75% by late adolescence; however, shared environmental (between family) outcomes on IQ seems to be little or non-existent meaning that the variance attributed to environment are caused primarily from idiosyncratic contrasts in experienced events that needs to be identified. Schellenberg induces that one possible explanation for the association of music lessons and cognitive ability is that the association between these factors is indirect, yet mediated by a factor named Executive Function.
According to Schellenberg, Executive Function is defined as a loose construct that allows for conscious, goal-directed problem solving, and when impaired leads to failures to make wise judgments, cognitive inflexibility, poor planning of future actions, and difficulty inhibiting inappropriate responses. The hypothesis that Executive Function serves as a mediator between the link of music lessons and cognitive abilities could be true, for Executive Function is modifiable by experience in hildhood; however, the association between music lessons and Executive Function is not yet fully tested to provide sufficient evidence.
In order to test this hypothesis Schellenberg put together 106 participants from 9-12 year olds (52 girls and 54 boys) from a middle to an upper-middle class suburb in Toronto, Canada. The children were classified as musically trained (50) and musically untrained (56); moreover, musically trained children from 9 to 10 had at least two years of music lessons outside school, and musically trained children from 11 to 12 years old had at least three years of music lessons.
On the other hand, the musically untrained children did not have any further music lessons than the ones they received in school; furthermore, all English was the primary language for all kids, except for three kids who learned English when they were three years old. Schellenberg had three different goals that were to be achieved with the result of this study. His first goal was to prove the hypothesis that executive function serves as a mediator in the association between music lessons and cognitive abilities.
His second goal was to provide sufficient evidence for the causation of music lessons improving cognitive abilities; moreover, his third and last goal was to identify if the association between music lessons and cognitive abilities are general or oriented to a specific subject. In order to get the results desired, Schelleberg used an abbreviated version of the WISC-III test named WASI (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence) which was created in 1991 by Wechsler; moreover, this test consisted of four subtest given in order with vocabulary, block design, similarities, and matrix reasoning.
Vocabulary, Block Design, and Similarities had the same qualities as the one in WISC-III. To illustrate, the vocabulary subtest of the study involved the the child defining words that were given to him such as animals, objects, or places. The Block Design subtest consisted of asking the child to try to construct with blocks the same image they saw on the pictures shown to him. Evidently, the Similarity subtest asked the child to described how two words were similar.
Last but not least, was the Matrix subtest which required the child to fill in the missing section with one of the five options given to them. In addition, children had to take five more executive function tests, which included the Digit Span, Phonological Fluency, Sun-Moon Stroop, Tower of Hanoi, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) The Digit span had two different versions, forward and backward, which consisted of recalling a list of digits in order and then recall them in reverse order. Moreover, the Phonological Fluency tested children in all the words that the could possible say.
The Sun-Moon Troop also had two versions, the congruent and incongruent, which required the child to name as many moons as he could in the first one, and say moon every time he/ she saw a sun in the second one. The Tower of Hanoi required the children to stack rings in a rod from smallest to largest. The last test was the WCST or Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, which required children to match individual cards with one of the key cards as Schellenberg stated; however, instructions were not give to the children on how to match the cards, but only positive or negative feedback were given whether they were right or wrong.
Simultaneously, the parents filled out a questionnaire of demographic information and out of school activities including non-musical activities. The results showed that parents with higher income signed up their kids for musical training more than parents with lower income, yet the difference in executive function tests did not differ significantly. According to Schellenberg, the association between music training and cognitive function was general and not limited to fluid, or crystalized intelligence, or to verbal, spatial, or non-verbal abilities.
Schellenberg did many studies to prove that the association between music lessons and cognitive abilities is true; consequently, he also wanted to test the possibility of executive function serving as a mediator for the link between music lessons and cognitive abilities. Because of Schellenberg’s studies, the hypothesis of the association between music lessons and cognitive abilities is generalized can be discard.
Furthermore, music lessons do have permanent benefits in the increase of cognitive abilities; however, college students majoring solely in music do not show an increase in cognitive abilities compare to students from other majors (psychology, business, law, engineer, etc. ) The reason for this is evidently the higher required courses that majors such as psychology, business, and engineer require. Music has a great impact in our life if we know how to benefit from it.
