Psychological Development and Education ›› 2014, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (4): 345-354.

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The Effect of Mozart Music on Child Spatio-Temporal Reasoning Ability

WU Hai-zhen1, ZHAO Lei2, LU Ying-jun1   

  1. 1. Lab of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou 310012;
    2. Department of Child Art, Hangzhou College for Preschool Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou 310012
  • Online:2014-07-15 Published:2014-07-15

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Abstract: Music has an important promoting effect on children's physical and mental development. This research used experimental method to study influence of Mozart music on preschoolers' spatio-temporal reasoning ability and tried to explore the mechanism of "Mozart effect". 342 5-6-year-old children participated in this study. This study used four types of music conditions: Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K.448), Bach's Toccata in G major, Aaron Copland's The Cat and the Mouse and a silent control condition. The three types of music have the same kind of arousal and mood. Mozart music is highly structured and has long-lasting periodicity. Bach's music is highly structured and has short-lasting periodicity. The Cat and the Mouse is unstructured and has no periodicity. The results showed that Mozart music significantly improved girls' ability of spatio-temporal reasoning for a moment, while this effect was not found in boys. The Cat and the Mouse and the silence were similar, and both had no significant effect on the preschoolers’ability of spatio-temporal reasoning. In summary, the generation of "Mozart Effect" is based on the characteristics of Mozart music, which is highly structured and has long-lasting periodicity. The research provided experimental evidence for the "direct triggering theory".

Key words: Mozart effect, preschoolers, spatio-temporal reasoning, periodicity, direct triggering theory

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1

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