Arousal, Mood, and the Mozart Effect

1
Arousal, Mood, and the Mozart Effect

• Does it matter if
• you dont like Mozart?

A title slide like this one can be accompanied by
a few words on the general topic of the talk In
this case the presenter could refer to the study
by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993) in general terms
Listening to a Mozart sonata improved
intellectual performance suggesting that music
makes you smarter.
2
Is it music or arousal/mood that makes you
smarter?

• Rauscher, Shaw, Ky (1993)
• Mozart Effect Listening to 10 minutes of a
  Mozart sonata briefly improved performance on a
  standardized test of spatial ability
• Doubts with respect to robustness reliability
  of effect Failures to replicate

• Possible confound
• The original study and many following ones did
  not control adequately for enjoyment arousal
• The Mozart effect may be an example of enhanced
  performance caused by a manipulation of arousal
  or mood.

3
Mozart Albinoni

• Objective
• Examine the contribution of arousal and mood in
  the Mozart effect
• Spatial abilities, arousal, and mood were
  evaluated after exposure to three conditions and
  listeners also rated their enjoyment of each
  piece
• A Mozart sonata heightened arousal and positive
  mood
• An Albinoni adagio low arousal and a sad mood
• A control silent condition
• Prediction Differences in spatial ability will
  be related to differences in arousal, mood and
  enjoyment.

4
Method Materials Measures

• Mozarts Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (10
  minutes)
• Albinonis Adagio in G Minor for Organ and
  Strings
• Spatial abilities test Paper Folding and Cutting
  subtest of the Stanford-Binet
• Mood Arousal scale Profile of Mood States
  short form
• Global rating on 7 point scale of mood/arousal
• Global rating on 7 point scale of enjoyment

5
Method Design Procedure

• All participants (N 24) were tested in silence
  and in one music condition (either Mozart or
  Albinoni)
• Half the participants tested in music condition
  first, half in silent condition
• One week later, the other condition was
  administered.
• Participants were tested individually in a
  sound-attenuated booth

• Procedure
• Mood and arousal ratings (pre-test measure to
  control for baseline moods)
• Demonstration of Paper Folding Cutting
• Silence or music for 10 minutes
• Paper Folding Cutting test
• Enjoyment rating in music condition
• Mood and arousal ratings

6
Results

• Significant effect of order Participants
  improved from the first to the second session
  (F(1,20) 5.42, plt .05)
• Strongest effect
• Predicted two-way interaction between condition
  (silent or music) and musical excerpt (F(1,20)
  16.89, p lt .001) Positive effect of Mozart
  excerpt, no effect of music for Albinoni group.

7
Results Mood arousal measures

• When mood scores are controlled for
  statistically, the Mozart effect disappears

8
Being alert in a good mood makes you smarter

• Present finding suggest the Mozart effect is in
  fact produced because music can induce changes in
  mood and arousal.
• These results are in line with a previous study
  by Nantais Schellenberg (1999)
• They showed that if one controls for interest and
  complexity of the auditory stimuli, the Mozart
  effect disappears.
• It would appear that Being alert and in a good
  mood makes you smarter