Myth & Controversy of Mozart Effect

Among the most commonly "propagated" trending ideas in the historical events of psychology might be the Mozart effect. It is a term for the improvement in brain growth that allegedly occurs in kids when they're exposed to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart prior to the time of three. This idea has become so broadly accepted that the governors of Tennessee and Georgia have both helped programs to offer a free Mozart CD to every newborn baby in their own respective states.

Given the attendant marketing in which the notion has received, and also the cost associated with these acts of philanthropy, the typical new parent may be forgiven for believing that the Mozart effect is a real deal and a valid scientific fact.

However, the public could be mistaken, as so frequently occurs with widely known emotional some ideas. The source behind the Mozart Effects is based on a study conducted in 1993 by a physicist, Gordon Shaw, and Frances Rauscher, a developmental psychologist. This result was misreported in lots of ways, likely as the claim that Rauscher and Shaw produced a 51 point improvement in SAT scores. However, it need to be realized that the job they used to acquire this kind of result is invloving paper cutting and folding, which definitely not the SAT!

Regardless of their statement that their work was misrepresented, Shaw and Rauscher recognized their work had spawned a market, and have joined the flooding of entrepreneurs trying to propagate the Mozart effect message. Their Music Intelligence Neural Development Institute (M.I.N.D.) sells computer software that claimed to be able to enhance children's spatial temporal reasoning, by way of example. The business enterprises of Rauscher and Shaw are smalltime efforts, however, compared with the job of online entrepreneur Don Campbell. Campbell has actually trademarked the phrase “the Mozart Effect” and operates many business enterprises built around it, including Mozarteffect.com, where concerned parents may purchase a wide range of books and CDs, including many multi-volume series. Instead of limit his market to worried parents with discretionary income, nevertheless, Campbell also promises that "The Mozart Effect shows how music may be used to enhance memory and learning, boost productivity, soothe jangled nerves, fortify endurance, unlock creative impulses, sound away pain, and cure your body from the tons of ailments"

The scientific reliability of Campbell's thoughts may be best evaluated by considering his claim he caused a blood clot in his own brain to 'evaporate' using a treatment consisting of listening to classical musics. Despite the dearth of evidence for the Mozart effect (or any one of the related phenomena that Campbell writes about), thousands of people now consider it to be scientific fact instead of the myth that it is, and Campbell is becoming widely known as an "expert" on the effect, with regular speaking engagements and interview requests within the mainstream media.

Further Reading: 
Campbell, R. T. “Mozart Effect.” In The Skeptic’s Dictionary. Hoboken,NJ: Wiley, 2003, pp. 233–235, also see www.skepdic.com; Mozart Effect Resource Center. “Don Campbell’s organization.” www.MozartEffect.com, 2004.