Week 12: Does exposure to music have beneficial side effects?

The often-reported Mozart effect has little actual evidence, and what evidence does exist is questionable and lacks significant ecological validity. Many of the effects reported in research supporting the Mozart effect can be explained simply in terms of mood or arousal levels, not music-related effects per se. However, the effect of music lessons (rather than passive listening, as in the Mozart effect), remains an ‘open question.’ Some studies have supported a correlation between music lessons and cognitive development in other domains; however, conclusive evidence is definitely lacking. Nonetheless, these studies only suggest that music per se may not be the cause of improvement in other domains, but other variables included in music lessons (such as time spent with an adult music instructor, for example), may indeed have a positive effect across various domains.