Long-term positive associations between music lessons and IQ.

Abstract

In Study 1 (N ϭ 147), duration of music lessons was correlated positively with IQ and with academic ability among 6-to 11-year-olds, even when potential confounding variables (i.e., family income, parents' education, involvement in nonmusical activities) were held constant. In Study 2 (N ϭ 150), similar but weaker associations between playing music in childhood and intellectual functioning were evident among undergraduates. In both studies, there was no evidence that musical involvement had stronger associations with some aspects of cognitive ability (e.g., mathematical, spatial-temporal, verbal) than with others. These results indicate that formal exposure to music in childhood is associated positively with IQ and with academic performance and that such associations are small but general and long lasting.

Broca's Area Supports Enhanced Visuospatial Cognition in Orchestral Musicians

“…Orchestral musicians and controls, matched for handedness, age, and verbal intelligence, demonstrated a neural and behavioral dissociation on verbal and visuospatial tasks in that there were no differences in either behavioral data or Broca's area activation during performance of the verbal task, but there were significant differences, both behaviorally and neurofunctionally, during the visuospatial task performance. Our findings extend the current and growing literature reporting the transferable benefits of music performance training to nonmusical cognitive abilities in children and adolescents (Costa-Giomi, 2004;Schellenberg, 2004Schellenberg, , 2005Schellenberg, , 2006Schlaug et al, 2005). Indeed, these findings have important implications, by providing additional objective evidence to support the suggestion that the development and maintenance of musical performance abilities confers benefit to nonmusical cognitive domains.…”

Music and Cognitive Abilities

“…Albinoni FamiliarListening (Schellenberg et al, 2005). Children drew after one of four musical experiences: listening to Mozart, listening to Albinoni, listening to familiar children's songs, or singing familiar songs.…”

Matemática e música: Sistematização de analogias entre conteúdos matemáticos e musicais

“…Paralelamente à área de investigação agora apresentada, referimos outra que respeita aos contributos da aprendizagem musical no desempenho académico, em particular matemático. De forma abrangente, os estudos apontam para uma associação positiva entre ambas as áreas (Cabanac, Perlovsky, Bonniot-Cabanac, & Cabanac, 2013;Helmrich, 2010;Hille & Schupp, 2015;Schellenberg, 2006;Southgate & Roscigno, 2009). É de realçar que é possível continuar a observar uma associação positiva entre aprendizagem musical e performance matemática mesmo quando se controla o efeito do desempenho matemático prévio (Helmrich, 2010;Southgate & Roscigno, 2009), da inteligência (Schellenberg, 2006) e do nível socioeconómico (Hille & Schupp, 2015;Southgate & Roscigno, 2009 …”