Can music lessons increase the performance of preschool children in IQ tests?

Abstract

The impact of music on human cognition has a distinguished history as a research topic in psychology. The focus of the present study was on investigating the effects of music instruction on the cognitive development of preschool children. From a sample of 154 preschool children of Tehran kindergartens, 60 children aged between 5 and 6 were randomly assigned to two groups, one receiving music lessons and the other (matched for sex, age and mother's educational level) not taking part in any music classes. Children were tested before the start of the course of music lessons and at its end with 4 subtests of the Tehran-Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (TSB). The experimental group participated in twelve 75-min weekly music lessons. Statistical analysis showed significant IQ increase in participants receiving music lessons, specifically on the TSB verbal reasoning and short-term memory subtests. The numerical and visual/abstract reasoning abilities did not differ for the two groups after lessons. These data support studies that found similar skills enhancements in preschool children, despite vast differences in the setting in which the instruction occurred. These findings appear to be consistent with some neuroimaging and neurological observations which are discussed in the paper.

Using equivalence‐based instruction to teach piano skills to college students

“…Nevertheless, a limited number of EBI studies have been conducted on leisure skills, including musical education (Arntzen, Halstadtro, Bjerke, & Halstadtro, 2010; Hayes, Thompson, & Hayes, ; Perez & de Rose, ). This is surprising considering that note reading and music playing skills have been correlated with improved reading and math performance, higher overall IQ, and increased social awareness (e.g., Graziano, Peterson, & Shaw, ; Kaviani, Mirbaha, Pournaseh, & Sagan, ; Long, ; Sussman, ). Since music instruction consists of establishing classes of auditory (e.g., sounds of notes) and visual (e.g., written notes) stimuli, as well as teaching participants to play the corresponding notes on the instrument in the presence of these stimuli, EBI seems to be an ideal method for teaching beginning note reading and music playing skills.…”

Intervenções musicais e a importância dos aspectos rítmicos no desenvolvimento de habilidades cognitivo-linguísticas: Uma revisão sistemática

“…Com exceção de Moritz et al, (2013)-que comparou dois grupos de crianças em idade pré-escolar que recebiam aulas de música com carga horária semanal diferente (Grupo experimental: 45min por dia; Grupo controle: 35min por semana)-nove estudos empregaram atividades não-musicais nos grupos controle (grupo controle ativo), tais como: aulas de francês, ciências naturais, artes visuais, pintura, esportes, jogos digitais pedagógicos e treinamento de habilidades linguísticas fonológicas. Finalmente, dois estudos longitudinais não incluíram intervenções aos grupos controle (grupo controle passivo) (Kaviani, Mirbaha, Pournaseh, & Sagan, 2014;Slater et al, 2014).…”

“…Quanto aos efeitos da intervenção musical nas habilidades linguísticas, 11 estudos reportaram efeitos positivos da intervenção musical. Em dois desses trabalhos (Janus, Lee, Moreno, & Bialystok, 2016;Kaviani et al, 2014) os ganhos estavam associados a habilidades não-verbais, de inteligência ou funções executivas, que são habilidades associadas ao desenvolvimento das…”

Impact of arts education on children's learning and wider outcomes

“…For pre‐school children positive effects were reported for creativity (Duncan, ), spatial‐temporal ability (Gromko & Poorman, ), IQ scores (Kaviani et al ., ; Nering, ), reading and language (Harris, ; Myant et al ., ). An experiment conducted on 10 sets of monozygotic twins (Nering, ) aged 3–7 showed that the twin who received private piano instruction improved in IQ and arithmetic scores while the other twin who received no training did not show improvement.…”