Does Music Enhance
Memorization Study Skills in
Sixth Grade Students?
Donna Elwell
University of Texas at Dallas
SCE 5305
Fall, 2004
The Mozart Effect
• Researchers at UC-Irvine
publish a brief report
about the relationship of
music and spatial task
performance
• Listening to the Mozart
sonata improved IQ score
by 8-9 points
• Effects are temporary
Spatial-Temporal Tasks
• The ability to
create, maintain,
transform, and
relate complex
mental images.
• Reasoning through
time and space
Public Goes Bargain Hunting
How Students Study
• Must have
background noise
• Hip-Hop
• Rap
• TV
What Educators Think
• Many students
have difficulty
remembering
• Many students
experience test
anxiety
Turn on, Tune in
• Use music to introduce
new concepts or
vocabulary
• Prime the brain for
thinking with classical
music
• Start a connection to
convert information to
long-term memory
Action Plan
• Develop a within subjects test to
determine if certain kinds of music
can stimulate short term memory in
6th grade students
• Analyze data to determine if any
effect is seen for the different
treatments
• Share results
References
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Hansen, J. (n.d.) Music enhances reasoning. Retrieved October 1, 2004 from
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