The Mozart Effect & The Arousal Mood Hypothesis

Abstract

The present study investigated whether performing various musical and non-music activities could induce enhancements to spatial reasoning skills and whether these enhancements could be attributed to changes in arousal and mood. We were able to successfully reproduce the Mozart Effect by showing that subjects in three of our experimental groups exhibited a significant increase in PF&C scores compared to the control group. However, the groups did not show reliable changes in the subjects’ emotional states. Taken together, our results suggest that the enhancements to spatial-reasoning involved in the Mozart Effect may not be attributed to changes in arousal and mood