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Sam Houston State University Research Results
Study description:
The study was conducted between September
1997 and May 1998 by Terry D. Bilhartz, professor of history;
Rick A. Bruhn, professor of education; and Judith E. Olson, director
of the Learning Assistance Center at Sam Houston State University,
Huntsville, Texas, U.S.A.
A total of 66 children ages four to six years
completed the study and were tested, half receiving no additional
music instruction (called the control group) and the other half
(called the experimental group) participating in a Kindermusik
for the Young Child Year 1 Pilot Program. One third of the
children in both the control and the experimental groups attended
Head Start Programs, while the remaining two-thirds in each group
were pre-schoolers who lived in middle and upper income households.
At the end of the study, children of parents
or guardians in the experiment group who met "low" compliance
standards improved the equivalent of an increase from the 50th
percentile on a standardized intelligence test to above the 78th
percentile. Students whose parents or guardians met "satisfactory"
compliance standards jumped on the average from the 50th percentile
to above the 87th percentile.
Key messages:
Strong correlations were found between
musical abilities in young children, particularly the ability
to match vocal pitches and reproduce rhythmic patterns, and abstract
reasoning abilities. These findings support the theories formulated
by Gordon Shaw, Francis Rauscher and other researchers who have
argued that early music instruction improves intelligence,
specifically producing cognitive benefits in the area of spatial-temporal
reasoning.
An equally compelling finding is the indication
that the level of parental involvement in music training can
greatly affect the amount of improvement in intelligence.
The conclusions of the study support the "nurture"
side of the argument in the on-going debate over whether intelligence
is solely DNA determined and static, or whether it can be enhanced
through life experiences.
The study also showed that parental time spent
with a child is a more important factor in predicting intelligence
test success than such factors as single parent households, poverty,
low parental education levels, and ethnic minority status.
The research community has taken special interest
in the study's results. An article on the research group's findings
has been accepted for publication in a future issue of the Journal
of Applied Developmental Psychology.
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