Effect of musical properties on cognitive abilities of high school students

• Main Author: Bonday, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Royal St. George's College 2019-08-01
• Series: The Young Researcher
• Subjects: cognitive abilities; spatial-temporal reasoning; tempo; pitch; music; brain
• Online Access: http://www.theyoungresearcher.com/papers/bonday.pdf

This research paper tests the hypothesis that the musical properties of tempo and/or pitch and cognitive abilities of high school students are causally related. All five treatment groups completed the same 20-question spatial-temporal reasoning test in 10 minutes and listened to versions of the same piece: K448. The control group listened to K448 unmodified. One tempo group listened to a slower-tempo version of the piece, and the other listened to a faster-tempo version. One pitch group listened to a lower-pitch version of the piece, and the other listened to a higher-pitch version. Four 2-sample t-tests demonstrated that the slow tempo group and both pitch groups did not score significantly better than the control group, while the fast tempo group did score significantly better than the control group. The conclusion section discusses scientific and educational implications of these findings and delves into future research objectives.