I thought the method was deficient, but probably for the reasons you mention.
Had my freshmen/sophomore students not picked up such a blatant confound they would have been seriously marked down. But let's start with the introduction and their interpretation of the Rauscher, et al. paper: they only mention the result that "a group of 36 college undergraduates improved their spatial-temporal intelligence after listning to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata." No where do they then note how long that effect lasted (less than a few minutes), that it was only for 1 from a large series of both verbal and spatial-temporal tasks and that NONE of the other tasks showed any effect (gee, with alpha = .05 and we have nearly 20 tasks, might not one show something even at a higher sig rate just by chance?). And absolutely nothing in the lit review of the legion of studies that have failed to replicate the effect. They then go on to mention some studies where music in general has had a positive effect on preterm infant development but the purpose of this study was to specifically find support for the music of Mozart having a specific effect on resting energy expenditure (REE) as a means of inferring effects on growth (no rationale provided for this relationship). Now for the method: There is a commercial "Baby Mozart" CD played versus no music; (mis)leading to the article's title of , "Effect of Mozart music on energy expenditure in growing preterm infants" and obviously meant to play on the well-known and popularized "Mozart Effect." There is no "some other music" condiiton, no "ambient noise" condition, no "talking to the baby" condition, no "any old sound" condition, etc. etc. etc. etc. In addition, the sample is very small: 18 infants. They used random assignment to groups, but that resulted in a highly unbalanced design (5 music first group and 13 no music first group; then the reversal of 5 and 13). I don't see anywhere in their statistical report that they corrected or allowed for this. Somehow this use of random assignment is mentioned repeatedly as a gold standard they used to assure their study is flawless. (Who taught their RM class?) The infants in the music condition listened to this Baby Mozart CD for 10 minutes then had 20 additional minutes of exposure while undergoing testing. So now the measure they used for the outcome was basically O2 in and CO2 out as a measure of metabolic activity. In other words, could this not be a measure of respiratory rate in general? So what do we find: Less O2 goes in and CO2 comes out while Mozart is playing--breathing slows down? So what do we gain from the discussion: the effect is probably short lived. In addition, "the clinical implications of our findings belong in the field of speculation." They cannot conclude that there is a relationship between resting energy expenditure and growth rates. Well, DUH! how much growth can we measure in 30 minutes total study time? In fact, the authors make all this clear in the discussion and I wonder why this was even published. Bottom line. Oh and BTW, the last paragraph they cite a study with obese adults and find no effect of music on REE (the dependent measure described above). WTH? why is this tacked on, on the last paragraph? All I can say is it's crap that just made the headlines. SIGH. Deep breath. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 tay...@sandiego.edu ---- Original message ---- >Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:17:10 -0600 >From: Rick Froman <rfro...@jbu.edu> >Subject: RE: [tips] A new Mozart effect... >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> > >I wasn't pointing out any deficiency in the method by sending it to the list. >I was just noting a new direction in the Mozart effect research. This one is >not cognitive but has to do with the rate of weight gain in preterm infants. >Interestingly, they reference the earlier work in their Intro but it has, as >far as I can tell, no real relevance to this totally unrelated use of Mozart's >oeuvre. This particular research is not Correlational. They randomly assigned >infants to exposure levels of music as a way of testing a >theoretically-informed hypothesis (is that redundant?) concerning the >mechanism of the weight gain. They hypothesize that increased metabolic >efficiency could cause the weight gain so they "conducted this study to test >the hypothesis that music by Mozart reduces resting energy expenditure (REE) >in growing healthy preterm infants". > > >Rick > >Dr. Rick Froman, Chair >Division of Humanities and Social Sciences >Professor of Psychology >Box 3055 >John Brown University >2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 >rfro...@jbu.edu >(479)524-7295 >http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman > >-----Original Message----- >From: Lilienfeld, Scott O [mailto:slil...@emory.edu] >Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 10:40 AM >To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) >Subject: RE: [tips] A new Mozart effect... > >Actually, Pediatrics is a very prestigious medical journal...I haven't yet >read the article, so don't know how depressing that is..... > > >Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. >Professor >Editor, Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice >Department of Psychology, Room 473 Psychology and Interdisciplinary Sciences >(PAIS) >Emory University >36 Eagle Row >Atlanta, Georgia 30322 >slil...@emory.edu >(404) 727-1125 > >Psychology Today Blog: >http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-skeptical-psychologist > >50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: >http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-140513111X.html > >Scientific American Mind: Facts and Fictions in Mental Health Column: >http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammind/ > >The Master in the Art of Living makes little distinction between his work and >his play, >his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his >recreation, >his love and his intellectual passions. He hardly knows which is which. >He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, >leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. >To him - he is always doing both. > >- Zen Buddhist text > (slightly modified) > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: tay...@sandiego.edu [mailto:tay...@sandiego.edu] >Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 11:03 AM >To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) >Subject: Re: [tips] A new Mozart effect... > >Oh good god, who are the editors of this "professional" journal? Did any of >these folks ever take a research methods course? > >WTH????? > >:( :( :( :( :( :( :( > >Annette > >Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. >Professor of Psychology >University of San Diego >5998 Alcala Park >San Diego, CA 92110 >619-260-4006 >tay...@sandiego.edu > > >---- Original message ---- >>Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 23:33:42 -0600 >>From: Rick Froman <rfro...@jbu.edu> >>Subject: [tips] A new Mozart effect... >>To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> >> >>...on weight of pre-term infants. The abstract is here: >> >>http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-0990v1?papetoc >> >>and the pdf of the article is here: >> >>http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/peds.2009-0990v1 >> >> >>Rick >> >>Dr. Rick Froman, Chair >>Division of Humanities and Social Sciences >>John Brown University >>Siloam Springs, AR 72761 >>rfro...@jbu.edu >>________________________________________ >> >>--- >>To make changes to your subscription contact: >> >>Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) > >This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of >the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged >information. If the reader of this message is not the intended >recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution >or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly >prohibited. > >If you have received this message in error, please contact >the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the >original message (including attachments). > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
