Exposure to music and cognitive performance: tests of children and adults 5 ARTICLE Psychology of Music Psychology of Music Copyright © 2007 Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research vol 35(1): 5‒19 [0305-7356 (200701) 35:1; 5‒19] 10.1177⁄0305735607068885 http://pom.sagepub.com E. GLENN SCHELLENBERG UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO , CANADA TAKAYUKI NAKATA NAGASAKI JUNSHIN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, J A PA N PATRICK G. HUNTER UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO , CANADA SACHIKO TAMOTO NAGASAKI JUNSHIN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, J A PA N ABSTRACT This article reports on two experiments of exposure to music and cognitive performance. In Experiment 1, Canadian undergraduates performed better on an IQ subtest (Symbol Search) after listening to an up-tempo piece of music composed by Mozart in comparison to a slow piece by Albinoni. The effect was evident, however, only when the two pieces also induced reliable differences in arousal and mood. In Experiment 2, Japanese 5-year-olds drew for longer periods of time after singing or hearing familiar children’s songs than after hearing Mozart or Albinoni, and their drawings were judged by adults to be more creative, energetic, and technically proficient. These results indicate that (1) exposure to different types of music can enhance performance on a variety of cognitive tests, (2) these effects are mediated by changes in emotional state, and (3) the effects generalize across cultures and age groups. KEYWORDS : cognition and emotion, cognitive ability, intellectual ability, Mozart effect, music and cognition, music listening The impact of music on listeners’ emotional state is well documented (e.g. Gabrielsson, 2001; Husain et al., 2002; Krumhansl, 1997; Peretz, 2001; Schmidt and Trainor, 2001; Sloboda and Juslin, 2001; Thayer and Levenson, 1983; Thompson et al., 2001), as is the effect of emotional state on participants’ performance on a wide variety of cognitive measures. According to Russell’s (1980) circumplex model of emotions, emotions vary in two-dimensional space, with one dimension corresponding to arousal (or activation) and the other to mood (or valence). Arousal refers to degree of physical and psychological activation or to the intensity of the felt emotion, whereas mood indicates whether the emotion is positive or negative. Both arousal (Anderson and Bushman, 2001; Cahill and McGaugh, 1998; Caldwell et al., 2004; Cassady and Johnson, 2002; Dutton and Carroll, 2001; sempre :