Disentangling the Rhythm from the Melody: What Really Causes the Mozart Effect?

The Mozart Effect refers to enhanced spatial ability following listening to 10 minutes of Mozart music (Rauscher et al., 1993; Rauscher et al., 1995; Rideout & Taylor, 1997). However, many researchers have not been able to replicate its benefit on cognitive functioning (McKelvie & Low, 2002; Steele et al., 1999) while other researchers provide evidence that the intellectual benefit may not be due to the music exclusively, but to changes in mood and arousal levels (Cacciafesta et al., 2010; Steele, 2000; Lints & Gadbois, 2003; Thompson et al., 2001). Furthermore, it is unclear whether this Mozart Effect is the result of the melody or the rhythmic pattern of the Mozart music (Shi, 2020). Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to determine which musical element (i.e., melody or rhythmic pattern) of Mozart’s sonata (Mozart Sonata for Two Piano’s in D major, K. 448) causes the spatial performance enhancement and to determine if the benefit generalizes to another type of spatial ability, specifically 2D mental rotation. In order to disentangle the effects of the rhythm from the melody, we exposed participants to a Lo-fi (i.e., reproduction of audio that highlights the rhythmic pattern of Mozart’s sonata with a slower tempo) version of the Mozart sonata that maintained the rhythmic pattern of the sonata but differed in melody. Inconsistent with hypotheses, neither version of the Mozart music significantly improved mood and arousal; however, the mood/arousal benefits approached significance while the control music, Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor for Organ and Strings, significantly decreased mood/arousal. Thus, the current results provide some evidence that the rhythmic pattern (as opposed to the melody) of the Mozart sonata increases mood/arousal. However, the rhythmic pattern failed to produce better cognitive functioning (e.g., faster 2D mental rotation) in either its original form or the Lo-fi form.