Music lessons enhance IQ
Abstract
The idea that music makes you smarter has received considerable attention from scholars and the media. The present report is the first to test this hypothesis directly with random assignment of a large sample of children (N = 144) to two different types of music lessons (keyboard or voice) or to control groups that received drama lessons or no lessons. IQ was measured before and after the lessons. Compared with children in the control groups, children in the music groups exhibited greater increases in full-scale IQ. The effect was relatively small, but it generalized across IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement. Unexpectedly, children in the drama group exhibited substantial pre- to post-test improvements in adaptive social behavior that were not evident in the music groups.
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The benefit was even smaller when music participants were compared to children who took drama lessons (a gain difference of 1 IQ point).
“The benefit was even smaller when music participants were compared to children who took drama lessons (a gain difference of 1 IQ point).”
From Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence (2022) · cites this paper as Schellenberg (2004)
After 36 weeks of intervention, the difference between the IQ gain of the keyboard and the passive control groups was only about 2 points.
“For example, Schellenberg (2004), in one of the first randomized studies with children participants, found that after 36 weeks of intervention the difference between the IQ gain of the keyboard and the passive control groups was only about 2 points.”
From Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence (2022) · cites this paper as Schellenberg (2004)
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- Authors
- Schellenberg, E. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Schellenberg, E. Glenn
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-08
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 511-514
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2170463298
- Cited by
- 980
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 41 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 78 · 2017: 57 · 2016: 55 · 2015: 63 · 2014: 58 · 2013: 61 · 2012: 42
- FWCI
- 424.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Diverse Music Education Insights
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- music lessons, IQ, intelligence, children, keyboard instruction, voice instruction, drama lessons, academic performance, music and cognitive development
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Humans, Intelligence, Music, Social Behavior
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