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Kylie Bachmann

Professor Johnson-Taylor

ENG 1201

11 July 2019

Annotated Bibliography

Alleyne, Richard. “Playing a Musical Instrument Makes You Brainier.” The Telegraph,

Telegraph Media Group, 27 Oct. 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-

news/6447588/Playing-a-musical-instrument-makes-you-brainier.html.

This article from the 2009 Telegraph Newspaper, Playing an Instrument Makes You

Smarter by Richard Alleyne, firmly states that playing an instrument raises IQ scores, helps

increase memory and language skills, and helps children develop. The article cites many

research sources that prove that playing an instrument can raise a person of any age’s IQ score

by up to 7 points. Lutz Jäncke, an accomplished psychologist, confirmed this research and added

that music training can improve memory, hearing and kinetic abilities as playing music can

activate and strengthen different parts of the brain. Musical training has also been shown to

improve many qualities -such as ease in learning new languages- in all ages of people, but it can

especially affect young people and strengthen their ability to perceive emotion in other people's

voices.

The author is credible, as he is the head editor and a scientific consultant. The

information discussed in the article is also mainly from an interview with accomplished and well

known psychologist Lutz Jäncke. directed at an audience of older adults who may be looking to

enroll children in music training or train themselves. This article was written in 2009, a period in
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which new research continued to come out at a quick rate. I am hoping that this source will help

me to answer how music helps children develop and exactly what kind of skills they can gain.

Bergland, Christopher. “Does Playing a Musical Instrument Make You Smarter?” Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 25 June 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-

athletes-way/201406/does-playing-musical-instrument-make-you-smarter.

The article Does Playing a Musical Instrument Make You Smarter? from 2014

Psychology Today magazine by Christopher Bergland asserts that musical training specifically

enhances executive functioning- which the article's cited research says to be more important and

telling than IQ. This article looks specifically at how musical training affects children and their

development. The article outlines many studies that suggest that musical training specifically

alters the brain in MRI scans and show increased connectivity and increased blood flow through

certain areas of the brain. It also urges educators to improve music programs and to focus less on

studying for tests, as the article inserts that it may be more beneficial.

This article was written to address most likely middle aged members in the psychology

field, as it is from the Psychology Today magazine. This article is very anatomical and scientific

as you would expect from a scholarly magazine. The author is Christopher Bergland, a world

class author and athlete who specializes in writing articles including biology. This article’s main

purpose in assisting me in writing my essay will be to inform me about the physical, scientific,

and anatomical side of the benefits for people who play music.

Hille, Katrin, et al. “Associations between Music Education, Intelligence, and Spelling Ability in

Elementary School.” Advances in Cognitive Psychology, University of Finance and

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Management in Warsaw, 4 Mar. 2011,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3101523/.

The article Associations between Music Education, Intelligence, and Spelling Ability in

Elementary School from the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

medical journal by Katrin Hille, Kilian Gust, Urlich Bitz, and Thomas Kammer researched the

way children responded to and benefited from learning music in Germany. In their study, they

proved that spelling errors were much less common and IQs were much higher with students

who played instruments. They concluded that music training in young children not only points to

increased IQ but can even point to a direct correlation to language skills. The authors also review

citations that state that there are other connections that are spatial and mathematical as well.

This source is very credible, as it comes from a United States medical journal. This

article provides more medical background from another area of the word along with graphs and

data tables that will assist me as I write my own research paper. The authors are medical

personnel, trying to summarize and explain the results of their research study to an audience of

most likely medical professionals and other scholars. This source was clearly meant to inform. I

think that this source will be most helpful in trying to explain how this reaches across the world

and this is a specific study that I can cite as I talk about improved language skills.

McDonald, Zoe. “Does Music Make Us Smarter?” Queensland Brain Institute, The University of

Queensland, 9 Nov. 2018, qbi.uq.edu.au/blog/2018/01/does-music-make-us-smarter.

Zoe McDonald’s Does Music Make Us Smarter from the Queensland Brain Institute of

the University of Queensland firmly attempts to answer the question of whether music really

does make us smarter or not. This article cites many different research studies that conclude that
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music does not make us smarter, but can help improve spatial-temporal reasoning in a miniscule

way. The study this article focuses on was not tested long term and only focused on the short

term effects of music training in children which may be the reason as to why the children showed

less dramatic results than my other sources. This article also goes about explaining the Mozart

Effect and goes on to ultimately discredit this long held theory.

The author, Zoe McDonald, is a science writer promoted by the University of

Queensland. She cites many credible researchers in her article and uses them to support her main

claim. Her audience would most likely be college students or parents thinking of signing their

child up for musical training. Her purpose in this article is to inform parents that this claim is

only really a theory and she attempts to say that there is little to show for improved intelligence

claims based around music training. I hope to use this source as I’m writing the ‘devil’s

advocate’ portion of my research essay, to say why some people don’t believe there is any

correlation between musical training and improved intelligence.

Mehr, Samuel. “Music and Success.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Dec. 2013,

www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/opinion/sunday/music-and-success.html.

Sameul Mehr’s, Music and Success, Is a New York Times article that attempts to convey

to adults that correlation does not imply causation when it comes to the benefits of music

training. This article tells how though it seems that music training causes better cognitive

functioning in children, people fail to realize that the parents who have money for private lessons

also most likely have money for books/tutoring etc. Children who can sit and practice longer

might be able to do the same for homework. These are just a few examples of reasons people

think that music training is solely responsible for improved cognitive behaviors. Harvard
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scholars concluded after a study on the benefits of music education that between two groups of

preschoolers, one that had taken music lessons for 6 weeks and one that hadn’t, there was no

difference. The author specifically says that this does not debunk that music training is beneficial

for children. It is important in different ways, culturally and for enjoyment.

The author is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and is a doctoral candidate at

the Harvard Graduate School of Education which proves his credibility in writing this piece in

the 2013 New York times.The New York Times is also a very credible source directed towards

an audience of most likely older adults and parents. The purpose of this source is most likely to

inform and possibly slightly persuade the audience. This source will be most helpful as I am

playing ‘devil’s advocate’ in my research essay as I strengthen my argument.

Miendlarzewska, Ewa A, and Wiebke J Trost. “How Musical Training Affects Cognitive

Development: Rhythm, Reward and Other Modulating Variables.” Frontiers in

Neuroscience, Frontiers Media S.A., 20 Jan. 2014,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3957486/.

The article How Musical Training Affects Cognitive Development: Rhythm, Reward and

Other Modulating Variables by Ewa A. Miendlarzewska and Wiebke J. Trost synthesizes many

different studies, some of which proving brain plasticity in those who have music training over

long periods of time. The authors also take a look at other variables that could factor into the

benefits through recently published studies. This article supports the findings that musical

training increases motivation, supports learning and the development of executive functions. It

also is said to raise IQ in children, though the article pertains to people of all ages. The authors

make sure to include citations of studies that strongly backup their claim.
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The authors are neuroscientists being published in the US National Library of Medicine

National Institutes of Health medical journal which proves credibility in writing this article. The

citations are credible as well, as they are from other various medical journals. The audience

targeted is most likely other neuroscientists and scholars looking to be informed, as the article’s

purpose is to inform. The article is extremely relevant as it was published in 2013. This source

will help me write the portion of my research paper on brain plasticity and physical effects of

music education. This also will help back my other sources on the effects of music training on

executive functions and other cognitive behaviors.

Wong, Bernie. “Does Music Make Kids Smarter?” Greater Good, 28 Oct. 2011,

greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/research_digest/does_music_make_kids_smarter.

Does Music Make Kids Smarter? By Bernie Wong reviews a study done in a

psychological journal that claims that music training in children aged 4 to 6 greatly increases

verbal ability and spatial ability. The children had musical training for an hour every day for five

days and were asked to complete an intelligence test and another conceptual task to measure the

effects. The children that had musical training showed improvements before and after taking the

test and doing the task. Researchers believe that musical training requires a high level of control,

attention and memorization which could bode very well for academic success later in life as well.

Bernie Wong is a research assistant who specializes in psychological articles when

writing for the science-based greater good magazine which shows credibility. The article is

solely based on summarizing another research article which also is very credible. The audience

seems to be adult parents and more likely women, and the purpose of this article is most likely to

inform. This article was published in 2011, which maintains its relevance. This article will be
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most helpful as I write the portion of my paper about children under the age of 8, as it talks of

mostly only children of ages 4 to 6.