Mozart Effect
Article: Demonstrates ‘Mozart Effect’ nonexistent w/r/t making babies smarter
How obvious this was: Utterly
Reaction to white mothers’ turning “Baby Mozart” into an empire: *facepalm*
Motivation to explain this to ex-wife who wanted to buy those insipid discs for Niall: Precisely zero
Why the motivation was zero: Ah, I see you’ve never been married!
When I first heard of this research: 1993
Who told me: One of my oldest and dearest friends
Indication of the distortion of research by the time it reached me: “Rock music makes you dumber, especially grunge.”
Vindication: “The key to it is that you have to enjoy the music,” says original researcher. “If you hate Mozart you’re not going to find a Mozart Effect. If you love Pearl Jam, you’re going to find a Pearl Jam effect.”
When I’m going to abandon the device of a mock Q&A: Right now
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June 28th, 2010 at 07h34
“Baby Mozart” (I’m not going to link to it because the site auto-plays music, but it’s at babymozart.com) consists of DVDs of wooden trains being pulled by strings, sock puppets against a black background, and a calming (?) woman’s voice over low-fi Mozart pieces. For real. Other toys are included in the video, which shows people playing with them.
My thoughts at the time: “Why don’t we … buy Niall some toys and let him play with them? We could talk calmingly to him, too. We could play whatever music we want. Even Mozart! I have, like, ten discs of really good recordings.”
Perhaps the (now-very-wealthy) woman who started the empire foresaw stuff like this, because the videos list ways to get the very models of toys that the video shows in play situations. Gah.
June 28th, 2010 at 12h15
Indication of the distortion of research by the time it reached me: “Rock music makes you dumber, especially grunge.”
I wouldn’t say that it’s made me dumber, but it’s damaged my hearing to the point where my constant need for people to repeat what they’ve just said might give them the impression that it has.
June 28th, 2010 at 12h58
but it’s damaged my hearing to the point where my constant need for people to repeat what they’ve just said might give them the impression that it has
Sorry, I can’t read what you just wrote. I’ve been watching too many Soundgarden videos.
June 30th, 2010 at 08h19
videos list ways to get the very models of toys that the video shows in play situations
To be fair, that green dragon/reptile sock puppet with the tongue sticking out is adorable. I’d get one just for myself to play with. {insert joke}