Childhood Music Studies Leads to Improved Problem-Solving Skills Later in Life

My daughters might be annoyed when I tell them about a recent study from Vanderbilt University that gives me yet more reason for frequent reminders to practice their musical instruments every day. Researchers found that musicians scored higher on both IQ tests and standardized tests of verbal fluency than non-musicians. The study also showed that trained musicians have a cognitive advantage over non-musicians and are particularly adept at something called divergent thinking.

“Divergent thinking” was a new term to me — but as it turns out, not a new idea. Bradley Folley, PhD, one of the Vanderbilt researchers, explained that it refers to “thinking outside the box,” or the ability to come up with novel solutions to open-ended questions. To illustrate the concept, he told me about an earlier study he had done, in which subjects were given a needle and thread and asked to find a creative way to use them. One subject replied: “If you’re really poor and want to get married, you could use the thread and tie it up into a ring and use the needle to write ‘will you marry me?’ in the sand at the beach.”

These findings add to the body of evidence that musical training enhances brain function in numerous ways.

STUDY NOTES

In the Vanderbilt study, researchers compared 20 students majoring in classical music with a matched group of non-musicians from an introductory psychology course. There were nine women and 11 men in the classical music group, while the non-musicians were 11 women and nine men. The groups represented two extremes — the musicians had been playing and studying an instrument for more than eight years, with daily practice averaging 2½ hours a day, while the non-musicians had no music training beyond regular curricular exposure to music from kindergarten to high school. Subjects were given two tests. The first was the Remote Associates Test, which requires divergent and convergent thinking. Participants are given three stimulus words and are asked to find another word associated with all three words in the set. Example: For the words “blue,” “cake” and “cottage” the correct answer would be “cheese.” For the second test, to measure divergent thinking, students were asked to come up with uses for stimulus objects alone or in combination with other objects. Result: The musicians had higher scores on both measures.

The Vanderbilt study also showed an association between music training and higher IQ, though that does raise the “chicken versus egg” question of whether music training elevates IQ scores or if those with higher IQ scores are just more likely to study music. An obvious next question is, “does music help boost brain function throughout life?” Dr. Folley told me that this hasn’t been measured yet but he believes the hypothesis is a good one. So now I am thinking of retrieving my flute and committing to regular daily practices along with my daughters — not only would it be good family time, but it might be a great brain-sharpening strategy for me as well.