A Mozart effect for women on a mental rotations task.

Abstract

During the past decade, there have been numerous reports of a brief, but statistically significant, improvement in immediate spatial-temporal performance after listening to 10 min. of Mozart's Sonata K.448, known as the "Mozart effect." The purpose of the present study was to assess whether production of the effect is influenced by length of listening conditions or sex. Each of 52 right-handed participants (26 females, 26 males) completed a paper-folding and cutting task and a Mental Rotations task following a listening condition in which the Mozart sonata was played and a silent condition (no music was played). A significant 3-way interaction among sex, listening condition, and task indicated that an effect was present only for women on the Mental Rotations task. As such, researchers should investigate the role of sex in production of the Mozart effect.