This study examined whether demand characteristics concerning music can change subjects' performance on the Wonderlic Personnel Test of intelligence. Participants (N = 60) were randomly assigned and informed either that Mozart's music typically enhances cognitive performance or diminishes it. They then completed the Wonderlic Personnel Test while listening to a Mozart piano sonata. The subjects with a positive set answered significantly more items correctly on the test (14%) than those with a negative set (p = .03). This result may hold implications for the study of the ‘Mozart effect’.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
McKelvieS. J. (1989) The Wonderlic Personnel Test: Reliability and validity in an academic setting. Psychological Reports, 65, 161–162.
2.
OrneM. T.EvansF. J. (1965) Social control in the psychological experiment: Antisocial behavior and hypnosis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1, 189–200.
3.
RauscherF. H.ShawG. L.KyK. N. (1993) Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 364, 611.
4.
RosenthalR. (1976) Experimenter effects in behavioral research. New York: Irvington.
5.
SteeleK. M.BassK. E.CrookM. D. (1999) The mystery of the Mozart effect: Failure to replicate. Psychological Science, 10, 366–369.
6.
WonderlicE. F. (1983) Wonderlic Personnel Test manual. Libertyville, IL: Wonderlic, Inc.
