Music Lessons Boost Verbal Memory

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 12 Aug 2003 3:20 am

Music Lessons Boost Verbal Memory

Kids With Music Training Have Better Verbal Memory Skills
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Monday, July 28, 2003

July 28, 2003 -- The benefits of music lessons may turn up in more areas than just the recital hall. A new study shows children who take music lessons have better verbal memory skills than others and may find it easier to learn in school.

Researchers say the findings suggest that experiences that activate and alter a region of the brain may improve performance in other tasks supported by that area, much in the same way cross training boosts athletic performance.

More Music, More Memory?
In the study, psychologists in Hong Kong studied 90 boys between the ages of 6 and 15. Half of the boys had received music training as members of their school's string orchestra, plus music lessons on Western instruments, for up to five years. The others had no musical training.

Researchers gave the children verbal memory tests to see how many words they could learn and recall from a list and a similar test to measure their visual memory skills.

The study showed that the students with music training learned, recalled, and retained more words than the other boys. And verbal memory skills rose in proportion to how long they had taken music lessons. No such differences were found for visual memory skills.

"The more music training during childhood, the better the verbal memory," says researcher Agnes S. Chan, PhD, a psychologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues. "This strongly implies that the better verbal memory in children with music training is not simply a matter of differences in age, education level, or their family's socioeconomic characteristics."

Lasting Benefits of Music Lessons
In a second experiment, researchers followed up a year later with the 45 orchestra students. Nine had dropped out less than three months after the initial study, and 17 new students had begun music training.

This beginner's group had originally shown lower verbal memory skills than the musically trained students, but one year later these new students showed significant improvement in verbal skills.

Although the verbal memory skills of the nine children that stopped taking music lessons did not continue to improve after the training ended, their memory skills remained stable and they did not lose the advantage they had gained previously.

Researchers say this group of children had already had almost three years of musical training before they discontinued their music lessons, which means their training may have had a long-lasting effect.

But as shown by the new music students, as little as a year of music lessons was enough to provide noticeable benefits in verbal memory skills.

Researchers say more studies are needed, but learning more about how musical training boosts memory performance may one day help in rehabilitating people with memory loss.

SOURCES: Neuropsychology, July 2003. News release, American Psychological Association.
© 2003 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 13 Aug 2003 8:56 am

...what was the topic again?...

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 13 Aug 2003 12:56 pm

Verbal memory?

I see no advantage whatsoever of being able to better recall what I've said. All that would do is make people hold me more accountable for it.

Fortunately, I didn't have many lessons as a child, at least not until I was older.

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HagFan

[This message was edited by Ron Page on 13 August 2003 at 01:57 PM.]

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 13 Aug 2003 1:29 pm

I don't remember if I had music lessons when I was a child..or even if I was a child..

Although I've seen pictures of a young Tony looking kid..

but keep in mind, when , or if , I was a child we were not allowed to talk..so there would be no verbal memory anyway..

But all this is based on if in fact I remembered..but as Hilary so eloquently stated..

I don't recall...

tp

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 14 August 2003 at 02:25 PM.]

Donna Dodd · Post by **Donna Dodd** » 14 Aug 2003 10:56 am

The Leonard Bernstein Foundation provides grant dollars to underfunded elementary schools who subscribe to this same philosophy. They have all kinds of data backing their claims. Through my previous community relations job at Sprint, I was privileged to partner with the program in the same schools we had Big Brothers Big Sisters sponsors. The Bernstein Foundation provided the school with 500+ violins - one for each and every student there. When one of the 4th grade boys with academic and behavioral problems was handed his violin, he found his gift, and earned the respect of other students and faculty - and then . . . you guessed it - this behavior and grades improved dramatically. Also, when Leonard Bernstein's son, Alexander (who now heads the foundation), toured the school here in Georgia, this same boy had a solo part and received special recognition from the foundation.
HOW cool is THAT?
After reading Jim's post, I decided music might help with my menopausal symptons. But I can't remember where I put my guitar!!
Donna

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 14 Aug 2003 12:29 pm

..great story!