Mozart Effect

The phenomenon was named after a 1993 study by Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Catherine Ky, published in Nature. The study reported that college students showed an 8–9 point improvement in spatial reasoning scores after listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major — an effect lasting only 10–15 minutes. The finding was widely misinterpreted as evidence that Mozart listening raises general IQ, spawning a commercial boom in Mozart CDs marketed to parents. Later replication attempts found limited support for the original claims.