Beyond the Mozart Effect: How Musical Experience and Emotional Response Shape Individual Differences in Spatial Reasoning

Author

Connor Watkinson, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

12-1-2025

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Lakshmanan, Usha

Abstract

Research on the Mozart effect (the short-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning after music listening) has yielded inconsistent results, often due to overlooking individual differences and using limited stimuli. This study examined multiple musical conditions (popular lyrical, classical, and white noise control) while considering the moderating roles of musical experience and the mediating influence of emotional responses. Undergraduate participants (N = 162) completed spatial reasoning assessments before and after an eight-minute listening session, alongside measures of musical background, listening habits, mood, and music-evoked emotions.Analyses revealed no overall difference in spatial reasoning improvement between music and white noise conditions. However, substantial individual variability emerged. Specific emotional responses—particularly feelings of peacefulness (positive) and nostalgia (negative)—significantly mediated performance changes following music listening. Surprisingly, years of musical training predicted improvement, in contrast to prior research suggesting a ceiling effect for musicians. In a novel finding, higher habitual listening correlated with relative declines in performance. An observed interaction further suggested that musicians improved unless they reported very high listening frequency, while non-musicians with frequent listening habits tended to decline. The presence of lyrics did not significantly alter these effects.These findings demonstrate that music's short-term impact on spatial reasoning is not uniform, but shaped by the interplay of emotional response and musical experience (including listening habits). This supports an integrated perspective that acknowledges both an underlying shared neural substrate between pitch perception and spatial reasoning abilities, as well as the influence of mood and arousal, thereby moving the conversation beyond simplistic interpretations of the Mozart effect.