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children. The higher the socio- economic status the more utterances heard by the child.

Jones and Zigler see a tendency to embrace the easy solution to underachievement which is typical of the focus on environment as opposed to genetics. The Mozart effect is another example of naive environmentalism whereas intelligence is ' a stable predominantly heritable characteristic'. They quote (Chabris: 1998) as an example of research substantiating their point of view. In Jones and Zigler we see a well researched paper (which would be expected of a researcher of the reputation of Zigler) but one that not only challenges the notion of music as a way to promote learning and intelligence but when you scratch below the surface you see researchers reluctant to accept any environmental influence on intelligence. Ref: Krakovsky, M, Discredited 'Mozart Effect' Remains Music to American Ears

斯坦福商学院-February 2005 STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Michael S. Franklin, Katherine Sledge Moore, Chun-Yu Yip, John Jonides, Katie Rattray and Jeff Moher - The effects of musical training on verbal memory Psychology of Music 2008; 36; 353

This study researches the link between musical training and general cognitive ability. The results strengthen the claim that verbal memory skills are better for musicians than non musicians. Other researchers have concluded that musical training helps develop non-musical verbal abilities because musical training aids in the development of the auditory areas of the brain cortex. Some research has suggested that verbal memory processes including those involved in music makes use of left hemisphere structures and in the long term is the cause of structural differences in the brain. This is because these processes both long and short term make use of left-hemisphere structures.

This study was able find a advantage in in verbal memory for musicians and additionally a greater working memory capacity for musicians. These results may indicate new areas of potential research verifying the positive impact of music on verbal skills.

This study found a good match between musicians and non-musicians in gross measures of cognitive skill. These include areas such as aptitude and achievement measures, yet there were still verbal memory differences. These results are similar to Schlaug et. al.( 1995a and 1995b ) which showed that certain differences in brain structure are dependant on the age at which training begins. The suggestion is that musical training is responsible for altering brain morphology which in turn is likely to lead to subsequent behavioural correlates. The issue with this single study is that it it is impossible to

infer a causal relationship between musical training and verbal memory advantage. However, there are a number of studies which when appraised jointly are starting provide evidence for this causal link.

One study by Norton et. Al (2005) is an early study as to whether the differences in brain structure that has been reported between musicians and non musicians were existent prior to that musical training or developed subsequently. In this study the authors compared beginning musicians in the age range of 5 to 7 to non musicians of the same age. In this study no pre-existing neural, cognitive or motor skill differences were found. Replications of this kind of study will be critical in