Study Finds Music Lessons Do Not Make Children Smarter

研究发现音乐无助于提高孩子智力

From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn new things. But the organizers of a new study say there's no scientific evidence that early musical training affects the intelligence of young people.

许多人认为教孩子音乐可以让他们更聪明。但一项新研究的组织者表示，没有任何科学证据可以表明早期音乐培训会影响青少年的智力。

An estimated 80 percent of American adults think music lessons improve children's ability to learn or their performance in school. They say that the satisfaction for learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.

据估计，80%的美国成年人认为音乐课能提高孩子的学习能力以及他们在学校的表现。他们说，学会演奏一首曲子的满足感有助于孩子展现创造力。

Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there's one thing musical training does not do. They say it does not make children more intelligent.

然而哈佛大学的研究人员发现有一件事情音乐培训办不到，他们说，它不会使孩子更聪明。

Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard's School of Education. He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child's intellectual development.

塞缪尔·梅尔（Samuel Mehr）是哈佛大学教育学院的一名研究生。他说，认为学会演奏一种乐器能够提高孩子的智力发展是错误的。

He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of 4-year-olds and their parents. One group attended music class, the other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts -- arts that can be seen.

他说，证据来自于测试两组4岁儿童及其父母心智能力的多次研究。其中一组上了音乐课，另一组上了重视视觉艺术的课程。视觉艺术是一门看得见的艺术。

"The evidence there is 'no.' We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids participating in these music classes," said Mehr.

梅尔表示，“这里的证据是否定的。我们发现没有证据表明参加音乐课的孩子在这些测试中有任何优势。”

Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says the results have been mixed. He says only one study seems to show a small percentage increase in IQ, intellectual scores among students after one year of music lessons.

梅尔表示，研究人员为了弄清楚音乐培训是否可以让孩子更聪明已经进行了很多次研究。他说，研究结果有好有坏，只有一项研究似乎表明经过一年的音乐课之后，学生们的智商有很小比例的提高。

He does not believe that IQ is a good measure of a child's intelligence. He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musical training group did on mental processing tasks or projects, then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons.

他不认为智商是孩子智力一个很好的衡量。他说,他的研究人员比较了音乐培训组的孩子在智力任务或项目上的表现，然后将结果和没有参加音乐课的孩子进行比较。

There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group. The researchers confirmed the results with a larger group of children and their parents.

没有任何证据表明音乐培训组在智力任务上比另一组表现要好得多。研究人员通过更大一群孩子及其父母证实了这一结果。

Mr Mehr says music lessons may not offer children a fast easy way to gain entry to the best schools later of their life. But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, "We teach music because music is important for us."

梅尔先生说，音乐课可能无法在孩子以后的生活中给他们提供一个进入最好学校的捷径。但他表示，由于文化原因，音乐培训仍然很重要。用他的话来说，“我们教音乐是因为音乐对我们来说非常重要。”

He notes that the works of writer William Shakespeare are not taught, so the children will do better in physics. He says Shakespeare is taught because it is important. "And I don't think music needs to be any different than that."

他指出，不教作家莎士比亚的作品，这样孩子们在物理学上会表现更好。而教莎士比亚是因为它很重要。他说，“我不认为音乐应该与此有所不同。”

A report on the benefits of musical training in children was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

一份关于音乐培训对儿童有益之处的报告发表在《公共科学图书馆期刊》上。

And that's the Education Report From VOA Learning English.

For more news about education,go to our website geilien.cn.

I'm Jerilyn Watson.