Author(s)

Yaxi Cheng, Jingyi Liu, Siqi Ouyang

Corresponding Author

Yaxi Cheng

ABSTRACT

Some scientific research has established that some forms of music training can enhance children's cognitive activities, especially learning skills used in mathematics. In our study, the relationship between musical rhythm and spatial-reasoning is explored. The participants include 180 Chinese first-grade students (6 years old) from an ordinary elementary school in Beijing. The sample is divided into three gender-balanced groups: the experimental group undergoes one semester of integrated instructive music training (e.g., music theory, singing, composition), while the participation group only receives basic knowledge without creation activity. And the last, as a control group, will be given Chinese courses unrelated to music. The improvements in their spatial-reasoning ability performance are evaluated using the Block Design and Object Assembly subtests from Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Raven Progressive Matrices (RPM). The results in the two WISC subtests show that students receiving systematical music training outperform those without any treatment in WISC. Still, no significant group difference can be seen in RPM. Factors, such as individual inhibitory control working memory that might contribute to outcomes for good reasons, are discussed. We hope that our findings provide helpful insight in teaching practice, but the mechanism of music rhythm intervention on spatial reasoning is still worth further study.

KEYWORDS

Music intervention, spatial reasoning, elementary school