RESEARCH SHOWS THAT PIANO LESSONS increase the Spatial-Temporal Reasoning skills of school children.
Studies by Gordon Shaw of UC Irvine posited a model of brain structure that "suggested a relationship between musical and spatial reasoning abilities." This hypothesis lead Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Shaw to investigate specifics of this hypothesized music/spatial reasoning relationship.
Earlier studies showed a link between listening to music by Mozart and subsequent performance in Spatial reasoning tests. 

Spatial-Temporal Reasoning skills are fundamental for professions that include biochemistry, mathematics, and piloting, to name a few.
In the new study, Drs. Rauscher & Shaw (1997) decided to examine whether musical training would positively impact Spatial-Temporal Reasoning (STR) skills, skills considered to be the building blocks for improved performance in math and science.

78 preschool students at a Los Angeles inner-city school were tested using a standard control/treatment methodology. The students were divided into the following control and treatment groups:

• A control group received no after-school training.
•  One group of students received 6 months of 1/2-hour after-school classes in piano keyboard lessons.
• Another group received lessons in computer literacy.
• A final group took lessons in singing. 

Students were given tests in Spatial-Temporal reasoning and spatial recognition before the training began, again at the end of the training, and once again 24 hours later.

The students involved in the study were given four tasks from the Performance sub-test of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R).

•  One task was an Object Assembly task, which required arranging puzzle pieces together
•  Additionally, students had to perform tasks that tested spatial recognition; one dealt with a visual match and subsequent drawing of a figure 
• Another required the subject to match patterns using flat, dual-colored blocks 
• One other task had the children place colored pegs in holes under same-colored animals
  

The Object Assembly Spatial-Temporal Test required students to put together pieces that would form an animal (In this case, a camel).

Tests showed no statistically significant improvement in the control group, or in the groups that received computer literacy or singing lessons. However, the group that received the piano instruction improved by more than one standard deviation in their STR scores (Improvement by .6 standard deviations or more is considered statistically significant). Those scores were maintained 24 hours later in the final STR test, linking the improvement to long-term memory.

Only the group taking piano lessons showed a statistically significant improvement in Spatial-Temporal skills.

Rauscher and Shaw further hypothesize that it is the relationship between the physical distance between keys on the keyboard and the aural pitch of the corresponding notes that triggers the development of STR skills.

The relationship between keys and pitch is what's key to triggering Spatial-Temporal Reasoning.

Joshua S. Bleier
Graduate Student
Educational Technology, SDSU