Looks like this #musicscience pre-print showing 0 effect between musical training and cognitive abilities has been accepted at Memory and Cognition and is getting some press.
psyarxiv.com/7s8wr/
IMO moments like this are a great chance to just remind people that you don't
psyarxiv.com/7s8wr/
IMO moments like this are a great chance to just remind people that you don't
need the backing of Science™ to justify what you find meaningful. In a lot of ways, it's liberating to nullify this relationship to help focus conversations about #music to other reasons like how it's a great way to explore the many ways to be human, it's a way to learn
about other cultures, it's a way to form meaningful relationships with others, + things that are not by-products of traits that are valued by a society that wants productivity over all other things. Talking with my #musiceducation colleagues, I know the smarter~musical training
relationship has been a good thing to point to for funding, but in the long run it'll be good it goes away. So many problems with science stem from having an idea of what we want the answer to be ahead of time then collect that sweet grant money to "prove"
that we were right, but it really undermines so much critical thinking and leads to wasted resources. I get why people wanted to look into this relationship, but I think I agree that this should be dropped. I'd even go further to say that when arts/gvt orgs and
other bodies promote this idea, people with #science credentials should offer to help organisations understand why pushing the music-> smarter narrative isn't helpful (since the authority presumably originally came from Science™). I'd be interested to know if there was a
list of talking points that could be given to people who (probably w good intentions) are pushing these ideas, what could you tell them that to help them better understand? Obvs not exclusive to science people answering, I only mention that above because it's the responsibility
of those working within an area of research to update others when the program changes.
Coverage of the articles here:
