上海充通大 SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY MUSIC INSTRUMENTS'BOOST IN COLLEGEN STUDENTS' ACADEMICPERFORMANCE FU SHANGYANG,XU JINQING,HONG YINING An Article Submitted to Prof.Li Zhang For the Course of Academic Communication in English 2017.1.1 1/14
1 / 14 MUSIC INSTRUMENTS’BOOST IN COLLEGENSTUDENTS’ ACADEMICPERFORMANCE FU SHANGYANG,XU JINQING,HONG YINING An Article Submitted to Prof. Li Zhang For the Course of Academic Communication in English 2017.1.1
Music Instruments'Boost in College Students' Academic Performance Fu ShangYang(1),Xu JinQing(2),Hong YiNing(3) (1)School of Mechanical Engineering,Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2)School of Electronic,Information and Electrical Engineering,ShanghaiJiao Tong University (3)School of Electronic,Informationand Electrical Engineering,ShanghaiJiao Tong University Abstract::(付尚扬) It has been widely accepted that playing musical instruments has a positive effect on human's mind and also plenty of research supports this statement.However,little attempt has been made to investigate how musical instruments boost academic performance,especially in the long term.By using questionnaires to collect information about students'school marks and also giving interviews to get their subjective feelings,we show that musical instruments can help college students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance while their influence is much slighter on students of science and engineering.The findings suggest that musical instruments can improve students'memory but can hardly help them in Maths.The research provides a new perspective on how musical instruments can help students in their academic performance. Keywords: Musical instruments;Academic performance;Questionnaire;Interview;Memory; 2/14
2 / 14 Music Instruments’Boost in College Students’ Academic Performance Fu ShangYang(1),Xu JinQing(2),Hong YiNing(3) (1) School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao TongUniversity (2) School of Electronic, Informationand Electrical Engineering, ShanghaiJiao TongUniversity (3) School of Electronic, Informationand Electrical Engineering, ShanghaiJiao TongUniversity Abstract: (付尚扬) It has been widely accepted that playing musical instruments has a positive effect on human’s mind and also plenty of research supports this statement. However, little attempt has been made to investigate how musical instruments boost academic performance, especially in the long term. By using questionnaires to collect information about students’ school marks and also giving interviews to get theirsubjective feelings, we show that musical instruments can help college students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance while their influence is much slighter on students of science and engineering. The findings suggest that musical instruments can improve students’ memory but can hardly help them in Maths. The research provides a new perspective on how musical instruments can help students in their academic performance. Keywords: Musical instruments; Academicperformance;Questionnaire; Interview;Memory;
Table of Contents: 1 Introduction.. .5 2 literature review.… 6 2.1 Music instruments and academic performance............ .6 2.2 Music instruments'influence on different areas of learning..... 6 2.3 Some defects in done researches.................... 7 3 Method. 3.1 Using questionnaires to collect objective facts of students ........ .7 3.2 Using interviews to collect subjective feelings of students..........................8 4 Result .9 4.1 Musical instruments help students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance 9 4.2 Musical instruments have slight influence on students of scence and engineering..........9 4.3findings of the interviews.........10 5 Discussion.... 11 5.1Explanations of the findings.11 5.2Importance of the findings11 5.3 Comparison with previous research..... 11 5.4Alternative explanations of the findings. 11 6Conclusion .12 6.1Summary of objectives and approaches of this paper.1 6.2 Major findings of this paper .......... 12 6.3Important implications of this paper's findings 12 6.4 Future work needed in the field.................. 2 7Reference.... .13 8 About the authors… 14 3/14
3 / 14 Table of Contents: 1 Introduction....................................................................................................................5 2 literature review.............................................................................................................6 2.1 Music instruments and academic performance.................................................................. 6 2.2 Music instruments’ influence on different areas of learning............................................... 6 2.3 Some defects in done researches......................................................................................7 3 Method.............................................................................................................................7 3.1 Using questionnaires to collect objective facts of students ............................................ 7 3.2 Using interviews to collect subjective feelings of students ............................................. 8 4 Result .............................................................................................................................9 4.1 Musical instruments help students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance 9 4.2 Musical instruments have slight influence on students of science and engineering.......... 9 4.3 findings of the interviews ........................................................................................... 10 5 Discussion....................................................................................................................11 5.1 Explanations of the findings ....................................................................................... 11 5.2 Importance of the findings.......................................................................................... 11 5.3 Comparison with previous research............................................................................. 11 5.4 Alternative explanations of the findings...................................................................... 11 6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................12 6.1 Summary of objectives and approaches of this paper................................................... 12 6.2 Major findings of this paper ....................................................................................... 12 6.3 Important implications of this paper’s findings............................................................ 12 6.4 Future work needed in the field.................................................................................. 12 7 Reference......................................................................................................................13 8 About the authors .......................................................................................................14
List of Figures Fig.1 Grade ranking of students who major in liberal arts Fig.2 Grade ranking of students who major in science and engineering 4/14
4 / 14 List of Figures Fig.1 Grade ranking ofstudents whomajorin liberalarts Fig.2 Grade ranking ofstudents whomajorin scienceand engineering
1 Introduction:(徐瑾卿) It's a common phenomenon that children having the experience of playing music instruments can probably have better academic performance,and that's why many parents cannot wait to expose their children to instruments.Recent researches have supported this standpoint by showing that music instruments do have a positive impact on intelligence.However,what kind of effects music instruments can have on children in the long term is still unclear.In our project,we have chosen college students with the experience of playing music instruments since childhood as subjects investigated and separated students of liberal arts from those of science and engineering to find the difference of effects on memory and Mathematics. 5/14
5 / 14 1 Introduction:（徐瑾卿） It’s a common phenomenon that children having the experience of playing music instruments can probably have better academic performance, and that’s why many parents cannot wait to expose their children to instruments. Recent researches have supported this standpoint by showing that music instruments do have a positive impact on intelligence. However, what kind of effects music instruments can have on children in the long term is still unclear. In our project, we have chosen college students with the experience of playing music instruments since childhood as subjects investigated and separated students of liberal arts from those of science and engineering to find the difference of effects on memory and Mathematics
2 literature review(洪逸宁) 2.1 Musicinstruments and academic performance Academic achievement is indubitably associated with music learning,though some doubts remain concerning the mechanisms laying behind this correlation.(Santos-Luiz,Monico,Almeida Coimbra,2013)One possibility is that music education changes the shape and power of the brain(Alleyne,2009).Jancke(2008),a psychologist at the University of Zurich,said:"Leaming to play a musical instrument has definite benefits and can increase IQ by seven points,in both children and adults."(76).21 Researches on the relationship between acquisition of musical skills and academic performance have examined how participation in musical instrument learning leads to improvements in scores and IQ.The results of an independent research study on the benefits of music education in Nashville dearly show that Metro students engaged in music programs outperform their peers on every indicator-grade point average,graduation rate,ACT scores, attendance and discipline.(MetroSchools,2012).Applying the most advanced brain analysis technology,Martin(2014)who established the Harmony Project,has been able to show precisely what happens to the brain on music.(posted in Awardeess,2014.)In the study,which appears online in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psycology,the team showed that exposure to music lessons physically stimulated the brain and changed it for the better.However,simply being exposed to music education doesn't seem to be sufficient,you have to also be actively involved(Dovey,2014). Other studies have argued the positive impact on intelligence by instrument learning,Costa- Giomi(2014)'s research of more than 75 reports shows(1)the lack of sound evidence on the long-term effects on intelligence;(2)the complicated nature of the bond between music instruction and intellectual measures due to the intervention of factors related with interest, persistence and success in music learning.Elpus(2013)examined the college entrance examination scores of music and non-music students in the United States,drawing data from the data set of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002(ELS),and claimed that students who can play music did not outshine those who cannot on the SAT scores on average These studies have contradictions,leading to our further research on the relationship between musicinstruments and academic performance. 2.2 Music instruments'influence on different areas of learning Previous researches have shown that music instrument learning has different impacts on different aspects of learning. Several researchers have found that instrument learning has little to do with progress in subjects related with science and engineering.By providing three years of free piano teaching for 117 fourth-grade children attending public schools in Montreal,Costa-Giomi(2004)found that piano instruction had a positive effect on children's self-esteem and school music marks but did not affect their academic achievement in math as measured by standardized tests and school report cards Other studies examined music instruments'impact on the learning of liberal arts.Moreno, Marques,Santos and Besson(2008)conducted a longitudinal study with 32 children with no instrument learning experience over 9 months and found that after musical training,children showed enhanced reading and pitch discrimination abilities in speech.llari(2016)claimed that two assumptions that underlie much research in early childhood music education are that music is a social endeavor and musical participation is benefical to children's overall social development. 2.3 Some defects in done researches Our group has found that there are various limitations existing in current work.1)Done 6/14
6 / 14 2 literature review（洪逸宁） 2.1 Music instruments and academicperformance Academic achievement is indubitably associated with music learning, though some doubts remain concerning the mechanisms laying behind this correlation. (Santos-Luiz, Mónico, Almeida & Coimbra, 2013) One possibility is that music education changes the shape and power of the brain(Alleyne, 2009). Jäncke(2008), a psychologist at the University of Zurich, said: "Learning to play a musical instrument has definite benefits and can increase IQ by seven points, in both children and adults.”(7(6):21) Researches on the relationship between acquisition of musical skills and academic performance have examined how participation in musical instrument learning leads to improvements in scores and IQ. The results of an independent research study on the benefits of music education in Nashville clearly show that Metro students engaged in music programs outperform their peers on every indicator-grade point average, graduation rate, ACT scores, attendance and discipline. (MetroSchools, 2012).Applying the most advanced brain analysis technology, Martin(2014) who established the Harmony Project, has been able to show precisely what happens to the brain on music. (posted in Awardeess, 2014.) In the study, which appears online in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology, the team showed that exposure to music lessons physically stimulated the brain and changed it for the better. However, simply being exposed to music education doesn’t seem to be sufficient, you have to also be actively involved (Dovey, 2014). Otherstudies have argued the positive impact on intelligence by instrument learning, CostaGiomi(2014)’s research of more than 75 reports shows (1) the lack of sound evidence on the long-term effects on intelligence; (2) the complicated nature of the bond between music instruction and intellectual measures due to the intervention of factors related with interest, persistence and success in music learning. Elpus(2013) examined the college entrance examination scores of music and non-music students in the United States, drawing data from the data set of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), and claimed that students who can playmusicdid not outshine those who cannot on the SATscores on average. These studies have contradictions, leading to our further research on the relationship betweenmusic instruments and academicperformance. 2.2 Music instruments’ influence ondifferent areas oflearning Previous researches have shown that music instrument learning has different impacts on different aspects of learning. Several researchers have found that instrument learning has little to do with progress in subjects related with science and engineering. By providing three years of free piano teaching for 117 fourth-grade children attending public schools in Montreal, Costa-Giomi(2004) found that piano instruction had a positive effect on children’s self-esteem and school music marks but did not affect their academic achievement in math as measured by standardized tests and school report cards. Other studies examined music instruments’ impact on the learning of liberal arts. Moreno, Marques, Santos and Besson (2008) conducted a longitudinal study with 32 children with no instrument learning experience over 9 months and found that after musical training, children showed enhanced reading and pitch discrimination abilities in speech. Ilari(2016) claimed that two assumptions that underlie much research in early childhood music education are that music is a social endeavor and musical participation is beneficial to children’s overall social development. 2.3 Some defects in done researches Our group has found that there are various limitations existing in current work. 1)Done
researches focused mainly on children.Few of them have revealed how music instruments affect the academic performance of college students.2)The surveyors neither sampled a suffident number of students,nor selected randomly among students from different areas and age groups.Objects of observation are limited in a certain age and area range,yet these studies cannot lend to credible supports for those articles'condusions.For example,Costa-Fiori(2004)'s research only involved 117 fourth-grade children,and Cortex(2008)'s survey included merely 32 children.3)Most of the previous researches drew hasty condusions based on short-term studies. For instance,Costa-Giomi(2004)gave three years of piano teaching,and Cortex(2008)'s survey only lasted for 9 months. 3 Method（3.1付尚扬3.2徐瑾卿) 3.1 Using questionnaires to collect objective facts of students ( 3.1.1 Participants The participants were SJTU students from various majors and grades who could play musical instruments.They took the questionnaires in SJTU's piano room when they went there to practice the musical instruments,which can ensure that all the respondents can play musical instruments 3.1.2 Instruments The research employed questionnaires to collect information about students'musical instruments and their school marks.In the questionnaire,students would be asked several brief questions which included their gender,major,grade ranking and how long had they learned to play the music instrument.The questionnaire was designed for those who played the musical instruments.So the research did not have a control group to compare with.We just compared the results with the average.In this way,the error could be reduced and the research was simplified. 3.1.3 Data collection procedure The activity center has 17 piano rooms which means about 15 students come here to play musical instruments each hour.We printed 100 copies of the questionnaires and put them at the register table where students would walk by before entering piano rooms.The staff there helped us to deliver questionnaires to the students who voluntarily took them.Two days later,we got 83 effective questionnaires. 3.1.4 Data analysis Students were divided into two classes,those who majored in liberal arts and in science and engineering.Distribution charts of their grade ranking were plotted and the mean scores were calculated.By analyzing the results,we could find out the link between students'musical instruments and their school marks. 7/14
7 / 14 researches focused mainly on children. Few of them have revealed how music instruments affect the academic performance of college students. 2)The surveyors neither sampled a sufficient number of students, nor selected randomly among students from different areas and age groups. Objects of observation are limited in a certain age and area range, yet these studies cannot lend to credible supports for those articles’ conclusions. For example, Costa-Fiori(2004)’s research only involved 117 fourth-grade children, and Cortex(2008)’s survey included merely 32 children. 3)Most of the previous researches drew hasty conclusions based on short-term studies. For instance, Costa-Giomi(2004) gave three years of piano teaching, and Cortex(2008)’s survey only lasted for9 months. 3 Method（3.1 付尚扬3.2 徐瑾卿） 3.1 Usingquestionnairestocollectobjective facts ofstudents（付尚扬） 3.1.1 Participants The participants were SJTU students from various majors and grades who could play musical instruments. They took the questionnaires in SJTU’s piano room when they went there to practice the musical instruments, which can ensure that all the respondents can play musical instruments. 3.1.2 Instruments The research employed questionnaires to collect information about students’ musical instruments and their school marks. In the questionnaire, students would be asked several brief questions which included their gender, major, grade ranking and how long had they learned to play the music instrument. The questionnaire was designed for those who played the musical instruments. So the research did not have a control group to compare with. We just compared the results with the average. In this way, the error could be reduced and the research was simplified. 3.1.3 Data collection procedure The activity center has 17 piano rooms which means about 15 students come here to play musical instruments each hour. We printed 100 copies of the questionnaires and put them at the register table where students would walk by before entering piano rooms. The staff there helped us to deliver questionnaires to the students who voluntarily took them. Two days later, we got 83 effectivequestionnaires. 3.1.4 Data analysis Students were divided into two classes, those who majored in liberal arts and in science and engineering. Distribution charts of their grade ranking were plotted and the mean scores were calculated. By analyzing the results, we could find out the link between students’ musical instruments and theirschool marks
3.2 Using interviews to collect subjective feelings of studetns(徐瑾卿 3.2.1 Participants:(徐瑾卿) The partiapants in stage two were eight students from SITU with the background of playing music instruments since childhood (mean age,18.9 years;four males and four females), comprising 7 from China and 1 from Korea.As one of our team members was the chairman of piano association,she invited members from her assocation to partiapate in our interviews. They were divided into two groups according to their majors.Each group was comprised of two males and two females arranging from freshman to junior.Table 1 lists the detailed demographics data of the participants in Stage 2. Table 1.Paricipants'demographics in Stage 2 Liberal arts group(n=4) science and engineering group(n=4) Age 19 18.75 Gender F=2M=2 F=2M=2 Nationality China=3,Korea=1 China=4 Major Law 1 0 Language 1 0 History 1 0 Media design 1 0 ComputerScience 0 Mechanical 0 Engineer Mathematics 0 Grade: Freshman 1 2 Sophomore 2 Junior 1 3.2.2 Instruments The second stage employed case study methodology,which mainly focused on a qualitative analysis of data generated from the individual interviews.Different from the questionnaire in stage one,the interviews induded more in-depth questions about their experiences.The interview was about ten minutes,which was mainly composed of the experience of instruments, academic performance and subjective feelings.As for the first part,we asked the participants about the year they started to play instruments,the average length of time for them to practice, whether they had stopped playing instruments for some time and so on.As for the second part, our volunteers were questioned about their performance on courses of liberal arts or those of science and engineering.In the end,we invited them to share their opinions on whether playing instruments could improve their academic performance in the long term. 3.2.3 Data collection procedure To ensure that all our participants had the background of playing music instruments,one of our team members,the chairman of the piano association,invited members from her assodation to get involved in our interviews.The partiapants were divided into two groups:four volunteers for group one with students majoring in liberal arts and the other four for science and engineering group.To make the samples more representative,we balanced the gender of both groups and covered students from freshman to junior.After matching major,gender and grade,the chairman finally picked eight volunteers and made appointments with them.However,the samples had two main shortoomings.The first one was that the partiapants were limited to students in SJTU from freshman to junior.Besides,the music instruments were only confined to piano.Although these might make the samples less typical,we had to accept them due to lack of time and resources. 3.2.4Data analysis 8/14
8 / 14 3.2 Using interviewstocollectsubjective feelings ofstudetns(徐瑾卿) 3.2.1 Participants:(徐瑾卿) The participants in stage two were eight students from SJTU with the background of playing music instruments since childhood (mean age, 18.9 years; four males and four females), comprising 7 from China and 1 from Korea. As one of our team members was the chairman of piano association, she invited members from her association to participate in our interviews. They were divided into two groups according to their majors. Each group was comprised of two males and two females arranging from freshman to junior. Table 1 lists the detailed demographics dataof the participantsin Stage 2. Table 1.Paricipants’ demographicsin Stage 2 Liberal arts group (n=4) science and engineering group(n=4) Age 19 18.75 Gender F=2 M=2 F=2 M=2 Nationality China=3,Korea=1 China=4 Major Law 1 0 Language 1 0 History 1 0 Mediadesign 1 0 Computer Science 0 2 Mechanical 0 1 Engineer Mathematics 0 1 Grade: Freshman 1 2 Sophomore 2 1 Junior 1 1 3.2.2 Instruments The second stage employed case study methodology, which mainly focused on a qualitative analysis of data generated from the individual interviews. Different from the questionnaire in stage one, the interviews included more in-depth questions about their experiences. The interview was about ten minutes, which was mainly composed of the experience of instruments, academic performance and subjective feelings. As for the first part, we asked the participants about the year they started to play instruments, the average length of time for them to practice, whether they had stopped playing instruments for some time and so on. As for the second part, our volunteers were questioned about their performance on courses of liberal arts or those of science and engineering. In the end, we invited them to share their opinions on whether playing instruments could improvetheir academicperformance in the long term. 3.2.3 Data collection procedure To ensure that all our participants had the background of playing music instruments, one of our team members, the chairman of the piano association, invited members from her association to get involved in our interviews. The participants were divided into two groups: four volunteers for group one with students majoring in liberal arts and the other four for science and engineering group. To make the samples more representative, we balanced the gender of both groups and covered students from freshman to junior. After matching major, gender and grade, the chairman finally picked eight volunteers and made appointments with them. However, the samples had two main shortcomings. The first one was that the participants were limited to students in SJTU from freshman to junior. Besides, the music instruments were only confined to piano. Although these might make the samples less typical, we had to accept them due to lack of time and resources. 3.2.4Data analysis
Similar to stage one,volunteers were divided into two groups.As for the part of instrument experience,questions for both groups were identical.Questions about academic performance for group one were mainly focused on liberal arts while those for the other group were concentrated on science and engineering.As the questionnaires in stage one had only showed differences in statistics,we would find more subtle distinctions between two groups.The subjective feelings of the interviewees may imply the causes of those differences between students majoring in liberal arts and those learning science and engineering. 4Re5ut(4.14.2付尚扬4.3徐瑾卿) 4.1 Musical instruments help students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance 尚扬) Students who major in liberal arts 12 白 06 20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90% grade ranking Fig.1 Grade ranking of students who major in liberal arts Among the 83 effective questionnaires,35 were done by the students of liberal arts.Their grade ranking was shown in Fig.1.Most of the students ranked at 50%and obviously,those who ranked higher were more than those who ranked lower in number.To be precse,the mean was calculated as 42.3%which meant that for students of liberal art who played musical instruments, their academic performance was higher than the others by 7.3%on average.From the result,we could see a 7.3%boost in academicperformance among students of liberal arts. 4.2 Musical instruments have slight influence on students of science and engineering 9/14
9 / 14 Similar to stage one, volunteers were divided into two groups. As for the part of instrument experience, questions for both groups were identical. Questions about academic performance for group one were mainly focused on liberal arts while those for the other group were concentrated on science and engineering. As the questionnaires in stage one had only showed differences in statistics, we would find more subtle distinctions between two groups. The subjective feelings of the interviewees may imply the causes of those differences between students majoring in liberal arts and those learning scienceand engineering. 4 Result(4.1 4.2 付尚扬 4.3徐瑾卿) 4.1 Musical instruments help students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance（付 尚扬） Among the 83 effective questionnaires, 35 were done by the students of liberal arts. Their grade ranking was shown in Fig.1. Most of the students ranked at 50% and obviously, those who ranked higher were more than those who ranked lower in number. To be precise, the mean was calculated as 42.3% which meant that forstudents of liberal art who played musical instruments, their academic performance was higher than the others by 7.3% on average. From the result, we could see a7.3% boostin academicperformance among students of liberal arts. 4.2 Musical instruments have slightinfluence onstudents ofscience andengineering
Students who major in science and engineering 18 16 14 10 6 20% 30% 40%50%60% 70% 80%90% grade ranking Fig.2 Grade ranking of students who major in science and engineering Besides questionnaire Investigations on liberal art students,the rest 48questionnaires were done by the students of science and engineering.Their grade ranking was shown in Fig.2. Similarly,most of the students ranked at 50%.However,we could observe a change in the distribution chart.It became hard to tell whether there were more students ranking above 50% To find out the truth,the mean was calculated as 50.6%which was very close to the average 50%. The result indicated that for those of science and engineering,influence of playing musical instruments is much slighter.We could even say that musical instruments had nothing to do with academic performance. 4.3 findings of the interviews(徐瑾卿) Our researches were mainly focused on the long-term impact of music instruments on children.Therefore,we chose students playing instruments since childhood as our participants. We divided the samples into two groups to figure out whether the effect of instruments might vary among students with different majors.During the first stage,we collected 83 effective questionnaires on grade ranking and experience of playing instruments.The statistic results showed that instruments did have different impacts on two groups.The findings of the second stage would be demonstrated by important contents of the eight interviews and simple analysis of them. 4.3.1 playing instruments can somehow improve memory. Mr.ZHANG was a junior student majoring in law with a high grade ranking of the top five percent.He started to play the piano when he was only six years old and he had never stopped for about fourteen years.He had achieved piano amateur of 10th level and kept practicing for 6 hours a week."When I was a pupil,I was just an ordinary student.As time passed by,I came to have an outstanding ability of memorizing things which was really helpful when I took my professional exams."His words implied that playing instruments could somehow improve memory. "When playing the piano,you have to scan the music and memorize part of the melody to make the play fluent.When I prepared for an exam,I just scanned the main points of the textbook and I could remember most of them clearly during the exam."A hypothesis was that instruments might be helpful especially for short-term memory. The student from Korea said that there was a link between the memory of melody and words."Both of their structures were so beautiful",he said,"By imagining a scenery based on a piece of melody or a word,you will memorize it easily."It signified that one of the reasons why playing music instruments could help improve memory was that it developed a new way of memorization.Participants tended to associate a piece of melody with a typical item or story so that they found it both amusing and effective. 4.3.2 playing instruments has no positive impact on mathematics abilities. 10/14
10 / 14 Besides questionnaireInvestigations on liberal artstudents,the rest 48questionnaires were done by the students ofscience and engineering. Their grade rankingwasshown in Fig.2. Similarly,most ofthe studentsranked at 50%.However, we could observe a change in the distribution chart. It became hard to tell whetherthere were morestudentsranking above50%. To find outthe truth,the mean was calculated as 50.6% which was very close to the average 50%. The resultindicated thatforthose ofscience and engineering, influence of playingmusical instrumentsismuch slighter. We could even say thatmusical instruments had nothing to dowith academicperformance. 4.3 findings ofthe interviews（徐瑾卿） Our researches were mainly focused on the long-term impact of music instruments on children. Therefore, we chose students playing instruments since childhood as our participants. We divided the samples into two groups to figure out whether the effect of instruments might vary among students with different majors. During the first stage, we collected 83 effective questionnaires on grade ranking and experience of playing instruments. The statistic results showed that instruments did have different impacts on two groups. The findings of the second stage would be demonstrated by important contents of the eight interviews and simple analysis ofthem. 4.3.1 playing instruments can somehowimprove memory. Mr. ZHANG was a junior student majoring in law with a high grade ranking of the top five percent. He started to play the piano when he was only six years old and he had never stopped for about fourteen years. He had achieved piano amateur of 10th level and kept practicing for 6 hours a week. “When I was a pupil, I was just an ordinary student. As time passed by, I came to have an outstanding ability of memorizing things which was really helpful when I took my professional exams.” His words implied that playing instruments could somehow improve memory. “When playing the piano, you have to scan the music and memorize part of the melody to make the play fluent. When I prepared for an exam, I just scanned the main points of the textbook and I could remember most of them clearly during the exam. ”A hypothesis was that instruments might be helpful especially for short-term memory. The student from Korea said that there was a link between the memory of melody and words. “Both of theirstructures were so beautiful ” ,he said, “By imagining a scenery based on a piece of melody or a word, you will memorize it easily. ”It signified that one of the reasons why playing music instruments could help improve memory was that it developed a new way of memorization. Participants tended to associate a piece of melody with a typical item or story so that they found it both amusing and effective. 4.3.2 playing instruments has no positive impacton mathematics abilities
