As for the science and engineering group,Mr.WANG,a student majoring in Mechanical Engineer with a median academic ranking,told us that music instruments might have little impact on his academic performance."Mechanical Engineer mainly involves mathematical and manipulative abilities.Though instrument has made me more imaginative,it has almost no positive impact on my study."His words showed that instruments might not improve logical thinking and mathematical abilities.In the subjective feeling part,he said that maybe playing instruments and doing mathematical problems stimulated different parts of the brain so that they had no intersection.This supposition might lead us to further study the structure of brain to find further reasons. 5 Discussion(付尚扬) 5.1 Explanations of the findings Statistic methods were employed to analyze the questionnaires which showed a 7.3%boost in academic performance among students of liberal art.We considered 7.3%was significant enough to draw a condusion that musical instruments can help college students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance.However,for students of scence and engineering,we could observe a 0.6%decrease which was considered too slight to say musical instruments had negative effects because it was very probably caused by random error.But the much slighter influence on students of science and engineering was for sure. Case study was adopted to analyze subjective feelings of students.More than half of the students admitted an improvement in their memory.We could take that as a solid proof of the link between musical instruments and improvement of memory.And most of the students of science and engineering pointed out that though musical instruments might stimulate their inspiration,it had nothing to do with solving Maths problems. 5.2 Importance of the findings This research revealed two long-term links.One is between musical instruments and boost in academic performance among students of liberal art.The other is between musical instruments and improvement of memory. It can be a useful reference for parents when they are hesitating whether they should let their children to pick up one music instrument in their childhood.It also provides colleges with proof to increase their investment in building music classrooms and lends more support to musical associations. 5.3 Comparison with previous research Although we drew the same conclusion as most of previous research did that musical instruments help improve academic performance,the contributing factors were different. 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."(7(6):21)Obviously,he contributed the boost in academic performance to increase of IQ. But our findings consider improvement of memory as the reason.We both think musical instruments have a positive effect on human's mind,but the mechanism is not the same. 5.4 Alternative explanations of the findings As is shown before,for students of science and engineering,their academic performance has not been improved.They ranked at 50.6%on average which is very much close to 50%. However,if we take another perspective,there can be an alternative explanation.Playing musical instruments is a very time-consuming activity which can take up one or two hours every day.That means when students of science and engineering start to play musical instruments,their time for study is probably reduced.Meanwhile,they could maintain their academic perfommance as the other students who spend moretime on theirstudy.That can also be viewed as a boost. 11/1411 / 14 As for the science and engineering group, Mr. WANG, a student majoring in Mechanical Engineer with a median academic ranking, told us that music instruments might have little impact on his academic performance. “Mechanical Engineer mainly involves mathematical and manipulative abilities. Though instrument has made me more imaginative, it has almost no positive impact on my study. ”His words showed that instruments might not improve logical thinking and mathematical abilities. In the subjective feeling part, he said that maybe playing instruments and doing mathematical problems stimulated different parts of the brain so that they had no intersection. This supposition might lead us to furtherstudy the structure of brain to find furtherreasons. 5 Discussion(付尚扬) 5.1 Explanations ofthe findings Statistic methods were employed to analyze the questionnaires which showed a 7.3% boost in academic performance among students of liberal art. We considered 7.3% was significant enough to draw a conclusion that musical instruments can help college students of liberal arts achieve better academic performance. However, for students of science and engineering, we could observe a 0.6% decrease which was considered too slight to say musical instruments had negative effects because it was very probably caused by random error. But the much slighter influence on students ofscienceand engineeringwasforsure. Case study was adopted to analyze subjective feelings of students. More than half of the students admitted an improvement in their memory. We could take that as a solid proof of the link between musical instruments and improvement of memory. And most of the students of science and engineering pointed out that though musical instruments might stimulate their inspiration, it had nothing to dowith solvingMaths problems. 5.2 Importance of the findings This research revealed two long-term links. One is between musical instruments and boost in academic performance among students of liberal art. The other is between musical instruments and improvement of memory. It can be a useful reference for parents when they are hesitating whether they should let their children to pick up one music instrument in their childhood. It also provides colleges with proof to increase their investment in building music classrooms and lends more support to musical associations. 5.3 Comparisonwith previousresearch Although we drew the same conclusion as most of previous research did that musical instruments help improve academic performance, the contributing factors were different. 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) Obviously, he contributed the boost in academic performance to increase of IQ. But our findings consider improvement of memory as the reason. We both think musical instruments have apositive effect on human’smind, butthe mechanismis notthe same. 5.4 Alternative explanations ofthe findings As is shown before, for students of science and engineering, their academic performance has not been improved. They ranked at 50.6% on average which is very much close to 50%. However, if we take another perspective, there can be an alternative explanation. Playing musical instruments is a very time-consuming activity which can take up one or two hours every day. That means when students of science and engineering start to play musical instruments, their time for study is probably reduced. Meanwhile, they could maintain their academic performance as the otherstudents who spendmoretime on theirstudy. That can also be viewed as aboost