The End

A long, long school year has finally come to an end! I think we all definitely deserve a long, relaxing summer break.

To Ms. Halfen:
Thank you for making psychology a fun yet informative class to take! I truly enjoyed all the sarcastic comments and relatable examples that made remembering certain vocabulary terms easier. I also really enjoyed the many days of watching movies and shows (WWYD, Inside Out, and my absolute favorite: Meth Mountain... Jk). Having simple quizzes and only a few tests, however, was by far my favorite part of the class. Psychology has truly been a wonderful class to look forward to every morning!

My project - click to see details

My favorite project in this class was one that I just finished -- the Inside Out Mind Map. It was great to be able to explore my own "core memories" and make an artsy project out of it. Plus, I absolutely love Inside Out. I may or may not have stayed up until 1 AM working on it, but I think it was definitely worth my time! (P.S. the Train of Thought at the bottom is the Hogwarts Express!)

However, one thing I didn't quite enjoy about this class was... The brain! The structures and functions were horribly difficult to try and memorize; the diagrams were a bit confusing. However, when I took the time to do the vocabulary in the notebook, I began to understand it a bit better (googling several brain diagrams at home helped too). I don't think anything should be taken out of the class curriculum, but maybe a bit more time should be spent on the brain!
One suggestion: spend one class period going over some FRQ samples and responses before the AP. Even though we were prepped for the FRQs by doing Real World Examples in the vocabulary, it is still helpful and will make us feel more prepared if we go over the FRQs format and tips on how to approach it.
Once again, thank you for being a wonderful teacher! See you in AP Econ :)

To the current psych kids:
Thank you for being a wonderful bunch of students with whom I can share laughs and tears (cough cough, Inside Out). It has been a great semester with you guys through all the stress and stuff! Seniors, good luck in college! I'll definitely miss you guys, but I'm sure you all will be super successful and happy. Juniors, we have one more year left! Congrats on getting through the most stressful year of your high school career. I hope senior year is a breeze for us.
Good luck on any finals you're taking, and don't forget to enjoy yourselves and relax over the summer (and maybe get some college apps done? Juniors? Please don't procrastinate?)

To the future psych kids:
Psychology is a fun course and the knowledge acquired from this class is truly helpful to understanding and empathizing with yourself, your peers, and strangers. Learning about the different ways of thinking, disorders, and how society can affect us will give insight to how people work. Ms. Halfen prepares you well for the AP, as long as you put in effort! Do the vocabulary and complete the projects (this is a helpful site for vocabulary).
Good luck in this class :) psychology is truly an interesting class that is also applicable to real life, so I hope you can retain a few things you learn!

Links in this post
Vocabulary help - http://www.alleydog.com

I am (not) the Meme Queen

I missed class on Friday because of my AP Human Geography exam, but apparently we all made psychology-related memes!
I have been exposed to many memes, old and new, but I have neither the experience nor the wit to make memes myself. Thus, as a disclaimer, these memes will be absolutely terrible. I tried my best. (P.S. I made my memes here, feel free to try it out)

Here we go, the first meme. Karen Horney was the female psychologist who disagreed with Freud's sexist views in psychoanalysis. In Freud's Psychosexual Development, stage 3 (the phallic stage) originally involved only the Oedipus Complex and penis envy. Horney came along and, in the effort of making things more equal for women, created the Electra Complex and womb envy. Learn more about Karen Horney and her feminist views of psychology here!

This meme is aesthetically displeasing to me, but what can ya do? Click the image to read the words if it's too small.
Homosexuality was taken out of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1973 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), when a series of social reforms took place, starting with the Civil Rights movement, then evolving into the feminist and gay rights movements. This change, along with Alfred Kinsey's studies on male and female sexuality, had a huge cultural impact and benefited the tolerance and acceptance of different sexualities. You can read more about this history of homosexuality and psychology here.

Third meme! I think there are more liberals in Dulles, but I'm sure this meme is applicable in many other regions of Texas. This is related to all of those terms related to group VS group psychology stuff; for example, when a liberal speaks up in class, group polarization may cause every conservative in the room to start with small insults and slowly make more extreme decisions until they are chasing the liberal (in this case, Captain Jack Sparrow). Other cases of social psychology include: groupthink (a liberal may be discouraged from speaking up in class because (s)he is more concerned with group harmony), ingroup bias (all the conservatives support and favor one another in a game and leave the liberal out), conformity (the liberal may soon change some opinions/views in order to fit in with the group's standards), etc. Read more about social psychology here!

I never fully understood the firing process of a neuron, so I hope this meme is scientifically accurate. To my understanding, this is a representation of the All-or-None Principle. A neuron has sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) ions, and the releasing of these ions is what causes the firing of a neuron. Of course, you cannot half-fire a neuron, which is why all the K+ ions are released. If you cannot understand my poor explanation of the firing process of a neuron, or if you don't trust the validity of it (I wouldn't blame you), you can read about it here! I tried to read it and didn't understand it; perhaps you will have better luck.

The final meme! This is a joke about how the Asian father expects all A's from his child, including non-grade related A's like personality types! The type A personality is characterized as a rather uptight, impatient, competitive, and ambitious person whereas the type B personality is characterized as a relaxed, charismatic, easygoing, and laid back person. This also fits in with the meme because type A personalities tend to achieve more in academics than type B. Ha! I feel so clever.
Read up on the personality types (there are more than just A and B) here!

Links in this post:
Meme Generator - https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
Karen Horney - http://www.feministvoices.com/karen-horney/
Homosexuality and Psychiatry - http://www.aglp.org/gap/1_history/
Psychology of Groups - http://nobaproject.com/modules/the-psychology-of-groups
Neuron Firing Process - http://animatlab.com/Help/Documentation/Neural-Network-Editor/Neural-Simulation-Plug-ins/Firing-Rate-Neural-Plug-in/Neuron-Basics
Personality Types - https://www.hiresuccess.com/help/Understandingthe4PersonalityTypes

AP Exams are Still Here

This week's blog is a free-for-all so I'm going to continue the AP discussion from last week. Because that's related to psychology. And education is too, right? I dunno. I'm sleep deprived (still) so this post is a bit of a mess.

One week of APs have gone by! Congrats to everyone for making it halfway. We're almost there! Summer break is coming.

Here's how my week went, if anyone was wondering:

Monday - I spent the entire morning cramming whatever psych knowledge I could into my brain. 30 minutes before the exam, I think we had a prayer circle. It was truly a stressful situation, but I think I did well on it!

Tuesday - I tried my best to learn some more APUSH. I also panicked about the English 4 AP and had to bother Allison about it. It was a mess.

Wednesday - I took the English 4 AP. It wasn't that bad? I'm not too skilled with poems. It's all good. Then I went home and studied a BUNCH of APUSH. Arman and I got this great idea for him to just... teach me the entire curriculum. Maybe we should've gotten this idea a bit earlier? So we Skyped about that. I took a 20 minute break to study for my Chinese quiz, then went back to APUSH.

Thursday and Friday - THE DAY!!! OF CRAMMING! It was terrible! I started crying around 7-8PM because I realized how terribly unprepared I was. Arman and I Skyped the entire night; he had planned on staying up all night while I had planned on sleeping at 11:30. What actually happened was: I took a nap around 11:30 and tried my best to listen to Arman teach me APUSH. I gave up and slept at 12, he kept studying. I woke up at 2AM (he had gone to sleep at 1:45) and, in a panic, I tried to study more APUSH until I collapsed at 4:30AM. When I got to school, I was a mess. But then... just like that it was over. My worst exam of the year!

So here I am now, contemplating what was definitely the worst, most stressful, most horribly panic-inducing week of my entire life. What's the point? I won't remember any details about these courses in a few years. While the Jacksonian Era was important, will I really need to recall that he caused some panic or depression or something (oops I already forgot)? So, for this week's blog post, I'll be analyzing (complaining about) the United States education system!

My psychology knowledge has already disintegrated (sorry Ms. Halfen!), so I don't have a very good memory of names and such. SOME GUY said that a certain level of arousal (stress) makes for optimal performance. Lower-mid level of arousal for difficult tasks, mid-higher level of arousal for easy tasks, etc. So??? Why is school so stressful? :( School is difficult, especially exams that cover extensive amounts of information, yet we all place so much emphasis on it that we make students super anxious and stressed. As many people like to do, I'll bring up Finland's superior education system, which is pretty much the opposite of our system! And they have better scores and stuff. I'm pretty sure that's reflective of SOME GUY'S arousal theory thing.

This is me with my
workload tbh!! What a mess

Honestly though, I've given up on an entire week's worth of homework just for these AP exams. We had two Chinese quizzes back-to-back (which I thought was unfair) on Thursday and Friday; since Friday was the APUSH exam, I didn't study for Chinese at all and got a max of a 75 on it. We had a precal quiz on Thursday, but I hadn't TOUCHED any of the homework because of APs, so I didn't do well on that either. I had an art project due, but I've only done... like... 50% of it. I haven't even started on All the Pretty Horses for English. So. Now I have to catch up on all of that! Is this amount of stress and sleep deprivation REMOTELY healthy for students? No! I used to love school! What happened? Where did America go wrong? Finland only has one standardized test in the entire 12 years of school! How many have I taken in the past two years?? 10??????

Finland has the smallest gap between students, meaning that a child in a rural area has the same opportunity to get a quality education like children in cities! This is because education is funded by the government and schools can pull from the same pool of university-trained teachers. These teachers truly prioritize the well-being of their students. MEANWHILE our government throws college students into debt, and many teachers aren't appreciated or paid enough!

I dunno. I don't know how to fix this mess. I just know that all us students are suffering. Just hang on. One more week of APs. Three more weeks of school after that. We can do it.

Links in this post

Finland article - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?no-ist

APs are Upon Us!

Disclaimer: If this post seems a little weird and rambling with poor grammar, it's because I'm sleep deprived after studying for so long.

I'm currently taking a break from reviewing for my Psychology AP to type up this blog post. AP week is here! An entire semester (or year) of preparing has come to this moment. A lot is resting on our adolescent shoulders, and the stress can certainly pile up. This post is dedicated to motivation and stress relief and all that good stuff!

This is me right now but
with purple hair

This year, I'm taking 5 AP exams: Psychology, English Literature & Composition, U.S. History, English Language & Composition, and Human Geography. I'm pretty nervous about... all of them. I haven't even started studying for Human Geography (since the exam is May 13, I plan on starting May 6). Last year I took 4 exams; thus, I can get a 3 on one of the exams this year and still get National AP Scholar. A lot is resting on my slim shoulders (approximately $830 and a lot of high expectations). It's safe to say I am so stressed that I don't even feel stressed anymore. Who cares if I fail? At least I tried.

BUT THAT'S THE THING! You, my reader, whom I assume is preparing for AP exams at this time, have tried very hard. Your effort makes a huge difference, no matter what score you get -- as long as you put in all the effort you can while still caring for your health, you are a successful person in my book. If you get a 2 on your exam, it may be devastating to you and your family, but it is NOT the end of the world. Life goes on! We have not even gone through one-fourth of our long, wonderful lives. When you're fifty years old and working a stable job with your kids (and maybe grandkids) surrounding you with love, you're gonna regret ever wasting so much time and effort on school. I'm not saying you should drop all your AP exams and go out to skateboard and do drugs, but I do believe that high school is more than just studying. My fellow classmates and I spend so much time on school work that we forget to live! Devote your time and effort to studying for now, but don't forget that you and your health are important. After AP exams, go watch a movie or something. Lord knows we need it. Don't let all these expectations get to your head. Don't base your worth as an intelligent, capable person on any numerical scores. You are a wonderful, capable student whether you get all 5s or all 1s.

If my rant wasn't helpful in relieving stress, here are some more techniques to help cope with stress. Basically, take breaks whenever needed, treat your body right (sleep and eat healthily), and most importantly, find good friends to help support you! Without my friends, I would be drowning in the stress that I am currently able to manage. Your friends should build you up instead of burden you -- this means that, when you make a joke about how you're going to kill yourself to avoid taking your Chemistry AP (I know we've all made jokes like these before), your friend will tell you that things will be okay and offer support instead of saying, "Same." Trust me, in the long run, these friends will be extremely helpful with self esteem and stress and all the nasty things life throws at you.

Parks and Recreation, anyone?
I love this show so much
#treatyoself ! it's a good philosophy

Life is hard, but we can get through it! One step at a time, one exam at a time, we will soon be free of these burdens and off to college. For now, focus on studying. Motivate yourself with food like ice cream. Be sure to get plenty of rest. Everything will be okay. Don't run yourself into the ground! You may want perfect scores, but your mental and physical health are much more important! Once APs are all done, take yourself and some friends out to eat some food or watch a movie! You all deserve a treat after all the hard work you put into this. And then... after that, guess what? Only 3 weeks until SUMMER BREAK! :)

Links in this post
Stress management tips - http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm

I Need to Memorize an Entire Curriculum for AP Exams

I'd do something like this

My memory is terrible! I have no idea why, but I just can't seem to hang on to memories for longer than two weeks. From vocabulary words to important events in my life, the details of my memories just tend to get muddled up into one mess of confusion. I have sticky notes all over my house for me to jot down notes before I inevitably forget it. My father constantly complains about my tendency to misplace items. However, I memorized the entire World History curriculum in approximately one week right before the AP exam and got a four! (I probably need to do that again this year with U.S. History oops). So maybe there's hope for me yet... Either way, I don't expect great scores on these memory tests. The WHAP exam required more long term memory than short, and I have a feeling that my working memory is in poor condition.

Quiz One: Short Term Memory Test
This quiz asks you to memorize 12 words... I zoomed through the list a little too quickly! Oops. I only remembered five out of twelve. That apparently means it's working at average capacity, according to George A. Miller, who said people can retain 5-9 chunks of information in their short term. Of course, stress and other factors can affect your memory as well. Personally, I think this quiz is too short and should have a series of lists in order to get a more accurate grasp of ones short term memory capabilities.

Quiz Two: Verbal Memory Test
I was given a long list of forty words and asked to rate their pleasantness. Somewhere halfway down the list, I realized I'd need to recall them so I made a more conscious effort to memorize them (which didn't help). Once I was presented with 40 blanks, I struggled to remember the words. Eventually, I pulled twelve out of my brain, but one was apparently wrong. Then, on the recognition section, I found it very easy to select the correct word when given two choices!
Recall Score: 11
Recognition Score: 40
The average scores are 6 and 38 -- is my memory actually better than 75% of people who took it or was it a fluke? The results aren't extremely accurate because it wasn't a test conducted in a controlled environment with a professional, but it's still indicative of my memory capabilities. I find this unbelievable.

Quiz Three: Picture Memory Test
A picture is shown for 30 seconds and you are asked to recall the items. Out of 20 items, I remembered 10. This test didn't have any guidelines or explanation of the results, but referring back to Miller's magic number, I'd say I did well above average! This was a pretty basic test though. I'm not sure how I feel about its validity -- but at least the time allotted to stare at the picture was controlled.

Quiz Four: Face Memory Game
This test was definitely not what I expected. I was hoping I could get an idea of how bad I am with people (because I forget people's names in 0.5 seconds), but it was just a weird collection of strange facial features. It required recognition rather than recall, so it wasn't a huge surprise that I got 9 of the features correct out of 10 (got the chin wrong!). Or maybe I'm just a good artist! Either way, the time given to stare at the face wasn't controlled, so I don't think the results are too accurate. Plus, it's not a good representation of real life faces, which are much more varied with subtle differences.

Quiz Five: Remembering That Face

My Results! Take that, dad.

This one is very fancy with a contract and debriefing and stuff! Also it's Cambridge so it's extra official. It was extremely thorough and took forever! Compared with the other facial memory test, this one was exceptional. The face matching was extremely difficult when all 6 faces were put together. When the static came along, I just about gave up on the test. HOWEVER! My scores indicate otherwise! My Physical Activity Questionnaire score was bad, but I excelled in memorizing faces! I really do think my art skills have something to do with this. Either way, I think this quiz was the best in terms of controlling variables and providing a thorough, official examination of my skills! The time to memorize faces was controlled and the hair was removed and everything seemed very well done.

Links in this post
Short Term Memory Test - https://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/test1.php
Verbal Memory Test - http://www.memorylossonline.com/learning_memory/mem_games/verbaltest1.html
Picture Memory Test - http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch.html
Face Memory Game - http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/facemem.html
Remembering That Face - https://testmybrain.org/tests/start#sthash.paTtBioP.cmfs

Let's Make America Great Again

The time has come for a new President to be elected! I have never been a fanatic about politics -- I do know that the future of our country is in our (the voters') hands, so I still keep up with the primaries and other things. I have many strong opinions on social/political issues, but, I don't know the details about various policies or debates of the candidates (nor have I ever tried to identify with a certain political allegiance). Most of what I've heard about these candidates is from social media sites (Tumblr, Facebook, etc.) and here's the short list: Donald Trump is (excuse my language) insane and privileged. Bernie Sanders is a Democratic Socialist and supports many progressive ideals. Hillary Clinton is fickle with her policies. Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. The other candidates ??? Do they even exist? Alright, so from this list, I support Bernie Sanders. However, there are four political quizzes that I'm about to take, so let's see if my view changes after finding the results!

QUIZ ONE: PERSONALITY

My Results
I've heard some bad things about Marxism...

This quiz does not have as many options as I would like. However, I did my best to give accurate answers (and not choose "skip this question"). First, my opinion on the statements that I had to agree/disagree with: some were absolutely absurd (i.e. Switzerland ’s GDP is worth approximately 2.5 trillion dollars annually. How do I agree/disagree with a fact? Another one: Trees should be able to vote. WHAT! How???). Others were related to my political views. Overall, I think the questions were kind of ambiguous in meaning, so I just interpreted to the best of my ability. Some referred to things I wasn't sure about (thus revealing my lack of political knowledge); these were the only ones I skipped.
From what I've learned in APUSH, I thought this profile was TOTALLY wrong. But once I read the description of various things like big government and such, I feel like this is an accurate description of my view on things. In short, I feel like the government has a lot of power and should use it to benefit the people (focus on poverty, education, etc.). HOWEVER, I believe that the government should not restrict/influence social issues (abortion, gay marriage, etc.) because that would restrict the freedom of people to live how they desire. This profile literally says socialist for my philosophy, so that reaffirms my support in Bernie Sanders.

QUIZ TWO: COMPASS

My Results
I'm BASICALLY Gandhi :)

This quiz was pretty similar to the first one (with less stupid questions) except they didn't have a "skip this question" choice, so I just guessed on a few of them... I hope they didn't affect my results too much! Overall, I think this was a wholesome quiz that encompassed many facets of politics.

Some (in)famous people on the scale

So from this quiz, I am relatively left (kinda controlled economy) and libertarian. According to the website, libertarian socialists (anarcho-syndicalism) belong in the bottom left corner -- that's me! This (once again) confirms that my allegiances lie with Bernie Sanders, which I find quite accurate because I am libertarian with social issues and yet still believe in some control and order. 

Through further investigation, I have found that Barack Obama is in the bottom right quadrant of the graph. I must admit I don't know much about his policies (just that he's a chill President), but I've heard negative things about Obamacare. What does this mean to my graph and results and political allegiances? I have no idea. I really need to polish up my political knowledge.

My Results
Totally expected, to be honest

QUIZ THREE: TYPOLOGY

This quiz was different from the first two; it simply provided two statements (polar opposites of each other) and asked me to choose which fit me best. These questions had a wide range encompassing racial issues (which were mostly ignored in the other quizzes); however, it mostly addressed whites versus blacks. As an Asian American person, I question the representation of us and many other races in media and social issues. That's getting into a different topic though.

Anyway, I find that I agree with this assessment of my political allegiances. As a progressive/liberal person, I do believe that a lot of change must be made in the government in order to continue thriving. Though I do not unflaggingly support Obama, I'm sure this still points me toward supporting Sanders as our next President.

QUIZ FOUR: I SIDE WITH

The quiz we've all been waiting for! This tells me which candidate I most align with in terms of social and political views. I hope I'm right in supporting Bernie Sanders. This quiz incorporated not only our opinion on issues but also how important they are to us. I liked the additional, more specific options for more controversial topics. I also appreciated the "Learn More" option for more unfamiliar topics -- best quiz overall (just REALLY long -- I'll admit I skipped a lot of economic & domestic policies questions due to laziness and lack of opinion on these issues).

My results were as predicted! I do side with Bernie Sanders the most, which is promising. Sadly, I have no idea who Jill Stein is... Oops! (I'm also terribly embarrassed to find that I share any percentage of political views with Donald Trump).

My Results

I also compared my answers with Bernie Sanders -- it is promising to see the answers he chose. He and I have similar views on many social and political issues (immigration, health care, education, and more).

Even though I am not well informed on many issues, I trust Bernie Sanders to be knowledgeable and make decisions for the country that I personally view as the best. I'm sure that all these candidates have flaws, but Sanders seems to be the most capable one! I was not able to vote in the primaries because I am seventeen years old (though I heard from my friend that I could've voted because I'll be eighteen in October, before the elections... Darn).

Exercise your right to vote!

Taking these quizzes have stressed to me how many issues and policies our country is tangled up in. Now, in these elections where there is a very real chance that Donald Trump will rise to presidency, exercising your right to vote has become even more important. Even in states (like Texas) where it is almost always in favor for a certain party/candidate, we as the people must put in our own vote and use our voice. It is better to have tried and failed than to not have tried at all -- and if enough people try and cast their votes, we can make a difference. The future of our nation is in our hands!

Links in this post:

Political Personality Quiz - http://www.openpolitics.ca/tiki-index.php

Political Compass Quiz - http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Political Typology Quiz - http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-typology/

ISideWith Quiz - https://www.isidewith.com/

Am I Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Welcome everyone (or just Ms. Halfen) to the first post on my blog!

THE TEST
Today, I took an IQ test at home while my parents watched Vikings (I didn't do this in class because I was busy messing with the template and layout of my blog - I hope the fish-feeding gadget is enticing and interesting, for it took me an entire class period to get it right. I slightly regret taking this test in such a loud environment, but I don't think it detracted from my score). Ah yes, my score. A 163! HAHA Happy April Fool's! I'm not that smart. My score was a 127 - not too bad! Since I'm 17, this means my mental age is about 21.6 years old. Here's the proof:

Not a genius yet above average!

It turns out I am smarter than a(n average) fifth grader! (I'm definitely not smarter than the geniuses on the show). No spoilers, but I thought that most of the questions were based on logic and reasoning alone, which many reputed psychologists and I believe is only a small portion of what makes up human intelligence. Real, thorough IQ tests are most definitely more detailed and inclusive in order to account for all aspects of our intelligence (creativity, adaptability, etc.). I'm not complaining though - this score is higher than my dad's (supposed) IQ that he bragged about when I was young. Despite the inaccuracy of the test (and despite my actual genius friend Arman telling me online tests are complete trash, my words not his), I'm proud to say I got a 127 and hope to never take a real IQ test, which would truly stress me out. One last thing before I move on: I feel like I could've done better if I were younger! I am nearing adulthood, and the growth and development of my intelligence has probably already peaked. Thus, I feel like I'm just a bit too old to get accurate results... Or maybe I'm just trying to make excuses so that I can feel smarter. Either way, the key is to remember that this IQ test will not define your intelligence nor your worth as a human :)

MOZART - HOW DID HE DO IT?

Ever since I first heard of the Mozart effect, I have wondered: was Mozart an alien? Or a time-traveling genius from the future stuck in the mid-1700s? How come his classical music boosts our intelligence; did he have some access to the inner workings of our brain that gave him some secret combination of pitched sound waves to enhance its performance? Because not all classical music has the same effect! Sadly, I don't have the answers to these questions, but I'll admit - during this IQ test, I listened to a six hour long YouTube video of Mozart's music. Before you accuse me of cheating my way into a 127, hear me out. You think this music totally makes you smarter, right? WRONG... kind of. 

Mozart shortly after time-traveling to the 1700s

The truth is that "[a]ny gained... intelligence lasts for only 10-15 minutes and no other noise should be heard while Mozart is being played in order to ensure the brain's capacity to infuse the music," yet all I heard over my music was the sound of (most likely historically inaccurate) Vikings slaughtering each other (citation: this Hot Topic). Sadly, yet equitably to my peers, Mozart's melodies were ineffective regarding my performance on an IQ test. Many parents who also heard of the Mozart effect make their children listen to this classical music, but as stated earlier, the effects last no longer than a quarter of an hour (on 12 year olds and undergraduates; testing on infants is nonexistent). Sorry, mom and dad!

What is enhanced, however, is spatial intelligence (not general intelligence, as many believe): this means that, the next time you're folding and cutting paper, Mozart is your man! This specific aspect of spatial intelligence is the only one that has been tested in research; anything else is rather ambiguous (plus, differences in gender/race/socioeconomic status/etc. haven't been factored in), meaning that this research has limited legitimacy.

In spite of this, I've read somewhere that classical music (or foreign music) is better than music with lyrics for studying/homework - the words can distract you from your main task. On that account, I encourage you to listen to Mozart anyway, even if it can't help you be smarter than a fifth grader.

Links in this post:

IQ Test - http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=3108

Mozart's Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2LM3ZlcDnk

Mozart Effect Hot Topic - http://www.intelltheory.com/mozarteffect.shtml