At least, that's what an article in the Telegraph claims.
Scientists who asked volunteers to keep time with a drumstick before taking intelligence tests discovered that those with the best sense of rhythm also scored highest in the mental assessments.
Prof Frederic Ullen, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, concluded that there was a link between intelligence, good timing and the part of the brain used for problem-solving.
He said: "The rhythmic accuracy in brain activity that is observed when a person maintains a steady beat is also important to the problem-solving capacities measured with the intelligence tests."
There's more at the link.
I guess musical ability is a riff-lection of intelligence after all . . . you can't beat that!
Peter
10 comments:
One of my early boyfriends was a drummer. I hate to cast dispersions on the dead, from an overdose of drugs, but this guy was dumber than dirt. Maybe the drugs didn't agree with him, and he died before he could fix things. Good drummer, though.
I used to play percussion and drums in school band. Most often I played snare drum and marimbas. I don't think the generalization that drummers are very bright or good problem solvers works across the board though. I suspect his test sample was either limited or flawed. In my experience, those who arrange strings for orchestral arrangements are the brightest and seem to have the best spatial relations abilities. Unfortunately, although I might appear bright in some areas, I am a spatial relations moron.
As a percussion major and professional entertainer, I guess it's up to me to set the record straight.
We in the business differentiate between a "drummer" and a "percussionist." In my experience, percussionists tend to be a little more stable - these are the folks who play mallet percussion, tympani, traps, stuff like that. Set drummers are tougher to categorize - most of the set drummers I know who work in bands and small combos are at least a little unstable, with a tendency to adrenaline addiction.
But crazy don't always mean stupid. Across the board, drummers and percussionists are some of the sharpest folks on the stage.
MichigammeDave
Nice play on words there Peter! :-) And yeah, agreed that the sample size was probably too limited!
TWEET! Bad Pun! Fifteen Yard Penalty!
Actually it should be "The intelligent are natural drummers" not "drummers are intelligent".
I'll go with anon: "the intelligent are natural drummers" - or "the intelligent have a better sense of rhythm", or else whatever their test is measuring, it has little to do with intelligence.
I'll go with independent variables.
I'll give you another.
It is common knowledge (in the industry) that good computer programmers have a very high co-incidence rate of being very good musicians, too.
The fact that every third hippie in any Occupy whatever camp spent half his or her day banging on a drum of some sort kind of kills the idea that drummers are naturally bright. Just saying...
Yeah, sample size was probably too small. As a guitarist I might as well do what no one else has, so far. So, what do we call a person who spends most of his time hanging around musicians? Yep, a drummer.
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