Arts education, academic achievement and cognitive ability

Abstract

Although art is often considered to be a means for maximizing human potential, the causes and consequences of artistic experiences are poorly understood. The present chapter reviews the relevant literature concerning the consequences of participating in the arts. It is clear that training in the arts improves performance on arts-specific tasks. For example, children who take music lessons perform better than their untrained peers on musical tasks such as perceiving musical key and harmony (Corrigall and Trainor, 2009). But training in the arts may also be associated with performance in non-arts domains. This chapter examines the possibility of four such associations, namely whether arts education is associated with academic achievement, general cognitive ability, language processing and visuospatial skills. In each case, the literature is evaluated in terms of the consistency of the findings and the evidence for claims of causation. Training in the arts and academic achievement Training in the arts is associated positively with academic achievement. For example, in a sample of Canadian high-school students, participation in musical activities in the eleventh grade predicted academic achievement in the twelfth grade (Gouzouasis, Guhn and Kishor, 2007). Other results point to similar associations between academic achievement and involvement in any type of arts-related activity. In one study that included more than 25,000 American high-school students, arts participation and school grades were recorded during the eighth, tenth and twelfth grades (Catterall, Chapleau and Iwanaga, 1999). At each point in time, students who were involved in the arts had better grades than other students. A similar positive association emerged in a meta-analysis of five correlational studies (Winner and Cooper, 2000). In a larger meta-analysis of 10 years of data from the American College Board (1988–98), Vaughn and Winner (2000) concluded that compared to students without arts training, students reporting any form of arts involvement (dance, drama, music and visual arts) obtained higher scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). This advantage for the arts group was evident for the verbal score, the mathematics score and the composite score. Students with drama lessons showed the strongest association, followed (in descending order) by students studying music, painting and dance. Even enrollment in theoretical classes (e.g., music or art history courses) was predictive of better SAT scores.