Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence
Early childhood / preschool Primary school (grades 1–6) Lower secondary (grades 7–9) Music and arts training Expertise and practice
Links to claims
Limits (2)
| Claim | Basis |
|---|---|
| C30 | Full text: instrumental programmes gΔ = 0.26 overall; against active controls 0.28 (95% CI −0.06 to 0.61). Supporting source in the C30 weaken 2026-10-31. |
| C35 | Active controls 0.28 (95% CI −0.06 to 0.61), all outcomes pooled; no school-results or broad-cognitive estimate against active controls; in randomised studies, bias corrections give −0.04 to 0.26. Full text checked 2026-11-11; carried over from C30. |
Review state: first-pass draft, pending human review.
Source note
Syntes: Román-Caballero et al. (2022) — instrumental music programmes, small benefit (gΔ ≈ 0.26), uncertain against active controls
Källa: Román-Caballero, R.; Vadillo, M. A.; Trainor, L. J.; Lupiáñez, J. (2022). Please don't stop the music. Educational Research Review 35, 100436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100436
Verified content
- [full text] 34 samples, 176 effect sizes, 5,998 participants; mean age 8; programmes averaged 17 months. 664 children in active control groups (reading, drama, science, visual arts, sport, dance, computer programmes), 3,670 in passive ones.
- [full text] Overall pre-post benefit gΔ = 0.26 (95% CI 0.12 to 0.39) for randomised plus non-randomised studies; randomised gΔ = 0.26 (0.07 to 0.44); non-randomised 0.25 (0.05 to 0.45) (Table 2).
- [full text] Active control gΔ = 0.28 (95% CI −0.06 to 0.61) vs passive 0.25 (0.13 to 0.37), no significant difference (p = .983); among randomised studies only, active 0.23 (−0.13 to 0.58) (Table 2).
- [full text] Publication-bias checks mostly left the estimate in place (selection model 0.30; sensitivity analysis 0.23 at η = 1.5), but RVE PET corrected it to 0.01 (Table 4). Executive functions 0.41, literacy 0.20, maths 0.23 (ns), short-term memory 0.28 (Table 3).
Limits
- [assessment] Instrumental programmes only; the active-control estimate rests on 12 samples and its interval includes zero; one bias correction (PET) removes the effect; immediate pre-post outcomes.
Why it is in the library
Read 2026-10-31 (nightly attacks) as the second meta-analysis behind the C30 weaken: its point estimate against active controls (0.28) is not "about zero", though it is not reliably above zero either.
Added 2026-10-31 by the project. [full text] = read in the published version on the Trainor lab site.
Metadata as recorded
- ID
- EXP-010
- Tier
- meta
- Titel
- Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence
- Författare
- Román-Caballero, R.; Vadillo, M. A.; Trainor, L. J.; Lupiáñez, J.
- År
- 2022
- Källa/DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100436
- Tidskrift
- Educational Research Review 35, 100436
- Typ
- meta-analysis of 34 independent samples (176 effect sizes, 5,998 children and adolescents) of instrumental music programmes with pre-post designs and at least one control group; moderators include randomisation and active vs passive control; publication-bias tests
- Åldersgrupp
- foralder-tidig-barndom;grundskola-lag;grundskola-hog
- Teman
- musik-och-konstutbildning;expertis-och-ovning
- Hämtad
- 2026-10-31
- Paywall
- publisher version paywalled; author-lab copy free
- Verifierad
- Crossref DOI 10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100436 checked 2026-10-31; numbers from the full text
- Status
- added 2026-10-31 (nightly attacks); supporting source in the C30 weaken.
The original files (PDF or abstract) are kept in the project archive and are not published here.