Table 1.

Review of previous randomized controlled trial/longitudinal studies evaluating effects of instrumental music training on child cognitive function.

Study	Costa-Giomi, 1999	Schellenberg, 2004	Roden et al., 2012	Roden et al., 2014
Experimental design	Randomized controlled trial	Randomized controlled trial	Longitudinal study	Longitudinal study
Age (years)	9	6	7.54	7.73
Final sample size	67	132	73	50
Group type	Private piano lesson vs. no lesson	Music (keyboard or voice) vs. control (drama or no lesson)	Instrumental (guitar, cello, etc.) vs. natural science vs. no lesson	Instrumental (guitar, cello, etc.) vs. natural science
Training length	3 years	36 weeks	18 months	18 months
Measures	Developing Cognitive Abilities Test Beggs and Mouw, 1980; Musical Aptitude Profile Gordon, 1988; Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency Bruininks, 1978; Canadian Achievement Test2 Canadian Test Centre, 1992; Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories Coopersmith, 1981	Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III, Wechsler, 1991); Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement Kaufman and Kaufman, 1985; Behavioral Assessment System for Children Reynolds and Kamphaus, 1992	Verbal learning, Delayed recall, Verbal recognition Helmstaedter et al., 2001; Corsi Block, Matrix Span Hasselhorn et al., 2012	Corsi Block, One-syllable Word Span, Matrix Span, Couning Span, Complex Span, Color Span Backwards Hasselhorn et al., 2012
Main findings	Piano group showed significant improvement in Developing Cognitive Ability Test after two years; however, there were no differences between the two groups after three years.	Music group showed greater increase in full-scale IQ than did the control group.	Instrumental group showed greater improvements on verbal memory (Verbal learning, Delayed recall, and Verbal recognition) than did the natural science group and the control group.	Instrumental group showed greater improvements on phonological loop and central executive of working memory than did the control group.