There is a positive relationship between learning music and academic achievement, although doubts remain regarding the mechanisms underlying this association. This research analyses the academic performance of music and non-music students from seventh to ninth grade. The study controls for socioeconomic status, intelligence, motivation and prior academic achievement. Data were collected from 110 adolescents at two time points, once when the students were between 11 and 14 years old in the seventh grade, and again 3 years later. Our results show that music students perform better academically than non-music students in the seventh grade (Cohen's d = 0.88) and in the ninth grade (Cohen's d = 1.05). This difference is particularly evident in their scores in Portuguese language and natural science; the difference is somewhat weaker in history and geography scores, and is least pronounced in mathematics and English scores (η 2 p from .09 to .21). A longitudinal analysis also revealed better academic performance by music students after controlling for prior academic achievement (η 2 p = .07). Furthermore, controlling for intelligence, socioeconomic status and motivation did not eliminate the positive association between music learning from the seventh to the ninth grade and students' academic achievement (η 2 p = .06). During the period, music students maintained better and more consistent academic standing. We conclude that, after controlling for intelligence, socioeconomic status and motivation, music training is positively associated with academic achievement.

It is known that moving visual stimuli (bouncing balls) have an advantage over static visual ones (flashes) in sensorimotor synchronization, such that the former match auditory beeps in driving synchronization while the latter do not. This occurs in beat-based synchronization but not in beat-based purely perceptual tasks, suggesting that the advantage is action-specific. The main goal of this study was to test the advantage of moving over static visual stimuli in a different perceptual timing system – duration-based perception – to determine whether the advantage is action-specific in a broad sense, i.e., if it excludes both beat-based and duration-based perception. We asked a group of participants to perform different tasks with three stimulus types: auditory beeps, visual bouncing balls (moving) and visual flashes (static). First, participants performed a duration-based perception task in which they judged whether intervals were speeding up or slowing down; then they did a synchronization task with isochronous sequences; finally, they performed a beat-based perception task in which they judged whether sequences sounded right or wrong. Bouncing balls outperformed flashes and matched beeps in synchronization. In the duration-based perceptual task, beeps, balls and flashes were equivalent, but in beat-based perception beeps outperformed balls and flashes. Our findings suggest that the advantage of moving over static visual stimuli is grounded on action rather than perception in a broad sense, in that it is absent in both beat-based and duration-based perception.

ResumoMatemáticos e físicos foram encontrando ao longo dos tempos analogias entre matemática e música. Paralelamente, músicos têm-se suportado na matemática para descrever a sua arte. Este artigo consiste numa sistematização das ligações entre conteúdos matemáticos e musicais. Os conteúdos musicais foram divididos nas seguintes temáticas: 1) Teoria e análise musicais, 2) Acústica e 3) Composição musical. Subsequentemente, em cada uma destas temáticas, as associações à matemática foram sistematizadas tendo em conta a organização dos Programas de Matemática e respetivas Metas Curriculares do Ensino Básico (3º ciclo) e dos Programas de Matemática A e B do 11º e 12º anos do Ensino Secundário português. Concluímos que os elementos e conceitos musicais que se associam à matemática distribuem-se pelas áreas da Aritmética, Álgebra, Trigonometria e, em especial, Geometria.

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