Psychometric performance on different aspects of primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension, word fluency, space, closure, perceptual speed, reasoning, number and memory) was compared in 35 adult musicians and non-musicians. Significant differences could not be revealed for either mean full-scale scores or for specific aspects of intelligence, except verbal memory and reasoning. While performance on verbal memory was reliably higher for the musicians than for the non-musicians, non-musicians performed significantly better on all four subscales of Cattell’s Culture Free Intelligence Test, Scale 3. This latter finding is consistent with the assumption that musical talent may be associated more with intuitive rather than logical thinking. Musicians’ superior performance on verbal memory supports the notion that long-term musical training exerts beneficial effects on verbal memory, which is most likely due to changes in cortical organization.

No abstract

A major controversy in the field of prospective temporal information processing refers to the question of whether performance in various temporal tasks can be accounted for by the general assumption of an internal clock rather than by distinct, task-specific timing mechanisms. Therefore, the present study was designed to identify dimensions of temporal information processing. For this purpose, 120 subjects performed eight psychophysical temporal tasks. Correlational and principal factor analyses suggested a common pacemaker-based interval timing mechanism involved in duration discrimination, temporal generalization, and temporal order judgment. On the other hand, rhythm perception and perceived simultaneity/successiveness appeared to be controlled by task-specific processes unrelated to interval-based timing.