Music Education at School: Too Little and Too Late? Evidence From a Longitudinal Study on Music Training in Preadolescents

Abstract

It is widely believed that intensive music training can boost cognitive and visuo-motor skills. However, this evidence is primarily based on retrospective studies; this makes it difficult to determine whether a cognitive advantage is caused by the intensive music training, or it is instead a factor influencing the choice of starting a music curriculum. To address these issues in a highly ecological setting, we tested longitudinally 128 students of a Middle School in Milan, at the beginning of the first class and, 1 year later, at the beginning of the second class. 72 students belonged to a Music curriculum (30 with previous music experience and 42 without) and 56 belonged to a Standard curriculum (44 with prior music experience and 12 without). Using a Principal Component Analysis, all the cognitive measures were grouped in four high-order factors, reflecting (a) General Cognitive Abilities, (b) Speed of Linguistic Elaboration, (c) Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests, and (d) Visuospatial and numerical skills. The longitudinal comparison of the four groups of students revealed that students from the Music curriculum had better performance in tests tackling General Cognitive Abilities, Visuospatial skills, and Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests. However, there were no significant curriculumby-time interactions. Finally, the decision to have a musical experience before entering middle school was more likely to occur when the cultural background of the families was a high one. We conclude that a combination of family-related variables, early music experience, and pre-existent cognitive make-up is a likely explanation for the decision to enter a music curriculum at middle school.

Does music training enhance auditory and linguistic processing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of behavioral and brain evidence

“…Language is one of the far transfer domains most extensively examined in the music training literature. Many studies examine transfer to linguistic abilities including phonological awareness (e.g., Vidal et al, 2020), reading (e.g., Carioti et al, 2019), speechin-noise perception (e.g., Hennessy et al, 2021), speech-in-quiet perception (e.g., Tierney et al, 2015), or prosody perception (e.g., Moreno et al, 2009). Although results from individual studies vary (e.g., Boebinger et al, 2015;Mehr et al, 2013), the mechanisms underlying associations between music and linguistic processing have been discussed.…”

Effects of music training in executive function performance in children: A systematic review

“…However, scientific evidence that supports these effects of music mainly exists as anecdotal, observational, or in non-randomized and non-controlled interventional studies. Even in the absence of unequivocal evidence on the impact of music on cognitive development, musical education remains a desirable ability in children and curricular education programs worldwide (Carioti et al, 2019 ). When evaluating these associations, it may be convenient to point at specific cognitive processes influenced by music rather than assessing cognitive development altogether.…”

Effect of Mahjong on children's intelligence quotient

“…These findings suggest that IQ may be stable over time in standard Japanese children in the absence of special intervention. In the international literature, it is also known that music training (Carioti et al, 2019 ), video games, and video viewing can increase WISC scores (Soares et al, 2021 ). However, in the present study, these particular types of training were also rarely observed in a sustained manner during the observation period.…”