Task-Dependent Mechanisms in the Perception of Music and Speech: Domain-Specific Transfer Effects of Elementary School Music Education

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that active engagement in musical activities benefits auditory and cognitive processing. However, it is still unclear whether musical experience improves domain-general mechanisms reflected in superior functioning in language or the enhancement is selective and limited to musical abilities. In the present study, we evaluated the transfer effect of general elementary school music education on the development of linguistic abilities. The relationship between specific musical auditory skills, phonological awareness, and reading was investigated in 30 second-grade children who attended either a class with an intensive music curriculum or a class with a regular curriculum. Results indicated no significant differences between the music and the regular class, suggesting that 1 year of Kodály-based classroom music education is not enough to yield relevant improvement in musical and linguistic abilities. Although there was no considerable relationship between reading and musical abilities, phoneme deletion accuracy was specifically associated with tonal memory. These findings suggest that similar cognitive mechanisms may be required to process melodic and phonological sequences. Therefore, we assume that task-dependent mechanisms may exist in melody and speech perception, which might account for the presence of inconsistent findings in the music transfer literature.

Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis

“…Despite the less than encouraging evidence, dozens of new experimental investigations have been carried out in recent years, including the two largest randomized control trials (RCTs) in this field (Aleman et al, 2017;Haywood et al, 2015). Once again, the claims about the effectiveness of music training have been inconsistent across studies (e.g., James et al, 2019;Lukács & Honbolygó, 2019;Nan et al, 2018). We thus ran a meta-analysis including both old and new experimental studies to establish (a) which claims are justified, (b) what are the sources of heterogeneity across studies, and (c) which of the theories predicting that music training enhances cognitive and academic skills are corroborated/refuted.…”

The Relationship between Early Word Reading, Phonological Awareness, Early Music Reading and Musical Aptitude

“…Several studies have identified the positive impact of music training on reading acquisition (e.g., Butzlaff 2000 ; Forgeard et al 2008a ). However, these results are relatively controversial compared to the results on phonological awareness (e.g., Lukács and Hombolygó 2019 ; Swaminathan and Schellenberg 2018 ). Butzlaff ( 2000 ) has described two meta-analyses.…”

Long-Term Impacts of Early Musical Abilities on Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study

“…Temporal and pitch representation, rapid auditory processing, auditory working memory, and recognition of auditory patterns do not only form the basis of musical perception but also play a role in reading acquisition ( Tierney and Kraus 2013a ). Several studies report a positive relationship between music learning and reading in the early stages of learning to read (e.g., David et al 2007 ; Holliman et al 2010 ; Moreno et al 2009 ), whereas other studies are unable to establish such a relationship ( Lukács and Hombolygó 2019 ). Conversely, Butzlaff ( 2000 ) describes two meta-analyses in a review.…”