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A specific relationship between musical sophistication and auditory working memory
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A specific relationship between musical sophistication and auditory working memory

Meher Lad, Alexander J Billig, Sukhbinder Kumar and Timothy D Griffiths
Scientific reports, Vol.12(1), pp.3517-3517
03/03/2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07568-8
PMCID: PMC8894429
PMID: 35241747
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07568-8View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Previous studies have found conflicting results between individual measures related to music and fundamental aspects of auditory perception and cognition. The results have been difficult to compare because of different musical measures being used and lack of uniformity in the auditory perceptual and cognitive measures. In this study we used a general construct of musicianship, musical sophistication, that can be applied to populations with widely different backgrounds. We investigated the relationship between musical sophistication and measures of perception and working memory for sound by using a task suitable to measure both. We related scores from the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index to performance on tests of perception and working memory for two acoustic features-frequency and amplitude modulation. The data show that musical sophistication scores are best related to working memory for frequency in an analysis that accounts for age and non-verbal intelligence. Musical sophistication was not significantly associated with working memory for amplitude modulation rate or with the perception of either acoustic feature. The work supports a specific association between musical sophistication and working memory for sound frequency.
 Acoustic Stimulation Auditory Perception Cognition Memory, Short-Term Music - psychology

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