Practicing a Musical Instrument in Childhood is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal Reasoning

Practicing a Musical Instrument in Childhood is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal Reasoning

Abstract

Background: In this study we investigated the association between instrumental music training in childhood and outcomes closely related to music training as well as those more distantly related.

Methodology/Principal Findings: Children who received at least three years (M equals four point six years) of instrumental music training outperformed their control counterparts on two outcomes closely related to music (auditory discrimination abilities and fine motor skills) and on two outcomes distantly related to music (vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning skills). Duration of training also predicted these outcomes. Contrary to previous research, instrumental music training was not associated with heightened spatial skills, phonemic awareness, or mathematical abilities.

Conclusions/Significance: While these results are correlational only, the strong predictive effect of training duration suggests that instrumental music training may enhance auditory discrimination, fine motor skills, vocabulary, and nonverbal reasoning. Alternative explanations for these results are discussed.

Introduction

There is a widespread view that learning to play a musical instrument in childhood stimulates cognitive development and leads to enhanced skills in a wide variety of areas. The slogan that "music makes you smarter" has been fostered by reports from the College Board that scores on the SAT (a test of verbal and mathematical abilities required by most U.S. colleges) rise incrementally for each year of high school music instruction. However, the results of other experimental and correlational studies investigating these claims have been conflicting.

The effect that training (or skill acquisition) in one domain might have on skills and cognitive performances in other domains is commonly referred to as transfer. The study of transfer has a long and contentious history. The most commonly observed form of transfer occurs when there is a close resemblance between the training domain and the transfer domain (typically called "near transfer") (e.g., learning to estimate the area of a square and understanding how to estimate the area of a triangle; learning to play a musical instrument and developing fine motor skills as well as melodic/rhythmic discrimination skills).

Although only experimental/longitudinal studies can demonstrate transfer, the results of many correlational studies have been used to suggest that transfer may occur from music training to other domains. We differentiate here between experimental, longitudinal studies and correlational studies testing for transfer.

Past research has clearly demonstrated that near transfer occurs from music training to music perception skills. In a longitudinal study, Flohr showed that five year-olds who received twelve weeks of music instruction improved significantly more than control children in tonal and rhythmic auditory discrimination abilities. Furthermore, in a correlational study, Morrongiello and Roes demonstrated that musically trained nine year-olds were better at drawing melodic contours than untrained children.

There is also evidence for near transfer from instrumental music training to motor skills. A longitudinal investigation by Costa-Giomi showed that children who received two years of piano instruction improved significantly more than controls on a motor proficiency test. In another longitudinal study, Hurwitz, Wolff, Bortnick, and Kokas showed that after seven months of Kodály music instruction, children improved significantly more than a matched control group on a motor sequencing task in which they tapped keys synchronously with a metronome, and then continued to tap "in time" after the metronome was turned off. A correlational study by Jäncke, Schlaug, and Steinmetz also showed that finger-tapping rates are faster in adult musicians than non-musicians, and the tapping rate of the non-dominant hand increases with duration of music training.

While near transfer effects are relatively common, it is notoriously difficult to demonstrate far transfer, where the resemblance between training and transfer domains is much less obvious (e.g., learning to read musical rhythm notation and understanding fractions). Evidence for far transfer from instrumental music training has previously been reported in the areas of spatial, verbal, and mathematical performances, as well as general IQ, as described below. Although much of the evidence is correlational, a few studies have demonstrated far transfer experimentally.