The effects of musical training on verbal memory

A number of studies suggest a link between musical training and general cognitive abilities. Despite some positive results, there is disagreement about which abilities are improved. One line of research leads to the hypothesis that verbal abilities in general, and verbal memory in particular, are re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of music 2008-07, Vol.36 (3), p.353-365
Main Authors: Franklin, Michael S., Sledge Moore, Katherine, Yip, Chun-Yu, Jonides, John, Rattray, Katie, Moher, Jeff
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advantages
Cognitive Ability
Context Effect
Language
Long Term Memory
Memory
Music
Music Education
Musicians
Nonmusicians
Rehearsing
Relationship
Short Term Memory
Training
Verbal Ability
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Summary:A number of studies suggest a link between musical training and general cognitive abilities. Despite some positive results, there is disagreement about which abilities are improved. One line of research leads to the hypothesis that verbal abilities in general, and verbal memory in particular, are related to musical training. In the present article, we review this line of research and present newly collected data comparing trained musicians to non-musicians on a number of tasks that recruit verbal memory. The results showed an advantage for musicians' long-term verbal memory that disappeared when articulatory suppression was introduced. In addition, we found evidence for a greater verbal working memory span in musicians. Together, these results show that musical training may influence verbal working memory and long-term memory, and they suggest that these improved abilities are due to enhanced verbal rehearsal mechanisms in musicians.
ISSN:0305-7356
1741-3087
DOI:10.1177/0305735607086044