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. 2011 May 12:2:94.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00094. eCollection 2011.

Transfer of Training between Music and Speech: Common Processing, Attention, and Memory

Mireille Besson  1 , Julie Chobert, Céline Marie
Affiliations

Transfer of Training between Music and Speech: Common Processing, Attention, and Memory

Mireille Besson et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

After a brief historical perspective of the relationship between language and music, we review our work on transfer of training from music to speech that aimed at testing the general hypothesis that musicians should be more sensitive than non-musicians to speech sounds. In light of recent results in the literature, we argue that when long-term experience in one domain influences acoustic processing in the other domain, results can be interpreted as common acoustic processing. But when long-term experience in one domain influences the building-up of abstract and specific percepts in another domain, results are taken as evidence for transfer of training effects. Moreover, we also discuss the influence of attention and working memory on transfer effects and we highlight the usefulness of the event-related potentials method to disentangle the different processes that unfold in the course of music and speech perception. Finally, we give an overview of an on-going longitudinal project with children aimed at testing transfer effects from music to different levels and aspects of speech processing.

Keywords: active discrimination; attention; mismatch negativity; music training; passive listening; speech processing; transfer effects; working memory.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Difference-wave ERPs (different minus same final words) for the segmental (left) and tonal (right) sessions in musicians (dashed line) and non-musicians (soAlid line). (B) Percentage of errors for musicians (gray) and non-musicians (black) in the segmental and the tonal sessions and in the two experimental conditions (same and different words, with error bars). Adapted from Marie et al. (in press a).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Mismatch negativity (MMN) in Finn non-musicians, French musicians, and French non-musicians passively listening to large and small duration and frequency deviants in harmonic sounds. The MMN to duration deviants was larger in Finn and in French musicians than in French non-musicians. However, only the French musicians showed an enhanced MMN to small frequency deviants. Thus, linguistic and musical expertise similarly influenced the pre-attentive processing of duration but not of frequency deviants. (B) The percentage of errors to small duration and frequency deviants in the active discrimination task was lower for French musicians and Finn non-musicians than for French non-musicians. When attention is focused on the harmonic sounds, Finn non-musicians detected both Small Duration and Frequency deviants better than French non-musicians thereby showing a dissociation between the passive and active listening conditions for the frequency deviants. Adapted from Marie et al. (in press b).
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited in musician and non-musician children (8 years old) passively listening to large and small duration deviants in speech sounds. In both cases, the MMN was larger in musician than in non-musician children thereby showing an influence of musical expertise on the pre-attentive processing of the duration of speech sounds. (B) Percentage of errors (%err) and reaction times (RTs) to duration deviants (collapsed across large and small deviants) in the active discrimination task. Percentage of errors was lower and RTs were shorter for musician than for non-musician children. Thus, the active processing of the duration of speech sound is also enhanced in musician compared to non-musician children. Adapted from Chobert et al., accepted.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited in musician and non-musician children (8 years old) passively listening to large and small deviants in voice onset time (VOT). The MMN was larger to large than to small VOT deviants only in musician children. The finding of no difference for large and for small VOT deviants in non-musician children suggests that they did not pre-attentively hear the difference between large and small VOT deviants. (B) Percentage of errors (%err) and reaction times (RTs) to VOT deviants (collapsed across large and small deviants) in the active discrimination task. No difference between musician and non-musician children were found on %err but, as found for MMN amplitude, the deviant size effect was significant on RTs for musician children with shorter RTs to large than to short deviants and with no difference for non-musician children. Adapted from Chobert et al., accepted.
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