A behavioral study on tonal working memory in musicians and non-musicians
A behavioral study on tonal working memory in musicians and non-musicians
复制标题
音乐家和非音乐家音调工作记忆的行为研究
作者：
Yue Ding;Kathleen Gray;Alexander Forrence;Xiaoqin Wang;Juan Huang
音调工作记忆是指对音调信息的保持和在线操作，它涉及到与言语工作记忆不同的机制。以往的研究表明，言语工作记忆的表现取决于言语材料的时长而不是数量。在本研究中，我们调查了在何种程度上，在一个序列中的音符的数量和持续时间的影响，在有或没有专业的音乐训练的参与者的音调工作记忆。实验1的正向声调辨别任务考察声调信息的保持能力，实验2的反向N-背声调辨别任务考察声调信息的运行记忆广度。结果表明，音符的数量，但不是音符的持续时间在一个音调序列显着影响音调WM性能的音乐家和非音乐家。此外，在一个最低限度的音乐背景下，音乐家优于非音乐家在N-回音调任务，但不是向前的音调序列的歧视任务。这些发现表明，声调工作记忆的容量是由音符的数量决定的，而不是由音符在记忆序列中的持续时间决定的，这表明声调工作记忆与言语工作记忆有着不同的机制。此外，本研究还表明，N-背调任务是一个定量的和敏感的测量音乐训练对音调工作记忆的影响。
Tonal working memory (WM) refers to the maintenance and the online manipulation of tonal information and has been suggested to involve different mechanisms than verbal WM. Previous research has suggested that verbal WM performance is determined by the duration instead of the number of verbal materials. We investigated in the present study to what degree that the number and the duration of notes in a sequence influence the tonal WM in participants with or without professional musical training. The forward tonal discrimination task in Experiment 1 tested the maintenance of the tonal information and the backward N-back tonal task in Experiment 2 probed the running memory span of tonal information. Results show that the number of notes, but not the duration of notes in a tone sequence significantly affects tonal WM performance for both musicians and non-musicians. In addition, within a minimum musical context, musicians outperformed non-musicians in the N-back tonal task but not the forward tone sequence discrimination task. These findings indicate that the capacity of tonal WM is determined by the number of notes but not the duration of notes in a sequence to be memorized, suggesting a different mechanism underlying tonal WM from verbal WM. Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that N-back tonal task is a quantitative and sensitive measure of the effect of musical training on tonal WM.