Music, cognition, and cognitive development

音乐、认知和认知发展

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-04131
• 负责人: Schellenberg, EGlenn
• 金额: $ 2.48万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=664444
• 关键词: Music; cognition; cognitive; development

The proposed studies extend two separate streams of NSERC-funded research that have been conducted in my lab for several years. Both streams aim to improve our understanding of music and cognition. One examines memory for music: what details listeners remember, what factors make music more memorable, and how the process of perceiving and remembering music changes as a function of enculturation (increasing age and informal exposure) and formal exposure to music (music lessons). The other stream examines how musical abilities are associated with nonmusical cognitive abilities, including language abilities and general cognitive functioning (IQ).**Music cognition is an especially interesting area of study for cognitive scientists because music, like language, has surface and abstract features that can vary independently. The abstract level of music is the tune, defined by relations among its component pitches and tone durations, whereas the surface level includes the key (pitch level), tempo (speed), and timbre (musical instrument). Changes in the surface level do not change the tune, and virtually everyone can recognize a familiar tune presented in a novel key, tempo, and/or timbre. Although mental representations of music were once thought to consist of information that is entirely relational, it has become clear that surface features are also remembered. **The proposed experiments will examine memory for previously unfamiliar tunes (monophonic tone sequences). The basic method involves an exposure phase that includes a set of tunes, followed by a test phase that includes the same (old) tunes plus an equal number of new tunes. Participants rate how confident they are that they heard the tune in the exposure phase. Some of the old tunes are changed to varying degrees in pitch, tempo, and/or timbre, but participants are typically instructed to ignore such changes. The delay between exposure and test phases (10 min, 1 day, 1 week) is a between-subjects variable, as are age and music training. Comparisons of recognition ratings for old and new tunes assess listeners' memory for relational information. Comparisons of old-same and old-different (e.g., sped up) tunes indicate whether changes in surface features reduce recognition accuracy, implying that such features are also stored in memory. Comparisons based on age and music training reveal changes in the weighting of surface and relational cues as a function of informal and formal exposure to music. Other interactions examine whether listeners represent surface features jointly or additively in memory, and whether these processes change as a function of exposure to music.**The issue of associations between musical and nonmusical abilities is central to theories about the nature of intelligence (g, modularity, or multiple intelligences), and to hypotheses of special links between musical abilities and specific aspects of cognitive functioning, such as language skills. Musical abilities vary according to (1) expertise due to formal training, practice, and performing, and (2) aptitude, or individual differences among individuals with no formal training. The proposed studies will test whether both types of musical abilities are associated with general cognitive abilities (IQ), and whether there is a special association between musical and language abilities. Musical abilities are expected to be predictive of IQ. Partial associations between musical and language abilities (with IQ held constant) are also expected, highlighting substantive relations between musical and language abilities.**The research will enhance our understanding of the structure of mental abilities. It could also inform interventions designed to ameliorate problems among individuals with poor language abilities.

拟议的研究扩展了 NSERC 资助的两个独立研究领域，这些研究领域已在我的实验室进行了数年。这两个流派都旨在提高我们对音乐和认知的理解。其中一项研究检查音乐记忆：听众记住哪些细节，哪些因素使音乐更令人难忘，以及感知和记忆音乐的过程如何随着文化适应（年龄增长和非正式接触）和正式音乐接触（音乐课程）而变化。另一个流派研究音乐能力如何与非音乐认知能力相关，包括语言能力和一般认知功能（IQ）。**音乐认知对于认知科学家来说是一个特别有趣的研究领域，因为音乐和语言一样，具有可以独立变化的表面和抽象特征。音乐的抽象层次是曲调，由其组成音高和音调持续时间之间的关系定义，而表面层次包括调（音高）、节奏（速度）和音色（乐器）。表面水平的变化不会改变曲调，几乎每个人都可以识别出以新颖的调、节奏和/或音色呈现的熟悉曲调。尽管音乐的心理表征曾经被认为是由完全相关的信息组成，但很明显，表面特征也能被记住。 **拟议的实验将检查对以前不熟悉的曲调（单音调序列）的记忆。基本方法涉及包括一组乐曲的曝光阶段，然后是包括相同（旧）乐曲和相同数量的新乐曲的测试阶段。参与者评价他们在接触阶段听到曲调的信心。一些旧曲调在音高、节奏和/或音色上进行了不同程度的改变，但参与者通常被指示忽略这些变化。暴露和测试阶段之间的延迟（10 分钟、1 天、1 周）是受试者之间的变量，年龄和音乐训练也是如此。新旧曲调的识别率比较可以评估听众对相关信息的记忆。旧的相同和旧的不同（例如，加速）调谐的比较表明表面特征的变化是否降低了识别准确性，这意味着这些特征也存储在存储器中。基于年龄和音乐训练的比较揭示了表面和关系线索权重的变化，作为非正式和正式接触音乐的函数。其他交互则检查听者在记忆中是否共同或相加地表示表面特征，以及这些过程是否随着接触音乐的函数而变化。**音乐和非音乐能力之间的关联问题是关于智力本质（例如，模块化或多元智能）的理论的核心，也是音乐能力和认知功能的特定方面（例如语言技能）之间特殊联系的假设的核心。音乐能力因以下因素而异：(1) 由于正规训练、练习和表演而产生的专业知识；(2) 能力，或未经正规训练的个体之间的个体差异。拟议的研究将测试这两种类型的音乐能力是否与一般认知能力（IQ）相关，以及音乐和语言能力之间是否存在特殊关联。音乐能力预计可以预测智商。音乐和语言能力之间的部分关联（智商保持不变）也是预期的，突出了音乐和语言能力之间的实质性关系。**这项研究将增强我们对心理能力结构的理解。它还可以为旨在改善语言能力较差的人的问题的干预措施提供信息。