Cognition and music: a developmental perspective

这项研究的目标是考察(1)音乐课如何影响认知发展，以及(2)音乐认知如何在发展过程中发生变化。第一系列研究将考察音乐训练与认知发展之间的关系。我们知道，音乐课预示着智力的小幅但非常普遍的增长。这种联系似乎是有因果关系的，持续时间越长的课程预示着更大的好处。无论结果衡量标准是否涉及语言、数学或空间能力，这种关联都是显而易见的。它们在组成标准化智商测试的各种子测试和指数中也很明显。然而，这些发现并不排除这样一种可能性，即音乐课对一些潜在的处理机制(如执行功能、工作记忆)的影响比其他机制更大，并且这些机制对智力功能具有广泛的影响。为了检验这一假设，将使用相关方法对儿童和成人进行测试，以记录先前存在的关联。一项单独的儿童纵向实验将允许推断因果关系。测试将涉及一系列认知和知觉测试，以确定一项或多项测试的表现是否随着音乐训练的不同而不同。

The goals of the proposed research are to examine (1) how music lessons affect cognitive development, and (2) how music cognition changes over development. The first series of studies will examine how training in music is associated with cognitive development. We know that music lessons are predictive of small but very general increases in intellectual ability. The association appears to be causal, with longer duration of lessons predicting larger benefits. Such associations are evident whether the outcome measures involve verbal, mathematical, or spatial abilities. They are also evident across the various subtests and indexes that comprise standardized IQ tests. These findings do not exclude the possibility, however, that music lessons affect some underlying processing mechanisms (e.g., executive functioning, working memory) more than others, and that these mechanisms have broad effects on intellectual functioning. To examine this hypothesis, children and adults will be tested with correlational methods to document pre-existing associations. A separate longitudinal experiment with children will allow for inferences of causation. Testing will involve a battery of cognitive and perceptual tests to determine whether performance on one or more tests varies as a function of musical training.