Music, cognition, and cognitive development

拟议的研究扩展了NSERC资助的两个独立的研究流，这些研究已经在我的实验室进行了几年。这两个流旨在提高我们对音乐和认知的理解。一种是检查音乐记忆：听众记住了什么细节，什么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（年龄的增长和非正式接触）和正式接触音乐（音乐课程）而变化。另一个流检查音乐能力如何与非音乐认知能力相关联，包括语言能力和一般认知功能（IQ）。 音乐认知是认知科学家特别感兴趣的研究领域，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，由其组成音高和音长之间的关系定义，而表面层次包括基调（音高），克里思（速度）和音色（乐器）。表面层次的变化不会改变曲调，几乎每个人都能认出一个熟悉的曲调，以一个新的基调，克里思和/或音色呈现。虽然音乐的心理表征曾经被认为是由完全相关的信息组成的，但很明显，表面特征也被记住了。 拟议的实验将检查记忆以前不熟悉的曲调（单声道音调序列）。基本的方法包括一个曝光阶段，包括一组曲调，然后是一个测试阶段，包括相同的（旧的）曲调加上相等数量的新曲调。参与者评估他们在暴露阶段听到曲调的自信程度。一些旧的曲调在音高、克里思和/或音色上有不同程度的变化，但参与者通常被指示忽略这些变化。暴露和测试阶段（10分钟，1天，1周）之间的延迟是受试者之间的变量，年龄和音乐训练也是如此。对新旧曲调的识别率的比较评估了听者对相关信息的记忆。旧的相同和旧的不同的比较（例如，加速）的曲调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内存中。基于年龄和音乐训练的比较揭示了表面和关系线索的权重作为非正式和正式接触音乐的函数的变化。其他的互动研究是否听众代表表面特征联合或添加在记忆中，以及这些过程是否改变作为一个函数的暴露于音乐。 音乐能力和非音乐能力之间的关联问题是关于智力本质（g、模块性或多元智能）的理论的核心，也是关于音乐能力和认知功能的特定方面（如语言技能）之间特殊联系的假设的核心。音乐能力根据以下因素而变化：（1）由于正规训练、练习和表演而产生的专业知识，以及（2）没有受过正规训练的个人之间的天资或个体差异。这项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）有关，以及音乐和语言能力之间是否存在特殊联系。音乐能力被认为可以预测智商。音乐和语言能力（智商保持不变）之间的部分关联也是预期的，突出了音乐和语言能力之间的实质性关系。 这一研究有助于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差的人的问题的干预措施提供信息。

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.