Music, cognition, and cognitive development

拟议的研究扩展了NSERC资助的两个不同的研究流，这两个流已经在我的实验室进行了几年。这两个流派都旨在提高我们对音乐和认知的理解。其中一项研究考察了音乐的记忆：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是如何作为文化(年龄增加和非正式接触)和正式接触音乐(音乐课)的函数而变化的。另一个流派考察了音乐能力与非音乐认知能力，包括语言能力和一般认知功能(IQ)之间的关联。 对于认知科学家来说，音乐认知是一个特别有趣的研究领域，因为音乐和语言一样，具有表面和抽象的特征，可以独立变化。音乐的抽象层次是由其组成音高和音长之间的关系定义的曲调，而表面层次包括基调(音高)、速度(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奇的基调、节奏和/或音色呈现的熟悉的曲调。虽然音乐的心理表征一度被认为是由完全相关的信息组成的，但很明显，表面特征也可以被记住。 这项拟议的实验将检验人们对以前不熟悉的曲调(单音音调序列)的记忆。基本方法包括曝光阶段，包括一组曲调，然后是测试阶段，包括相同的(旧的)曲调加上相同数量的新曲调。参与者对他们在曝光阶段听到曲调的信心程度进行了评分。一些旧曲调在音高、节奏和/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一个变量，年龄和音乐训练也是如此。比较新旧曲调的识别率，可以评估听众对关系信息的记忆。旧-相同和旧-不同(例如，加速)曲调的比较表明表面特征的变化是否降低了识别精度，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显示，表层线索和关系线索的权重随着非正式和正式的音乐接触而发生变化。其他交互作用则考察听者是否在记忆中共同或相加地代表表面特征，以及这些过程是否随着音乐的影响而改变。 音乐能力和非音乐能力之间的关联问题是智力本质(g、模块化或多元智能)理论的核心，也是关于音乐能力与认知功能的特定方面(如语言技能)之间特殊联系的假说的核心。音乐能力的不同取决于(1)由于正规训练、练习和表演而产生的专业知识，以及(2)未经正规培训的个人的能力或个人差异。这项拟议的研究将测试这两种音乐能力是否与一般认知能力(IQ)有关，以及音乐能力和语言能力之间是否存在特殊的联系。音乐能力被认为是智商的预测值。音乐能力和语言能力之间的部分联系(智商保持不变)也是预期的，这突显了音乐能力和语言能力之间的实质性关系。 这项研究将加深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低下个人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.