TY - JOUR
T1 - Musicians' edge
T2 - A comparison of auditory processing, cognitive abilities and statistical learning
AU - Mandikal Vasuki, Pragati Rao
AU - Sharma, Mridula
AU - Demuth, Katherine
AU - Arciuli, Joanne
PY - 2016/12
Y1 - 2016/12
N2 - It has been hypothesized that musical expertise is associated with enhanced auditory processing and cognitive abilities. Recent research has examined the relationship between musicians' advantage and implicit statistical learning skills. In the present study, we assessed a variety of auditory processing skills, cognitive processing skills, and statistical learning (auditory and visual forms) in age-matched musicians (N = 17) and non-musicians (N = 18). Musicians had significantly better performance than non-musicians on frequency discrimination, and backward digit span. A key finding was that musicians had better auditory, but not visual, statistical learning than non-musicians. Performance on the statistical learning tasks was not correlated with performance on auditory and cognitive measures. Musicians’ superior performance on auditory (but not visual) statistical learning suggests that musical expertise is associated with an enhanced ability to detect statistical regularities in auditory stimuli.
AB - It has been hypothesized that musical expertise is associated with enhanced auditory processing and cognitive abilities. Recent research has examined the relationship between musicians' advantage and implicit statistical learning skills. In the present study, we assessed a variety of auditory processing skills, cognitive processing skills, and statistical learning (auditory and visual forms) in age-matched musicians (N = 17) and non-musicians (N = 18). Musicians had significantly better performance than non-musicians on frequency discrimination, and backward digit span. A key finding was that musicians had better auditory, but not visual, statistical learning than non-musicians. Performance on the statistical learning tasks was not correlated with performance on auditory and cognitive measures. Musicians’ superior performance on auditory (but not visual) statistical learning suggests that musical expertise is associated with an enhanced ability to detect statistical regularities in auditory stimuli.
KW - Attention
KW - Auditory processing
KW - Digit span
KW - Musicians
KW - Statistical learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84996587712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/CE110001021
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/FL130100014
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/FT130101570
U2 - 10.1016/j.heares.2016.10.008
DO - 10.1016/j.heares.2016.10.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 27770623
AN - SCOPUS:84996587712
VL - 342
SP - 112
EP - 123
JO - Hearing Research
JF - Hearing Research
SN - 0378-5955
ER -