Music to my mouth: Evidence of domain general rate priming in adults and children

Abstract

Will listening to music on the radio change the way you or your children speak? Comparisons are often drawn between the domains of music and language. Temporal processing is one general mechanism that influences both domains; however, a cross-domain influence of rate priming has not yet been established between music and speech. The current research examines if the timing in one modality (music) affects the production timing in a different modality (language) for both adults (Experiment 1) and preschool children (Experiment 2). Participants listened to short unfamiliar musical melodies presented at either a fast or slow rate, and then described pictures aloud. Results demonstrate that both adults’ and children’s language production was influenced by the timing of the music domain; faster musical primes led to faster speech production. These findings support domain general temporal processing since musical timing affects linguistic timing even when the music has no linguistic component.