Musical Training as a Continuum: Relationships of Short-Term Memory and Musical Aptitudes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction This study recruited participants from a range of music training experiences and focused on short-term memory tasks to examine the abilities of trained, informally trained, and those without any music training. Methods Musicianship was measured with the Goldsmith’s Musical Sophistication Index (GMSI). The GMSI is a survey regarding how music is involved in a participant’s daily life. Music training was assessed through the music training subscale of the GMSI, which included a question regarding the years of formal training an individual had received. In two objective measures of musical ability, participants completed the Computerized Adaptive Beat Alignment Test (CABAT) and the Melody Discrimination Test (MDT). The participants also completed an audio and audiovisual span task to measure short-term memory. A correlational analysis was run among the general score of the GMSI subjective task, the GMSI subscales, the span task scores, and the objective measures of musical ability. Lastly, a hierarchical regression was used to predict short-term memory abilities. Results Results of a partial correlation analysis, controlling for the music training subscale, showed that the melodic discrimination task was associated with short-term memory, however, rhythm scores were not. Discussion This study suggested that there is no distinct advantage of formal training over informal training when studying musicians’ memory performance. Future research can benefit from investigating the characteristics of the full sample of participants, and not treating those without formal training as a homogenous group, devoid of any musical abilities.