Musicianship Influences Language Effect on Musical Pitch Perception

William Choi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712753

Abstract

Given its practical implications, the effect of musicianship on language learning has been vastly researched. Interestingly, growing evidence also suggests that language experience can facilitate music perception. However, the precise nature of this facilitation is not fully understood. To address this research gap, I investigated the interactive effect of language and musicianship on musical pitch and rhythmic perception. Cantonese and English listeners, each divided into musician and non-musician groups, completed the Musical Ear Test and the Raven’s 2 Progressive Matrices. Essentially, an interactive effect of language and musicianship was found on musical pitch but not rhythmic perception. Consistent with previous studies, Cantonese language experience appeared to facilitate musical pitch perception. However, this facilitatory effect was only present among the non-musicians. Among the musicians, Cantonese language experience did not offer any perceptual advantage. The above findings reflect that musicianship influences the effect of language on musical pitch perception. Together with the previous findings, the new findings offer two theoretical implications for the OPERA hypothesis—bi-directionality and mechanisms through which language experience and musicianship interact in different domains.

Highlights

Long-term musical experience facilitates speech perception (Pfordresher and Brown, 2009; Bidelman et al, 2010)
To broaden the OPERA hypothesis, the current study examined the interactive effects of musicianship and language experience on musical pitch and rhythmic perception
To broaden the OPERA hypothesis, the present study examined the interactive effects of language experience and musicianship on music perception

Summary

Introduction

Long-term musical experience facilitates speech perception (Pfordresher and Brown, 2009; Bidelman et al, 2010). This effect, known as music-to-language transfer, largely undergirds theoretical models of cross-domain plasticity (Patel, 2011, 2012, 2014; Krishnan et al, 2012). There is emerging evidence of language-to-music transfer (Bidelman et al, 2013; Chen et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2020) These studies generally showed that tone language experience enhanced musical pitch perception among non-musicians. These novel findings could not situate well in the OPERA hypothesis as it was designed for music-to-language transfer.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion