Abstract
Experienced listeners of a particular acoustic cue in either speech or music appear to have an advantage when perceiving a similar cue in the other domain (i.e., they exhibit cross-domain transfer). One explanation for cross-domain transfer relates to the acquisition of the foundations of speech and music: if acquiring pitch-based elements in speech or music results in heightened attention to pitch in general, then cross-domain transfer of pitch may be observed, which may explain the cross-domain phenomenon seen among listeners of a tone language and listeners with musical training. Here, we investigate this possibility in naïve adult learners, who were trained to acquire pitch-based elements using a distributional learning paradigm, to provide a proof-of-concept for the explanation. Learners were exposed to a stimulus distribution spanning either a Thai lexical tone minimal pair or a novel musical chord minimal pair. Within each domain, the distribution highlights pitch to facilitate learning of two different sounds (Bimodal distribution) or the distribution minimizes pitch so that the input is inferred to be from a single sound (Unimodal distribution). Learning was assessed before and after exposure to the distribution using discrimination tasks with both Thai tone and musical chord minimal pairs. We hypothesize: (i) distributional learning for learners in both the tone and the chord distributions, that is, pre-to-post improvement in discrimination after exposure to the Bimodal but not the Unimodal distribution; and (ii) for both the tone and chord conditions, learners in the Bimodal conditions but not those in the Unimodal conditions will show cross-domain transfer, as indexed by improvement in discrimination of test items in the domain other than what they were trained on. The results support both hypotheses, suggesting that distributional learning is not only used to acquire the foundations of speech and music, but may also play a role in cross-domain transfer: as a result of learning primitives based on a particular cue, learners show heightened attention to that cue in any auditory signal.
Highlights
Language and music are two human universals that share many commonalities
Comparison of the two distribution conditions’ Pretest scores revealed no significant difference [t(98) = 0.223, p = 0.824]. Both distribution conditions are similar in their pitch memory and in their perception of lexical tones and musical pitch; any differences between the two conditions at Posttest can be attributed to the training itself
Our results indicate that naïve learners show distributional learning of lexical tones and musical pitch, replicating our previous results (Ong et al, 2015, 2016)
Summary
Language and music are two human universals that share many commonalities. For instance, both consist of discrete elements which are organized in a hierarchical structure governed by rules or syntax (Patel, 2003): in language, phonemes are organized into syllables, which are organized into words and sentences; in music, notes are organized into chords, which comprise musicalCross-Domain Transfer and Distributional Learning phrases. Language and music are two human universals that share many commonalities. Both consist of discrete elements which are organized in a hierarchical structure governed by rules or syntax (Patel, 2003): in language, phonemes are organized into syllables, which are organized into words and sentences; in music, notes are organized into chords, which comprise musical. Spoken language (speech) and music rely on similar acoustic dimensions in their expression such as rhythm, pitch, intensity, and timbre— the relative importance of each dimension depends on the language or music system in question (Patel, 2008). Given the many commonalities between the two, the question arises whether having experience in one domain may be advantageous for perceiving and learning the other domain, that is, whether cross-domain transfer is possible. Since musicians generally have extensive training in perceiving, producing, and attending to musical pitch, it appears that they are able to transfer their expertise with musical pitch to perceive linguistic pitch
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