TY - JOUR
T1 - Musical experience influences statistical learning of a novel language
AU - Shook, Anthony
AU - Marian, Viorica
AU - Bartolotti, James
AU - Schroeder, Scott R.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Musical experience may benefit learning of a new language by increasing the fidelity with which the auditory system encodes sound. In the current study, participants with varying degrees of musical experience were exposed to two statistically defined languages consisting of auditory Morse code sequences that varied in difficulty. We found an advantage for highly skilled musicians, relative to lower-skilled musicians, in learning novel Morse code-based words. Furthermore, in the more difficult learning condition, performance of lower-skilled musicians was mediated by their general cognitive abilities. We suggest that musical experience may improve processing of statistical information and that musicians' enhanced ability to learn statistical probabilities in a novel Morse code language may extend to natural language learning.
AB - Musical experience may benefit learning of a new language by increasing the fidelity with which the auditory system encodes sound. In the current study, participants with varying degrees of musical experience were exposed to two statistically defined languages consisting of auditory Morse code sequences that varied in difficulty. We found an advantage for highly skilled musicians, relative to lower-skilled musicians, in learning novel Morse code-based words. Furthermore, in the more difficult learning condition, performance of lower-skilled musicians was mediated by their general cognitive abilities. We suggest that musical experience may improve processing of statistical information and that musicians' enhanced ability to learn statistical probabilities in a novel Morse code language may extend to natural language learning.
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U2 - 10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.1.0095
DO - 10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.1.0095
M3 - Article
C2 - 23505962
AN - SCOPUS:84875772385
VL - 126
SP - 95
EP - 104
JO - American Journal of Psychology
JF - American Journal of Psychology
SN - 0002-9556
IS - 1
ER -