In the journal Neuropsychologica, the researchers describe an experiment featuring 36 young adults. They were divided into four groups: Musicians who had accumulated at least 5,000 hours of practice; those who had clocked 2,000 to 5,000 hours; the lightweights (or newcomers to music) who had practiced for 200 to 2,000 hours; and non-musicians.
After answering a series of questions, all the participants took part in two standard cognitive tests: a Stroop task, in which they were asked to respond to words written in the color blue (even if the letters spelled out “red”); and a Simon task, in which they were instructed to respond with their right hand if they saw a red shape, and with their left hand if they saw a blue shape—even if the shapes popped up on the opposite side of the screen.
As they performed these tricky tasks, their brains were continuously monitored via EEG recording.
The results: People with more musical training responded faster than those with little or no training, with no loss in accuracy. “This result suggests that higher levels of musical training might result in more efficient information processing in general,” the researchers write.
Anyone have any critiques of this study? I would fit in the group of people who have over 5,000 hours of practice so I’m skeptical of any study that puts me in a good light :)
The researchers caution that they haven’t established “a causal link between musical activity and the effectiveness of frontal brain functions.” They concede it’s possible that people who generally perform well on cognitive tasks might be more likely to take up an instrument.
Or a separate gene or experience or background makes one attracted or likely to attempt both playing music and different cognition-sharpening tasks.
Also, the sample size was 36, split into four groups. That’s TINY!! 8-10 per group!
I checked out the original study, and saw a bunch of weird things. Most of the participants were female, many of them played different instruments, so who knows what difference gender or instrument made.
Also also, that test only measures an extremely specific type of thinking, which may not be linked to adeptness of other types of cognition.
The results seem completely plausible, but the study design seems pretty poor and the conclusions very shakily drawn.
On a somewhat related note, I read an article today claiming that playing music makes one a “sharper thinker”:
Anyone have any critiques of this study? I would fit in the group of people who have over 5,000 hours of practice so I’m skeptical of any study that puts me in a good light :)
From the article:
Or a separate gene or experience or background makes one attracted or likely to attempt both playing music and different cognition-sharpening tasks.
Also, the sample size was 36, split into four groups. That’s TINY!! 8-10 per group!
I checked out the original study, and saw a bunch of weird things. Most of the participants were female, many of them played different instruments, so who knows what difference gender or instrument made.
Also also, that test only measures an extremely specific type of thinking, which may not be linked to adeptness of other types of cognition.
The results seem completely plausible, but the study design seems pretty poor and the conclusions very shakily drawn.