Tierney, Bergeson-Dana, and Pisoni (2008) conclude that their results “provide 
additional converging evidence that early musical experience and activity-dependent learning may 
selectively affect verbal rehearsal processes and the allocation of attention in sequence memory tasks”. 
Closer inspection of their methods and results, the methods and results of previous studies that reported 
similar findings and the literature as a whole makes it clear that these conclusions are unfounded

Schellenberg, E. Glenn

Empirical Musicology Review

E. Glenn Schellenberg

Crossref

Commentary on "Effects of Early Musical Experience on Auditory Sequence Memory" by Adam Tierney, Tonya Bergeson-Dana, and David Pisoni

Tierney, Bergeson-Dana, and Pisoni (2008) conclude that their results “provide additional converging evidence that early musical experience and activity-dependent learning may selectively affect verbal rehearsal processes and the allocation of attention in sequence memory tasks”. Closer inspection of their methods and results, the methods and results of previous studies that reported similar findings and the literature as a whole makes it clear that these conclusions are unfounded

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Empirical Musicology Review Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008Commentary on “Effects of Early Musical Experience on Auditory Sequence Memory” by Adam Tierney, Tonya Bergeson, and David PisoniE. GLENN SCHELLENBERGUniversity of TorontoABSTRACT:  Tierney,  Bergeson,  and  Pisoni  (2008)  conclude  that  their  results  “provide  additional converging  evidence  that  early  musical  experience  and  activity-dependent  learning  may selectively affect  verbal  rehearsal  processes  and the allocation of attention in sequence memory  tasks”.  Closer inspection of their methods and results, the methods and results of previous studies, and the literature as a whole makes it clear that these conclusions are unfounded.Submitted 2008 September 16; accepted 2008 September 24.OVER the past 15 years, much empirical research has been motivated by the hypothesis that formal training in music has nonmusical cognitive benefits. It is now well established (for reviews see Schellenberg, 2005, 2006a) that  taking  music  lessons  is  associated  positively  with  performance  on  tasks  that  measure  abilities  in  the domains of language (e.g.,  Marques, Moreno, Castro, & Besson, 2007;  Moreno et al., 2008; Patel & Iversen, 2007),  spatial  reasoning  (Hetland,  2000),  mathematics  (Vaughn,  2000),  memory  (e.g.,  Jakobson,  Lewycky, Kilgour, & Stoesz, 2008; Lee, Lu, & Ko, 2007), full-scale IQ (FSIQ; Schellenberg, 2004, 2006b), and virtually any other domain one chooses to study (e.g., Hughes & Franz, 2007; Stoesz, Jakobson, Kilgour, & Lewycky, 2007). The simplest explanation of the available data is that children with high FSIQs are more likely than other children to take music lessons and to do well on any test they are given (Schellenberg, 2006b). Nonetheless, many  scholars,  including  Tierney,  Bergeson,  and  Pisoni  (2008)  and  most  of  those  cited above,  continue  to promote the notion of links between music training and specific sub-areas of intellectual functioning, which is tantamount to failing to see the forest (i.e., the big picture) for the trees (i.e., minor details; see Schellenberg & Peretz, 2008).In order  to conclude  that  there  are  special  links  between music lessons  and  cognitive  abilities  that cannot be attributed to FSIQ, researchers need to provide evidence that such links are evident when FSIQ is held constant.  To  date,  there  is  not  a  single  example  of  this  result  in  the  literature.  Rather,  in some  instances,  researchers  provide  evidence  that  music  and  nonmusic  groups  differ  on the “specific”  outcome  variable  of interest while holding constant an additional variable that has a modest association with FSIQ. As an illustrative example,  Jakobson  et  al.  (2008)  and  Stoesz  et  al.  (2007)  reported  that  musically  trained  participants outperformed  their  untrained  counterparts  on  nonmusical  cognitive  abilities,  including  verbal  memory (Jakobson et al., 2008), even after holding constant performance on a test that required participants to pronounce irregularly spelled words (e.g., cello, debt, epitome). High-FSIQ individuals would undoubtedly score well on this pronunciation test, as they do on virtually every test (Deary, 2000), but it is equally obvious that a test of pronunciation is a poor substitute for a test of FSIQ. The availability of relatively quick-to-administer measures that correlate strongly with FSIQ (e.g., Wonderlic Personnel Test, Wonderlic, 1999; Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004), make the authors’ choice of this control variable curious, to say the least.An  alternative  strategy,  such  as  the  one  taken  by  Tierney  et  al.  (2008),  attempts  to  show  that associations with music lessons are evident on one task but not on another. The particular additional test used by Tierney et al. was a self-report measure of word familiarity, which has untested reliability, almost no evidence of  validity  (except  for  Stallings,  Kirk,  Chin,  &  Gao,  2000),  and  no  established  association  with  FSIQ. Nevertheless, even if the test were indeed a reliable and valid substitute for FSIQ, one can never prove the null hypothesis if groups fail to differ significantly. Indeed, a glance at Tierney et al.’s Fig. 2 (i.e., with the music group performing best on each of the three word-familiarity categories) suggests that with a modest increase in sample size and statistical  power, the music group would have outperformed the three nonmusic groups.  An even more egregious example of this approach came from Chan, Ho, and Cheung (1998), who, like Tierney et al.,  reported that  musically trained individuals have  better  verbal  memory  than their untrained counterparts. Their groups also differed in years of education, a finding that was swept under the rug by lowering the alpha-level to .01. At a more typical  level of .05, the authors could have concluded only that better-educated (and higher-IQ) individuals are (1) more likely to take music lessons and (2) superior on a test of verbal memory. In general, the observed alpha-value should be extremely high (i.e., > .5, not simply > .05 or > .01) before one can 205Empirical Musicology Review Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008predict  with any confidence  that,  even if the groups do indeed differ in their respective  populations,  such a difference is almost certain to be trivial (see Schellenberg & Trehub, 2008).Tierney et al. (2008) also imply that their results provide support for the proposal that music lessons cause improvements in verbal memory, which could not be further from the truth. As they note, there is only one study to date (i.e., with random assignment and appropriate control conditions) that allowed for inferences of  causation  between  music  and  cognitive  abilities  (Schellenberg  2004).  But  Schellenberg’s  results  do  not preclude the extremely likely possibility that causation typically goes in the reverse direction (from FSIQ to music lessons). Tierney et al. further imply that correlational studies and quasi-experiments differ with respect to causal  inferences,  which  again is completely  false.  Neither  design has  random assignment  to the IV nor allows  for  inferences  of  causation.  Finally,  merely  citing  evidence  of  brain  differences  between  musically trained and untrained participants—as in Tierney et al. and many other reports—does nothing to settle the issue of  causation.  Admittedly,  the  positive  association  between  years  of  exposure  and  the  extent  of  cortical representations for the left hand of string players (Elbert, Pantev, Wienbuch, Rockstroh, & Taub, 1995) suggests quite strongly—but not unequivocally—that experience is shaping brain structure and function, but examples this clear are exceptions  in the literature.  If  pre-existing individual  differences in cognitive ability affect  the likelihood  of  taking  music lessons  or  acquiring  absolute  pitch  (e.g.,  Schlaug,  Jäncke,  Huang,  & Steinmetz, 2005), as I propose, such differences must be instantiated somewhere in the brain.On a more positive note, Tierney et al. (2008) included comparison groups (gymnasts, video gamers) that  can be thought  of  as matched to musically  trained  participants,  at  least  on some  levels (e.g.,  intensive experience and practice, motor skills). Unfortunately, the groups are unlikely to be matched on FSIQ. In short, the evidence provided by Tierney et al. does  not  support  the proposal  that  taking music lessons enhances  a specific sub-area of cognitive ability.REFERENCESDeary, I. J. (2001). Intelligence: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Elbert, T., Pantev, C., Wienbruch, C., Rockstroh, B., & Taub, E. (1995). Increased cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players. Science, Vol. 270, 305-307.Hetland, L. (2000). Learning to make music enhances spatial reasoning. Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 34, No. 3/4, 179-238.Hughes, C. M. L, & Franz, E. A. (2007). Experience-dependent effects in unimanual and bimanual reaction time tasks in musicians. Journal of Motor Behavior, Vol. 39, 3-8.Jakobson, L. S., Lewycky, S. T., Kilgour, A. R., & Stoesz, B. M. (2008). Memory for verbal and visual material  in highly trained musicians. Music Perception, Vol. 26, 41-55.Kaufman,  A.  S.,  &  Kaufman,  N.  L.  (2004).  Kaufman brief  intelligence  test (2nd  ed.).  Circle  Pines,  MN: American Guidance Service.Lee,  Y.,  Lu,  M.,  &  Ko,  H.  (2007).  Effects  of  skill  training  on  working  memory  capacity.  Learning  and Instruction, Vol. 17, 336-344.Marques,  C., Moreno,  S.,  Castro,  S.  L. & Besson,  M. (2007).  Musicians  detect  pitch violation in a foreign language  better  than  nonmusicians:  Behavioral  and  electrophysiological  evidence.  Journal  of  Cognitive  Neuroscience, Vol. 19, 1453-1463.Moreno,  S.,  Marques,  C.,  Santos,  A.,  Santos,  M.,  Luís  Castro,  S.,  & Besson,  M.  (2008).  Musical  training influences  linguistic  abilities  in 8-year-old children:  More  evidence  for  brain plasticity.  Cerebral Cortex,  in press.Patel, A. D., & Iversen, J. R. (2007). The linguistic benefits of musical abilities. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,  Vol. 11, 369-372.Schellenberg, E. G. (2004). Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological Science, Vol. 15, 511-514.206Empirical Musicology Review Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008Schellenberg, E. G. (2005). Music and cognitive abilities. Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 14, 322-325.Schellenberg, E. G. (2006a). Exposure to music: The truth about the consequences. In G. E. McPherson (Ed.), The child as musician: A handbook of musical development (pp. 111-134). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Schellenberg,  E.  G.  (2006b).  Long-term  positive  associations  between  music  lessons  and  IQ.  Journal  of  Educational Psychology, Vol. 98, 457-468.Schellenberg, E. G., & Peretz, I. (2008). Music, language, and cognition: Unresolved issues. Trends in Cognitive  Sciences, Vol. 12, 45-46.Schellenberg, E. G., & Trehub, S. E. (2008). Is there an Asian advantage for pitch memory? Music Perception,  Vol. 25, 241-252.Schlaug, G., Jäncke, L., Huang, Y., & Steinmetz, H. (2005). In vivo evidence of structural brain asymmetry in musicians. Science, Vol. 267, 699-701.Stallings,  L.  M,  Kirk,  K.  I.,  Chin,  S.  B.,  &  Gao,  S.  (2000).  Parent  word  familiarity  and  the  language development of pediatric cochlear implant users. Volta Review, Vol. 102, 237-258.Stoesz,  B.  M.,  Jakobson,  L.  J.,  Kilgour,  A.  R.,  & Lewycky,  S.  T.  (2007).  Local  processing  advantage  in musicians: Evidence from disembedding and constructional tasks. Music Perception, Vol. 25, 153-165.Vaughn,  K.  (2000).  Music  and  mathematics:  Modest  support  for  the  oft-claimed  relationship.  Journal  of  Aesthetic Education, Vol. 34, No. 3/4, 149-166.Wonderlic, E. (1999). Wonderlic personnel test and scholastic level exam, user's manual. Libertyville, IL: Wonderlic, Inc.207

Commentary on "Effects of Early Musical Experience on Auditory Sequence Memory" by Adam Tierney, Tonya Bergeson-Dana, and David Pisoni

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