Time for a quick plug for the
section of my online talk “Science: How Not To Do It”, dealing with Colette’s point regarding causality.
Bob
From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Behalf Of Colette McKAY
Sent: 15 August 2020 07:58
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Papers on lack of effect of musical training
note that papers comparing musicians and non-musicians in cross-sectional studies cannot separate effects of music training and innate (genetic based)
characteristics.
Similarly, in those studies, correlations of effects with amount of music training or engagement in training cannot separate effects of training and
innate characteristics.
Longitudinal training studies with careful control of expectation bias and innate characteristics are the only valid way to see if the training itself is
being transferred to other cognitive or sensory domains. Unfortunately most of those studies have low quality research designs and the chance of finding an effect of music training is positively correlated with poor design (inappropriate or no control, no
randomisation, wrong statistics). e.g. Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2020). Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis.
Mem Cognit. doi:10.3758/s13421-020-01060-2 found null effect of
music training on cognitive outcomes when the correlation of effect size with quality of research design was partialled out of the analysis.
There is also a growing literature of genetic studies and twin studies that highlight the genetic differences between people with musical aptitude or
not. This link is largely ignored in "music training" studies
best,
Colette McKay
Professor Colette McKay
Principal Scientist
Leader, Translational Hearing Research
Bionics Institute
384-388 Albert St
East Melbourne Vic 3002
Office: +61 3 9667 7500
Direct line: +61 3 9667 7541
Mobile: 0408698202
Fax: +61 3 9667 7518
http://www.bionicsinstitute.org/our-staff/Pages/Prof-Colette-McKay.aspx
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From: Colette McKAY
Sent: 14 August 2020 15:01
To: Francesco Caprini; AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [AUDITORY] Papers on lack of effect of musical training
I suggest you have a look at the following meta-analysis re cognition.
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2020). Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis. Mem Cognit. doi:10.3758/s13421-020-01060-2
And this paper
Schellenberg, E. G. (2015). Music training and speech perception: a gene-environment interaction. Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1337, 170-177. doi:10.1111/nyas.12627
..and many papers that make claims unsubstantiated by their stats or research design.
Best regards,
Colette
Professor Colette McKay
Leader, Translational Hearing Research
Principal Scientist
Bionics Institute
384-388 Albert St
East Melbourne Vic 3002
Office: +61 3 9667 7500
Direct line: +61 3 9667 7541
Mobile: 0408698202
Fax: +61 3 9667 7518
http://www.bionicsinstitute.org/our-staff/Pages/Prof-Colette-McKay.aspx
A world leader in medical bionics
Donate today to help us change lives
This email is private and confidential to the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient please do not copy it, circulate it or
take any action in reliance on it. Kindly notify me that it has been misdirected and then delete it. Thank you.
From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception
[mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Francesco Caprini
Sent: Friday, 14 August 2020 2:28 AM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AUDITORY] Papers on lack of effect of musical training
Dear everyone,
I'm currently conducting a literature review on the transfer of musical expertise onto other domains of cognition, as part of a paper where I compare musicians with sound engineers across a number
of behavioural tasks, i.e. psychophysics, auditory scene analysis, sustained selective attention, and speech in noise perception.
I am specifically interested in papers that failed to detect an association between musicianship and any of these dimensions, which are surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?) very hard to find via
canonical search engines.
Would anyone know of any recent papers that might fit into this category?
I’m only aware of the mixed literature on speech in noise perception (see refs below).
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
Francesco
**References**
Ruggles, D. R., Freyman, R. L., & Oxenham, A. J. (2014). Influence of musical training on understanding voiced and whispered speech in noise. PLoS ONE, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086980
Boebinger, D., Evans, S., Rosen, S., Lima, C. F., Manly, T., & Scott, S. K. (2015). Musicians and non-musicians are equally adept at perceiving masked speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society
of America, 137(1), 378–387. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4904537
Fuller, C. D., Galvin, J. J., Maat, B., Free, R. H., & Başkent, D. (2014). The musician effect: Does it persist under degraded pitch conditions of cochlear implant simulations? Frontiers in Neuroscience,
8(8 JUN), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2014.00179
Skoe, E., Camera, S., & Tufts, J. (2019). Noise exposure may diminish the musician advantage for perceiving speech in noise. Ear and Hearing, 40(4), 782–793. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000665
Madsen, S. M. K., Whiteford, K. L., & Oxenham, A. J. (2017). Musicians do not benefit from differences in fundamental frequency when listening to speech in competing speech backgrounds. Scientific
Reports, 7(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12937-9
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Francesco Caprini
PhD student in Auditory Neuroscience
Birkbeck, University of London
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