title: Musical experience influences statistical learning of a novel language.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. a-shook@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shook
authors.forename: Viorica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marian
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bartolotti
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Schroeder
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception; D032882:Comprehension; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D019303:Multilingualism; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014888:Wechsler Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult