title: Musical training, bilingualism, and executive function: a closer look at task switching and dual-task performance.
abstract: This study investigated whether musical training and bilingualism are associated with enhancements in specific components of executive function, namely, task switching and dual-task performance. Participants (n = 153) belonging to one of four groups (monolingual musician, bilingual musician, bilingual non-musician, or monolingual non-musician) were matched on age and socioeconomic status and administered task switching and dual-task paradigms. Results demonstrated reduced global and local switch costs in musicians compared with non-musicians, suggesting that musical training can contribute to increased efficiency in the ability to shift flexibly between mental sets. On dual-task performance, musicians also outperformed non-musicians. There was neither a cognitive advantage for bilinguals relative to monolinguals, nor an interaction between music and language to suggest additive effects of both types of experience. These findings demonstrate that long-term musical training is associated with improvements in task switching and dual-task performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University.|LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research, York University.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moradzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University.|LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research, York University.
authors.forename: Galit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blumenthal
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University.|LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research, York University.
authors.forename: Melody
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wiseheart
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009146:Music; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bilingualism; Dual-task performance; Executive function; Musical training; Task switching; Transfer of training