Strings Versus Keys: A Comparison of Violinists, Pianists, and Nonmusicians in Lexical Tone Perception and Tone Word Learning.

Purpose: Correlational research has found that musicians outperform nonmusicians in lexical tone perception and tone word learning. In these studies, participants were dichotomized as either musicians or nonmusicians. However, musicianship is nonbinary, as different musical instruments have differen...

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Publicado en:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 68; no. 10; pp. 4889 - 4917
Autores principales: Katie Ling, Cheuk Lam, Choi, William
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Oct2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct2025
      vid: 68
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00133
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        atl: Strings Versus Keys: A Comparison of Violinists, Pianists, and Nonmusicians in Lexical Tone Perception and Tone Word Learning.
      aug:
        au:
          Katie Ling, Cheuk Lam
          Choi, William
        affil:
          Academic Unit of Human Communication, Learning, and Development, The University of Hong Kong
          Speech and Music Perception Laboratory, The University of Hong Kong
          Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education, The University of Hong Kong
      su:
        Music
        Performing arts
        Memory
        Psychosocial factors
        Cognition
        Statistical correlation
        Cronbach's alpha
        Data analysis
        Research funding
        Phonological awareness
        Logistic regression analysis
        Musical perception
        Transfer of training
        Descriptive statistics
        Thai people
        Research
        Statistics
        One-way analysis of variance
        Comparative studies
        Health outcome assessment
        Entertainers
        Musical pitch
      sug:
        subj:
          Music
          Performing arts
          Memory
          Psychosocial factors
          Cognition
          Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers
          Independent actors, comedians and performers
          Statistical correlation
          Cronbach's alpha
          Data analysis
          Research funding
          Phonological awareness
          Logistic regression analysis
          Musical perception
          Transfer of training
          Descriptive statistics
          Thai people
          Research
          Statistics
          One-way analysis of variance
          Comparative studies
          Health outcome assessment
          Entertainers
          Musical pitch
      ab: Purpose: Correlational research has found that musicians outperform nonmusicians in lexical tone perception and tone word learning. In these studies, participants were dichotomized as either musicians or nonmusicians. However, musicianship is nonbinary, as different musical instruments have different pitch processing demands. Examining different types of musicianship would enable a more comprehensive understanding of music-to-language transfer. The present study investigated whether violinists would outperform pianists and nonmusicians in discriminating and identifying Thai contour tones and, if so, whether the violinists' advantage in Thai contour tones would also apply to Thai tone word learnin g. Method: Eighty-one Cantonese violinists, pianists, and nonmusicians completed a Thai tone discrimination task, a Thai tone identification task, and seven sessions of tone word identification training. Participants also completed a working memory task, a nonverbal intelligence task, and an inhibitory control task. Results: In the Thai tone discrimination task, the violinists, pianists, and nonmusicians performed similarly. In the Thai tone identification task, the violinists and pianists performed similarly, but both groups outperformed the nonmusicians. In the Thai tone word learning task, both the violinists and the pianists outperformed the nonmusicians, with violinists demonstrating the largest musical advantage. Unexpectedly, the violinists' advantage applied to some but not all contour and level tones. Conclusions: The results indicated that music-to-language transfer in tone word learning hinges on the type of musical instrument. Theoretically, there is a need to introduce elements of higher level linguistic processing and selectivity into the Overlap, Precision, Emotion, Repetition, and Attention hypothesis. Practically, the study suggests the potential of violin training in facilitating nonnative tone word learning.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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