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Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
Published on: September 20, 2020
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Musical training mediates the relation between working memory capacity and preference for musical complexity.
Dominique T Vuvan1, Ethan Simon2, David John Baker3
1Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA. dvuvan@skidmore.edu.
Memory & Cognition
|March 21, 2020
Summary
Musical training influences aesthetic preferences for music complexity by affecting working memory capacity. This finding highlights how complex skills training impacts cognition and emotion, with implications for understanding domain-general cognitive functions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Music Psychology
- Aesthetics
Background:
- Prior research explored links between cognitive variables and musical training.
- Less attention has been given to musical training's effects on aesthetic preferences and working memory's role.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between musical training, working memory capacity, and preference for musical complexity.
- To determine if musical training mediates the link between working memory and aesthetic preference.
Main Methods:
- Assessed participants on musical training experience, working memory capacity (using tone, operation, or symmetry span), and preference for musical complexity.
- Employed statistical analyses to examine mediation effects, controlling for sociodemographic variables.
Main Results:
- Musical training significantly mediated the association between working memory capacity and preference for musical complexity.
- This mediation effect remained significant across different measures of working memory capacity and after accounting for sociodemographic factors.
Conclusions:
- The study develops a model of aesthetic preference, highlighting differences between auditory and visual domains in skill training's cognitive and affective effects.
- Findings underscore the domain-general nature of working memory capacity and its interaction with domain-specific cognition in shaping aesthetic judgments.
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