Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 15, 2025

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
The role of musical aspects of language in human cognition
1Department of Humanities, Academy of Humanities and Economics in Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
Abstract:
This paper reviews musicology, linguistics, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience research on the importance of music in developing human speech and cognition. It cites research from several scientific fields on how the brain processes and reacts to melody, rhythm, harmony, loudness, dynamics and types of articulation and timbre. It also discusses musical concepts and prosodic features such as intonation, rhythm and stress related to linguistic terminology and summarises results of earlier research on how the two systems interact to strengthen or weaken an individual's ability to function without nurturing stimulation. Music is an important preventive and therapeutic factor for human life. The author describes the interplay between music and language in the nervous system, improving or hindering communication and how it affects us personally and impacts societal mental health.
Related Concept Videos
Language and Cognition
Language
Corballis and Suddendorf (2007) and Tomasello and Rakoczy (2003) highlight the role of language in...
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process...
Lateralization
Components of Language

