Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children.

2003/01/01 by Yim-Chi Ho, Mei‐chun Cheung, Agnes S. Chan · 6 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Neuroscience and Music Perception #Music Therapy and Health #EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces

paper · doi:10.1037/0894-4105.17.3.439

openalex publication_date 2003/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26

Abstract

The hypothesis that music training can improve verbal memory was tested in children. The results showed that children with music training demonstrated better verbal but not visual memory than did their counterparts without such training. When these children were followed up after a year, those who had begun or continued music training demonstrated significant verbal memory improvement. Students who discontinued the training did not show any improvement. Contrary to the differences in verbal memory between the groups, their changes in visual memory were not significantly different. Consistent with previous findings for adults (A. S. Chan, Y. Ho, & M. Cheung, 1998), the results suggest that music training systematically affects memory processing in accordance with possible neuroanatomical modifications in the left temporal lobe.

Citations

• Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language
• Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers

Cited by

• The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Aesthetics and the Arts
• Long-term positive associations between music lessons and IQ.
• Music Lessons Enhance IQ
• Investigating cognitive transfer within the framework of music practice: genetic pleiotropy rather than causality
• Childhood memory [wikipedia]
• Memory span [wikipedia]