Associations between musical expertise and auditory processing.

Abstract

Many studies have linked musical expertise with nonmusical abilities such as speech perception, memory, or executive functions. Far fewer have examined associations with basic auditory skills. Here, we asked whether psychoacoustic thresholds predict four aspects of musical expertise: music training, melody perception, rhythm perception, and self-reported musical abilities and behaviors (other than training). A total of 138 participants completed nine psychoacoustic tasks, as well as the Musical Ear Test (melody and rhythm subtests) and the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index. We also measured and controlled for demographics, general cognitive abilities, and personality traits. The psychoacoustic tasks assessed discrimination thresholds for pitch and temporal perception (both assessed with three tasks), and for timbre, intensity, and backward masking (each assessed with one task). Both music training and melody perception predicted better performance on the pitch-discrimination tasks. Rhythm perception was associated with better performance on several temporal and nontemporal tasks, although none had unique associations when the others were held constant. Self-reported musical abilities and behaviors were associated with performance on one of the temporal tasks: duration discrimination. The findings indicate that basic auditory skills correlate with individual differences in musical expertise, whether expertise is defined as music training or musical ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).