Musical perception skills predict speech imitation skills: differences between speakers of tone and intonation languages

Abstract The ability to imitate speech is linked to individual cognitive abilities such as working memory and the auditory processing of music. However, little research has focused on the role of specific components of musical perception aptitude in relation to an individual’s native language from a crosslinguistic perspective. This study explores the predictive role of four components of musical perception skills and working memory on phonetic language abilities for speakers of two typologically different languages, Catalan (an intonation language) and Chinese (a tone language). Sixty-one Catalan and 144 Chinese participants completed four subtests (accent, melody, pitch and rhythm) of the Profile of Music Perception Skills, a forward digit span task and a speech imitation task. The results showed that for both groups of participants, musical perception skills predicted speech imitation accuracy but working memory did not. Importantly, among the components of musical perception skills, accent was the only predictive factor for Chinese speakers, whereas melody was the only predictive factor for Catalan speakers. These findings suggest that speech imitation ability is predicted by musical perception skills rather than working memory and that the predictive role of specific musical components may depend on the phonological properties of the native language.