Effects of Temporal Sequencing and Auditory Discrimination on Children's Memory Patterns for Tones,Numbers,and Nonsense Words

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children's recall of tones, numbers, and words was supported by a common temporal sequencing mechanism; whether children's patterns of memory for tones, numbers, and nonsense words were the same despite differences in symbol systems; and whether children's recall of tones, numbers, and nonsense words was related to their aural discrimination ability. Participants ( N = 74) were children enrolled in grades 1 through 3, drawn from an urban magnet school. On the basis of U-shaped performance profiles, the authors concluded that a common temporal sequencing mechanism may undergird children's recall of tones and nonsense words; thus, these domains may be linked at some basic level. Based on intraclass correlations that compared children's patterns of memory for tones, numbers, and nonsense words, the authors found that children's memory for information varied by symbol system and according to the characteristics of patterns within each symbol system. Finally, they found that aural discrimination skill contributed to children's recall despite differences in symbol systems.

Keywords

temporal sequencing mechanism working memory aural discrimination

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anvari, S. , Trainor, L. , Woodside, J. , & Levy, B. (2002). Relations among musical skills, phonological processing, and early reading ability in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 83, 111-130.

Bradley, L. , & Bryant, P. (1978). Difficulties in auditory organisation as a possible cause of reading backwardness. Nature, 271, 746-747.

Bradley, L. , & Bryant, P. (1983). Categorizing sounds and learning to read-A causal connection. Nature, 301, 419-421.

Chan, A. , Ho, Y. , & Cheung, M. (1998). Music training improves verbal memory. Nature, 396, 128.

Douglas, K. , & Bilkey, D. (2007). Amusia is associated with deficits in spatial processing. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 915-921.

Good, R. , Gruba, J. , & Kaminski, R. (2002). Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills . Eugene: University of Oregon.

Gordon, E. (1986). Primary Measures of Music Audiation. Chicago, IL: G.I.A. Publications.

Gromko, J. (2005). The effects of music instruction on the development of phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53, 199-209.

Gupta, P. , Lipinski, J. , Abbs, B. , & Lin, P. (2005). Serial position effects in nonword repetition . Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 141-162.

10.

Ho, H. , Cheung, M. , & Chan, A. (2003). Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children. Neuropsychology, 17, 439-450.

11.

Holahan, J. , Saunders, T. , & Goldberg, M. (2000). Tonal cognition in patterns discrimination: Evidence from three populations. Journal of Research in Music Education , 48, 162-177.

12.

Jonides, J. (2008). Musical skill and cognition. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Arts and cognition: Findings hint at relationships (pp. 11-15). New York: The Dana Foundation.

13.

Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

14.

Lucas, J. , & Gromko, J. (2007). The relationship of musical pattern discrimination skill and phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Contributions to Music Education, 34, 9-17.

15.

Pantev, C. , Oostenveld, R. , Engelien, A. , Ross, B. , Roberts, L. , & Hoke, M. (1998). Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians. Nature, 392, 811-813.

16.

Saffran, J. , Johnson, E. , Aslin, R. , & Newport, E. (1999). Statistical learning of tone sequence by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70, 27-52.

17.

Schlaug, G. , Jäncke, L. , Huang, Y. , Staiger, J. , & Steinmetz, H. (1995). Increased corpus callosum size in musicians. Neuropsychologica, 33, 1047-1055.

18.

Spelke, E. (2008). Effects of music instruction on developing cognitive systems at the foundations of mathematics and science. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Arts and cognition: Findings hint at relationships (pp. 17-49). New York: The Dana Foundation.

19.

Wandell, B. , Dougherty, R. , Ben-Shachar, M. , Deutsch, G. , & Tsang, J. (2008). Training in the arts, reading, and brain imaging . In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), Arts and cognition: Findings hint at relationships (pp. 51-59). New York: The Dana Foundation.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

19.49 MB

0.00 MB