Visual-spatial sequence learning and memory in trained musicians

Abstract

Previous research has shown that musicians have enhanced visual-spatial abilities and sensorymotor skills. As a result of their long-term musical training and their experience-dependent activities, musicians may learn to associate sensory information with fine motor movements. Playing a musical instrument requires musicians to rapidly translate musical symbols into specific sensory-motor actions while also simultaneously monitoring the auditory signals produced by their instrument. In this study, we assessed the visual-spatial sequence learning and memory abilities of long-term musicians. We recruited 24 highly trained musicians and 24 nonmusicians, individuals with little or no musical training experience. Participants completed a visual-spatial sequence learning task as well as receptive vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and short-term memory tasks. Results revealed that musicians have enhanced visual-spatial sequence learning abilities relative to nonmusicians. Musicians also performed better than nonmusicians on the vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning measures. Additional analyses revealed that the large group difference observed on the visualspatial sequencing task between musicians and nonmusicians remained even after controlling for vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and short-term memory abilities. Musicians' improved visualspatial sequence learning may stem from basic underlying differences in visual-spatial and sensorymotor skills resulting from long-term experience and activities associated with playing a musical instrument.

Keywords: auditory perception/cognition; memory; recall; sensori-motor skills; spatial abilities.

Figure 1.

Display of Visual-Spatial Sequence Learning and Memory Task. Squares were individually illuminated to form a sequence. After the full sequence was shown, all four squares reappeared on the screen. Participants reproduced the sequence by touching the squares in the order that they were shown. After reproducing the sequence, participants pressed “continue” to advance to the next sequence.

Figure 2.

Artificial grammars used in the Visual-Spatial Sequence Learning and Memory Task. Grammar T is displayed in Panel A. Grammar U is displayed in Panel B. Each numbered circle represents the location of a stimulus square from the task. The arrows linking the circles, along with the numbers next to the arrows, indicate the probability of the presentation of one square being followed by the presentation of another square.

Figure 3.

Group differences in visual-spatial sequence learning across blocks in the learning phase. Percentage of correctly reproduced visual sequences is shown on the y axis. Blocks are shown on the x axis. Musicians are indicated in dark gray and nonmusicians are shown in light gray (standard error bars are included).

Figure 4.

Group differences in visual-spatial sequence learning between musicians and nonmusicians for the trained and untrained grammar during the testing phase. Percentage of correctly reproduced visual sequences is shown on the y axis. The trained grammar (Grammar T) and untrained grammar (Grammar U) are shown on the x axis. Musicians are indicated in dark gray and nonmusicians are shown in light gray (standard error bars are included).

Figure 5.

Relations between visual-spatial sequence learning of the trained and untrained grammar as a function of years of musical experience. The trained grammar is shown in the top panel and the untrained grammar is shown in the bottom panel. Percentage of correctly reproduced visual sequences is shown in the y axis. The number of years of musical training is shown in the x axis. Musicians are indicated in black and nonmusicians in gray.