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A growing body of research has been studying cognitive benefits that arise from music training in childhood or adulthood. Many studies focus specifically on the cognitive transfer of music training to language skill, with the aim of preventing language deficits and disorders and improving speech. However, predicted transfer effects are not always documented and not all findings replicate. While we acknowledge the important work that has been done in this field, we highlight the limitations of the persistent dichotomy between musicians and nonmusicians and argue that future research would benefit from a movement towards skill-based continua of musicianship instead of the currently widely practiced dichotomization of participants into groups of musicians and nonmusicians. Culturally situated definitions of musicianship as well as higher awareness of language diversity around the world are key to the understanding of potential cognitive transfers from music to language (and back). We outline a gradient approach to the study of the musical mind and suggest the next steps that could be taken to advance the field.

Sensorimotor synchronisation (SMS) is prevalent and readily studied in musical settings, as most people are able to perceive and synchronise with a beat (e.g., by finger tapping). We took an individual differences approach to understanding SMS to real music characterised by expressive timing (i.e., fluctuating beat regularity). Given the dynamic nature of SMS, we hypothesised that individual differences in working memory and auditory imagery—both fluid cognitive processes—would predict SMS at two levels: (1) mean absolute asynchrony (a measure of synchronisation error) and (2) anticipatory timing (i.e., predicting, rather than reacting to beat intervals). In Experiment 1, participants completed two working memory tasks, four auditory imagery tasks, and an SMS-tapping task. Hierarchical regression models were used to predict SMS performance, with results showing dissociations among imagery types in relation to mean absolute asynchrony, and evidence of a role for working memory in anticipatory timing. In Experiment 2, a new sample of participants completed an expressive timing perception task to examine the role of imagery in perception without action. Results suggest that imagery vividness is important for perceiving and control is important for synchronising with irregular but ecologically valid musical time series. Working memory is implicated in synchronising by anticipating events in the series.

Interpersonal coordination in musical ensembles often involves multisensory cues, with visual information about body movements supplementing co-performers’ sounds. Previous research on the influence of movement amplitude of a visual stimulus on basic sensorimotor synchronization has shown mixed results. Uninstructed visuomotor synchronization seems to be influenced by amplitude of a visual stimulus, but instructed visuomotor synchronization is not. While music performance presents a special case of visually mediated coordination, involving both uninstructed (spontaneously coordinating ancillary body movements with co-performers) and instructed (producing sound on a beat) forms of synchronization, the underlying mechanisms might also support rhythmic interpersonal coordination in the general population. We asked whether visual cue amplitude would affect nonmusicians’ synchronization of sound and head movements in a musical drumming task designed to be accessible regardless of musical experience. Given the mixed prior results, we considered two competing hypotheses. H1: higher amplitude visual cues will improve synchronization. H2: different amplitude visual cues will have no effect on synchronization. Participants observed a human-derived motion capture avatar with three levels of movement amplitude, or a still image of the avatar, while drumming along to the beat of tempo-changing music. The moving avatars were always timed to match the music. We measured temporal asynchrony (drumming relative to the music), predictive timing, ancillary movement fluctuation, and cross-spectral coherence of ancillary movements between the participant and avatar. The competing hypotheses were tested using conditional equivalence testing. This method involves using a statistical equivalence test in the event that standard hypothesis tests show no differences. Our results showed no statistical differences across visual cues types. Therefore, we conclude that there is not a strong effect of visual stimulus amplitude on instructed synchronization.

An experiment investigated the effect of tonal language background on discrimination of pitch contour in short spoken and musical items. It was hypothesized that extensive exposure to a tonal language attunes perception of pitch contour. Accuracy and reaction times of adult participants from tonal (Thai) and non-tonal (Australian English) language backgrounds were recorded as they discriminated intact and low-pass filtered Thai and English items that differed in rising/falling contour (speech task), and musical items that differed in rising/falling contour, major/minor interval, and contour plus interval features (music task). As hypothesized, the tonal language group was significantly faster and more accurate at discriminating intact speech items on the basis of pitch contour. The tonal language group was also significantly faster in response to musical contour and intervals, although accuracy was equivalent across language groups. The results provide some support for the contention that a tonal language environment fosters perceptual attunement to contour in spoken items and this can generalize to relatively fast responding to contour in a more musical setting.

Research showing that emotions can be recognized in point-light displays of human dyadic interactions was extended in the current study by investigating the impact of music on the perception of normal and exaggerated expressions of happiness, contentedness, sadness and anger in such visual stimuli. Sixteen musically untrained participants viewed short video clips of these emotion portrayals, each presented with emotionally compatible (e.g., happy music accompanies a happy interaction) and emotionally incompatible piano music (e.g., sad music accompanies a happy interaction). It was hypothesized that music will increase the accuracy of emotion judgements in displays where auditory and visual information is compatible relative to displays with incompatible audio-visual information. A two-dimensional emotion space was used to record participants' judgements of emotion in only the visual stimuli. Results indicated that music affected the accuracy of emotion judgements. Happiness and sadness were perceived more accurately in compatible than in incompatible conditions, while the opposite was the case for contentedness. Anger was perceived accurately in all conditions. Exaggerated expressions of sadness, which were evaluated more accurately than normal expressions of sadness, were also found to be resistant to the music. These findings can be interpreted in the light of previous research demonstrating that music's cross-modal impact depends on the degree of emotional ambiguity in the visual display. More generally, the results demonstrate that the perception of emotions in biological motion can be affected by music.

Research showing that emotions can be recognized in point-light displays of human dyadic interactions was extended in the current study by investigating the impact of music on the perception of normal and exaggerated expressions of happiness, contentedness, sadness and anger in such visual stimuli. Sixteen musically untrained participants viewed short video clips of these emotion portrayals, each presented with emotionally compatible (e.g., happy music accompanies a happy interaction) and emotionally incompatible piano music (e.g., sad music accompanies a happy interaction). It was hypothesized that music will increase the accuracy of emotion judgements in displays where auditory and visual information is compatible relative to displays with incompatible audio-visual information. A two-dimensional emotion space was used to record participants’ judgements of emotion in only the visual stimuli. Results indicated that music affected the accuracy of emotion judgements. Happiness and sadness were perceived more accurately in compatible than in incompatible conditions, while the opposite was the case for contentedness. Anger was perceived accurately in all conditions. Exaggerated expressions of sadness, which were evaluated more accurately than normal expressions of sadness, were also found to be resistant to the music. These findings can be interpreted in the light of previous research demonstrating that music’s cross-modal impact depends on the degree of emotional ambiguity in the visual display. More generally, the results demonstrate that the perception of emotions in biological motion can be affected by music.

Individual performers in ensembles must attend simultaneously to their own part and parts played by others. Thus, they allocate attentional resources skilfully and flexibly between different sound sources in order to (a) monitor their own part and other parts, and (b) group together elements from these parts to derive the whole ensemble texture. The theory of Attentional Resource Allocation in Musical Ensemble Performance (ARAMEP) presented here accounts for how attentional flexibility is influenced by various musical and extramusical factors. It is claimed that these factors act directly upon cognitive/motor mechanisms that regulate attentional resource allocation. Particular focus is given to the role of meter in modulating resources in a manner that is plastic and efficient, and hence conducive to optimal attentional flexibility. Specifically, metric frameworks enable the availability of resources to be varied systematically, so as to compensate for fluctuations in resource activity that arise due to variability in the concentration of events at different metric locations in the music.