Working memory in speech and music perception

Emily Svanås-Hoh

Speech and music are typically treated as different phenomena, with speech
normally requiring “spoken words” and music emphasizing the “rhythm, melody,
and harmony” of sounds (Marriam-Webster, 2018). Despite these differences,
music and speech overlap in many ways – both communicate emotive content
(Juslin & Laukka, 2004), employ tone and rhythm, and are universally found in
human cultures (Clayton, 2003). Since sound sequences occur over time,
understanding speech and music both require being able to hold chunks of
auditory information in working memory (WM) (a short-term memory store
involved in immediate perceptual processing) and integrate them into a
coherent experience. However, the extent to which WM mechanisms involved in
processing speech are the same as the mechanisms for processing music is less
clear. For example, musical ability is correlated with the ability to understand
speech in noise, suggesting similar mechanisms for perceiving speech and music
(Clark & Kraus, 2009). On the other hand, amusic (“tone-deaf”) individuals
cannot distinguish between musical pitches, yet are able to detect tonal
differences in speech such as “You’re from England.” and “You’re from England?”
(Liu et al., 2012), suggesting the WM mechanisms involved in processing tone for
speech may differ from those processing tone in music. To make sense of these
findings, this essay explores the similarities and differences in WM processes
involved in perceiving speech and music, and discusses the implications of these
differences for Baddeley’s working memory model.

There is much support for the notion that similar WM mechanisms are involved
in perceiving speech and music. Firstly, musical training has been hypothesized
to improve the ability to understand certain aspects of speech. This is predicated
on the basis that musical proficiency requires the sensitivity to subtle changes
and differences in pitch, tempo, and dynamics, as well as the recognition of
musical patterns. Indeed, musicians outperform nonmusicians in auditory WM
tasks of tone discrimination, tempo discrimination, and melodic transposition
(Andrews, Dowling, Bartlett, & Halpern, 1998; Halpern, Bartlett, & Dowling,
1995; Koelsch, Schroger, & Tervaniemi, 1999). It is suggested that increased
sensitivity to these aspects of audition transfer to increased sensitivity to speech.

Widespread evidence suggests that musically trained individuals enjoy enhanced

verbal working memory that can aid speech perception. For example,
researchers investigated sensitivity to emotions conveyed by speech prosody
(patterns of stress or intonation) in adult musicians and non-musicians.
Participants were presented with tone sequences or spoken utterances
conveying happy, sad, fearful, angry, or neutral emotions. For both tone
sequences and spoken utterances, musicians significantly outperformed non-
musicians at identifying sad, fearful, and neutral emotions. Although there was
no significant difference between ability to identify happy and angry emotions,
perhaps due to happy and angry sequences being easier to identify, results
suggest that musical training may enhance ability to decode speech prosody
(Thompson, Schellenberg, & Hussain, 2004). To demonstrate a causal
relationship between musical training and prosody decoding ability, researchers
conducted a follow-up experiment using a similar paradigm. 6-year-olds (N=43)
were randomly assigned to either a control group (no lessons) or were given
music lessons for 1 year. Results found that students given music lessons were
significantly better than the control group at identifying the correct emotions
based on speech prosody, suggesting that WM mechanisms for understanding
speech prosody may be similar to those evoked by musical training.

Although musical ability is associated with enhanced speech perception, it is

important to rule out a general intelligence effect that may also improve speech
perception. In a study, researchers administered a test of verbal working
memory (the WAIS-III Digit Span), a test of visuo-spatial working memory (the
WAIS-III Spatial Span) and a test of musical ability (the Musical Ear Test (MET))
to experts and non-musicians. Musicians outperformed non-musicians on both
the MET and the WAIS-II Digit span task, and scores on the MET were correlated
with scores on the Digit Span task. However, there was no difference between
musicians and non-musicians on the visuo-spatial working memory task,
suggesting musical ability is specifically associated with verbal working memory,
rather than general working memory (Hansen, Wallentin, & Vuust, 2012).

While most research has focused on the impact of musical ability on verbal
working memory ability, less research has explored whether language ability can
affect working memory associated with perceiving music. To investigate the
possibility of language-to-music transfer, researchers compared the
performance of musically trained individuals to those of tone-language
(Cantonese) speakers and non-musician controls on tasks of tonal working
memory, auditory pitch acuity and general cognitive ability (including fluid
intelligence and spatial working memory) (Bidelman, Hutka, & Moreno, 2013).
Although musicians outperformed the other two groups in the auditory tasks,
Cantonese speakers performed significantly better than the English-speaking
non-musicians, suggesting that speaking a tonal language may improve auditory
working memory. Interestingly, both Cantonese speakers and musicians also
demonstrated superior general cognitive ability (including for spatial working
memory) compared to controls, challenging Hansen et al.’s (2012) study
suggesting musicians are superior only in verbal working memory. Additionally,
the study was cross-sectional and correlational and therefore does not rule out
the possibility of pre-existing differences in abilities between tonal and non-
tonal language speaking populations.

The aforementioned studies, although providing some support for the notion of
similar working memory mechanisms involved in perceiving speech and music,
remain unconvincing given the controversial findings – whilst some studies have
found an enhanced verbal working memory but not spatial memory in
musicians, others have found superior working memory for musicians across
many domains. Whilst it is likely that working memory mechanisms overlap in
some areas for speech and music, it is also likely that musical training improves
working memory not associated with speech.

Although musicians certainly experience an advantage in certain verbal memory

tasks, it may be that these advantages are due to musicians simply having
developed separate working memory strategies to understand music that
transfer to perceiving speech. This is supported by studies that demonstrate
musicians’ resistance to certain acoustic confusions experienced by non-
musicians. For example, Pechmann and Mohr (1992) presented musically
trained and untrained subjects with a sequence of two tones separated by an
interval of 5 seconds that were either identical in pitch or different by a
semitone. Subjects had to indicate whether the pitches were identical or
different in a forced-choice task. The interval was filled with tonal, verbal, or
visual distraction. Whilst musicians were only affected by tonal distractions,
non-musicians were affected by all distractions, suggesting that musicians may
recruit a special working memory system specific to tones.

Given that musicians and non-musicians perform differently in tasks involving

tonal and verbal working memory, it is important to understand how the tonal
and verbal working memory systems used in speech are different to those used
in music. In an fMRI study, researchers examined verbal and tonal working
memory in musicians and non-musicians (Schulze et al., 2011). Results found
that the core WM structures (such as Broca’s Area, premotor cortex,
pre/supplementary motor area, left insular cortex, and inferior parietal lobe)
were involved in both verbal and tonal working memory, but had different
structural weighting for both musicians and non-musicians. Furthermore,
musicians activated additional areas during verbal WM tasks (right insular
cortex) and tonal WM tasks (right globus pallidus, right caudate nucleus, and left
cerebellum). These additional areas of activation in musicians for both WM tasks
may explain musicians’ superior performance in tasks of verbal and tonal WM, as
well as their enhanced ability to perceive certain aspects of speech.

Based on behavioural and neuroimaging studies comparing musicians and non-

musicians, research points to various overlap in working memory processes
involved in understanding speech and music. However, it appears that, through
musical training, individuals recruit additional neurological networks that may
advantage them in auditory perception, as evidenced by their increased
performance in tests of general verbal and tonal working memory. It is
important to note that most research comparing working memory for speech
and music has focused on differences between musicians and non-musicians;
however, it is still unclear the extent to which speech and music perception
involve similar WM networks for non-musicians. Additional research is
necessary to determine how these networks develop through training, it is clear
that there are many cognitive benefits in musical training. Given that only 20% of
18-24 year-olds play a musical instrument in the United States (Statista, 2012), it
would be highly beneficial to introduce a more extensive musical education
scheme for the general population.
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