Abstract:
The benefits in speech-in-noise perception, language and cognition brought about
by extensive musical training in adults and children have been demonstrated in
a number of cross-sectional studies. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate
whether one year of school-delivered musical training, consisting of individual and
group instrumental classes, was capable of producing advantages for speech-in-noise
perception and phonological short-term memory in children tested in a simulated
classroom environment. Forty-one children aged 5–7 years at the first measurement
point participated in the study and either went to a music-focused or a sport-focused
private school with an otherwise equivalent school curriculum. The children’s ability to
detect number and color words in noise was measured under a number of conditions
including different masker types (speech-shaped noise, single-talker background) and
under varying spatial combinations of target and masker (spatially collocated, spatially
separated). Additionally, a cognitive factor essential to speech perception, namely
phonological short-term memory, was assessed. Findings were unable to confirm that
musical training of the frequency and duration administered was associated with a
musicians’ advantage for either speech in noise, under any of the masker or spatial
conditions tested, or phonological short-term memory.
