Investigating the relationship between music perception skills and episodic musical memory

• Main Author: Nur Diyanah Abdul Wahab
• Other Authors: Chen Shen-Hsing Annabel
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73907
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Existing studies have documented relationships between musical competence and verbal memory, but the association between musical competence and episodic musical memory is less understood. Moreover, most studies categorized participants into musicians and non-musicians according to formal musical training criteria. Given the wide variations of musical experiences and behaviours in the general population, recent studies have proposed that assessing an individual’s level of music perception skills could better reflect the multidimensional facet of musical competence. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate (1) the role of musical behaviours, specifically, the extent of music listening and instrument playing, on music perception skills, and (2) the relationship between musical perception skills and episodic musical memory, as assessed by a music recognition task adapted from the Mnemonic Similarity Task (Stark et al., 2015). Results showed that the extent of music listening and instrument playing did not moderate the relationship between years of formal musical training and music perception skills. However, the extent of music instrument playing predicted music perception skills. Additionally, overall music perception skills predicted traditional recognition performance, but not lure discrimination, a more precise episodic memory process. Instead, lure discrimination performance was predicted by melody and tempo perception skills, suggesting greater distinction of musical skills in relation to precision memory. Current findings highlight the importance of engaging in music production activities for the development of musical competence in the context of music education curriculum planning, and elucidates the underlying distinction in music perception skills to enhance musical learning and memory.