CMS Seminar: Expectancy-value effects of self-perceived musical ability and musical contingent self-worth on tonal working memory

Recent findings suggest that music training may enhance tonal working memory, particularly among individuals whose self-esteem is contingent on demonstrating musical ability (i.e., those higher in "musical contingent self-worth"; MCSW). However, music training is also positively associated with individuals' subjective perceptions of their own musical ability. This raises the possibility that self-perceived musical ability may be a stronger predictor of tonal working memory performance than music training per se. To test this hypothesis, we assessed tonal working memory performance using a 2-back task in which participants listened to sequences of tones and indicated whether "probe" tones were the same as those presented two tones earlier. We also assessed visual working memory using an analogous task replacing audio tones with letters that appeared sequentially on screen. Finally, we collected survey-based measures of individual differences in MCSW, self-perceived musical ability, and music training. Results revealed that only self-perceived musical ability, not music training, was associated with improved tonal working memory among individuals with higher MCSW. Moreover, this interactive pattern was only obtained for tonal, not visual working memory performance, indicating that the effect depends upon perceiving the task as relevant to musicality. These results suggest that tonal working memory may be enhanced at higher levels of both self-perceived musical ability (reflecting the expectancy of demonstrating musical competence) and MCSW (reflecting the value of demonstrating such competence), irrespective of music training. More generally, our findings call for renewed consideration of motivational factors when investigating transfer effects of music training on extra-musical cognitive skills.

Biography

Ron Friedman is Professor of Psychology and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research currently focuses on the psychology of music, with projects on topics including affective responses to musical chords and individual differences in memory for melodies. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University, where he studied human motivation. His recent work has appeared in journals including Music Perception, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, and Empirical Musicology Review.

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