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Experienced musicians tend to possess an advantage in short-term memory for musical patterns and a small advantage for visual information, according to a large-scale international study. The research provides evidence that the memory benefit for verbal information is much smaller than previously thought, suggesting that some earlier findings may have overrepresented this link. These results, which stem from a massive collaborative effort involving 33 laboratories, were published in the journal Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science.
The study was led by Massimo Grassi and a broad team of researchers who sought to address inconsistencies in past scientific literature. For many years, scientists have used musicians as a model for understanding how intense, long-term practice changes the brain and behavior. While many smaller studies suggested that musical training boosts various types of memory, these individual projects often lacked the statistical power to provide a reliable estimate of the effect.
The researchers aimed to establish a community-driven standard for future studies by recruiting a much larger group of participants than typical experiments in this field. They also wanted to explore whether other factors, such as general intelligence or personality traits, might explain why musicians often perform better on cognitive tests. By using a shared protocol across dozens of locations, the team intended to provide a more definitive answer regarding the scope of the musical memory advantage.
To achieve this goal, the research team recruited 1,200 participants across 15 different countries. This group consisted of 600 experienced musicians and 600 nonmusicians who were matched based on their age, gender, and level of general education. The musicians in the study were required to have at least 10 years of formal training and be currently active in their practice.
The nonmusicians had no more than two years of training and had been musically inactive for at least five years. This strict selection process ensured that the two groups represented clear ends of the musical expertise spectrum. Each participant completed the same set of tasks in a laboratory setting to maintain consistency across the 33 different research units.
The primary measures included three distinct short-term memory tasks involving musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli. In the musical task, participants listened to a melody and then judged whether a second melody was identical or different. The verbal task required participants to view a sequence of digits on a screen and recall them in the correct order.
For the visuospatial task, participants watched dots appear in a grid and then had to click on those positions in the sequence they were shown. Additionally, the researchers measured fluid intelligence using the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices and crystallized intelligence through a vocabulary test. They also assessed executive functions with a letter-matching task and collected data on personality and socioeconomic status.
The researchers found that musicians performed significantly better than nonmusicians on the music-related memory task. This difference was large, which suggests that musical expertise provides a substantial benefit when dealing with information within a person’s specific domain of skill. This finding aligns with the idea that long-term training makes individuals much more efficient at processing familiar types of data.
In contrast, the advantage for verbal memory was very small. This suggests that the benefits of music training do not easily transfer to the memorization of words or numbers. The researchers noted that some previous studies showing a larger verbal benefit may have used auditory tasks, where musicians could use their superior hearing skills to gain an edge.
For visuospatial memory, the study found a small but statistically significant advantage for the musicians. This provides evidence that musical training might have a slight positive association with memory for locations and patterns. While this effect was not as large as the music-specific memory gain, it suggests a broader cognitive difference between the two groups.
The statistical models used by the researchers revealed that general intelligence and executive functions were consistent predictors of memory performance across all tasks. When these factors were taken into account, the group difference for verbal memory largely disappeared. This suggests that the minor verbal advantage seen in musicians may simply reflect their slightly higher average scores on general intelligence tests.
Musicians also tended to score higher on the personality trait of open-mindedness. This trait describes a person’s curiosity and willingness to engage with new experiences or complex ideas. The study suggests that personality and family background are important variables that often distinguish those who pursue long-term musical training from those who do not.
Data from the study also indicated that musicians often come from families with a higher socioeconomic status. This factor provides evidence that access to resources and a stimulating environment may play a role in both musical achievement and cognitive development. These background variables complicate the question of whether music training directly causes better memory or if high-performing individuals are simply more likely to become musicians.
As with all research, there are some limitations. Because the study was correlational, it cannot confirm that musical training is the direct cause of the memory advantages. It remains possible that children with naturally better memory or higher intelligence are more likely to enjoy music lessons and stick with them for over a decade.
Additionally, the study focused on young adults within Western musical cultures. The results might not apply to children, elderly individuals, or musicians trained in different cultural traditions. Future research could expand on these findings by tracking individuals over many years to see how memory changes as they begin and continue their training.
The team also noted that the study only measured short-term memory. Other systems, such as long-term memory or the ability to manipulate information in the mind, were not the primary focus of this specific experiment. Future collaborative projects could use similar large-scale methods to investigate these other areas of cognition.
The multilab approach utilized here helps correct for the publication bias that often favors small studies with unusually large effects. By pooling data from many locations, the researchers provided a more realistic and nuanced view of how expertise relates to general mental abilities. This work sets a new benchmark for transparency and reliability in the field of music psychology.
Ultimately, the study suggests that while musicians do have better memory, the advantage is most prominent when they are dealing with music itself. The idea that learning an instrument provides a major boost to all types of memory appears to be an oversimplification. Instead, the relationship between music and the mind is a complex interaction of training, personality, and general cognitive traits.
The study, “Do Musicians Have Better Short-Term Memory Than Nonmusicians? A Multilab Study,” was authored by Massimo Grassi, Francesca Talamini, Gianmarco Altoè, Elvira Brattico, Anne Caclin, Barbara Carretti, Véronique Drai-Zerbib, Laura Ferreri, Filippo Gambarota, Jessica Grahn, Lucrezia Guiotto Nai Fovino, Marco Roccato, Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells, Swathi Swaminathan, Barbara Tillmann, Peter Vuust, Jonathan Wilbiks, Marcel Zentner, Karla Aguilar, Christ B. Aryanto, Frederico C. Assis Leite, Aíssa M. Baldé, Deniz Başkent, Laura Bishop, Graziela Kalsi, Fleur L. Bouwer, Axelle Calcus, Giulio Carraturo, Victor Cepero-Escribano, Antonia Čerič, Antonio Criscuolo, Léo Dairain, Simone Dalla Bella, Oscar Daniel, Anne Danielsen, Anne-Isabelle de Parcevaux, Delphine Dellacherie, Tor Endestad, Juliana L. d. B. Fialho, Caitlin Fitzpatrick, Anna Fiveash, Juliette Fortier, Noah R. Fram, Eleonora Fullone, Stefanie Gloggengießer, Lucia Gonzalez Sanchez, Reyna L. Gordon, Mathilde Groussard, Assal Habibi, Heidi M. U. Hansen, Eleanor E. Harding, Kirsty Hawkins, Steffen A. Herff, Veikka P. Holma, Kelly Jakubowski, Maria G. Jol, Aarushi Kalsi, Veronica Kandro, Rosaliina Kelo, Sonja A. Kotz, Gangothri S. Ladegam, Bruno Laeng, André Lee, Miriam Lense, César F. Lima, Simon P. Limmer, Chengran K. Liu, Paulina d. C. Martín Sánchez, Langley McEntyre, Jessica P. Michael, Daniel Mirman, Daniel Müllensiefen, Niloufar Najafi, Jaakko Nokkala, Ndassi Nzonlang, Maria Gabriela M. Oliveira, Katie Overy, Andrew J. Oxenham, Edoardo Passarotto, Marie-Elisabeth Plasse, Herve Platel, Alice Poissonnier, Neha Rajappa, Michaela Ritchie, Italo Ramon Rodrigues Menezes, Rafael Román-Caballero, Paula Roncaglia, Farrah Y. Sa’adullah, Suvi Saarikallio, Daniela Sammler, Séverine Samson, E. G. Schellenberg, Nora R. Serres, L. R. Slevc, Ragnya-Norasoa Souffiane, Florian J. Strauch, Hannah Strauss, Nicholas Tantengco, Mari Tervaniemi, Rachel Thompson, Renee Timmers, Petri Toiviainen, Laurel J. Trainor, Clara Tuske, Jed Villanueva, Claudia C. von Bastian, Kelly L. Whiteford, Emily A. Wood, Florian Worschech, and Ana Zappa.
