The Rhythm Span Task: Comparing Memory Capacity for Musical Rhythms in Musicians and Non-Musicians

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Schaal, Nora K.; Banissy, Michael J. and Lange, Kathrin. 2014. The Rhythm Span Task: Comparing Memory Capacity for Musical Rhythms in Musicians and Non-Musicians. Journal of New Music Research, ISSN 0929-8215 [Article]

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Official URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0929821...

Abstract or Description

The study introduces a rhythm memory task and compares performance of musicians and non-musicians. The rhythm span task with increasing and decreasing sequence length according to the participants’ performance, measures the individual memory capacity for musical rhythms. Results show that musicians perform significantly better on the rhythm span task indicating that memory capacity for rhythms is superior after many years of formal musical training. Additionally performance correlates positively with an established pitch span task (Williamson & Stewart, 2010) as well as the five dimensions of the Gold-MSI self-report questionnaire (Müllensiefen et al., 2014) evaluating musical sophistication.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2014.937724

Additional Information:

MJB was supported by the British Academy (pf100123) and is cur-
rently supported by the ESRC (ES/K00882X/1).

Keywords:

memory, information retrieval, perception

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Psychology

Dates: