Pitch, time, speech, & tones: Training & attention (Sares et al., 2018)

Purpose: Musical training is often linked to enhanced auditory discrimination, but the relative roles of pitch and time in music and speech are unclear. Moreover, it is unclear whether pitch and time processing are correlated across individuals and how they may be affected by attention. This study aimed to examine pitch and time processing in speech and tone sequences, taking musical training and attention into account.Method: Musicians (16) and nonmusicians (16) were asked to detect pitch or timing changes in speech and tone sequences and make a binary response. In some conditions, the participants were focused on 1 aspect of the stimulus (directed attention), and in others, they had to pay attention to all aspects at once (divided attention).Results: As expected, musicians performed better overall. Performance scores on pitch and time tasks were correlated, as were performance scores for speech and tonal stimuli, but most markedly in musicians. All participants performed better on the directed versus divided attention task, but again, musicians performed better than nonmusicians.Conclusion: In general, this experiment shows that individuals with a better sense of pitch discrimination also have a better sense of timing discrimination in the auditory domain. In addition, although musicians perform better overall, these results do not support the idea that musicians have an added advantage for divided attention tasks. These findings serve to better understand how musical training and attention affect pitch and time processing in the context of speech and tones and may have applications in special populations.Supplemental Material S1. Speech stimulus "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Lowest level of pitch modulation (purple line in main article's Figure 1, top panel). 700 ms gap after the word "green."Supplemental Material S2. Speech stimulus "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Second level of pitch modulation (yellow line in main article's Figure 1, top panel). 700 ms gap after the word "green."Supplemental Material S3. Speech stimulus "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Third level of pitch modulation (orange line in main article's Figure 1, top panel). 700 ms gap after the word "green."Supplemental Material S4. Speech stimulus "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Highest level of pitch modulation (blue line in main article's Figure 1, top panel). 700 ms gap after the word "green."Supplemental Material S5. Music stimulus corresponding to "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Lowest level of pitch modulation (purple line in main article's Figure 1, bottom panel). 700 ms gap after 3rd tone (corresponding to the word "green").Supplemental Material S6. Music stimulus corresponding to "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Second level of pitch modulation (yellow line in main article's Figure 1, bottom panel). 700 ms gap after 3rd tone (corresponding to the word "green").Supplemental Material S7. Music stimulus corresponding to "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Third level of pitch modulation (orange line in main article's Figure 1, bottom panel). 700 ms gap after 3rd tone (corresponding to the word "green").Supplemental Material S8. Music stimulus corresponding to "Scott built green and blue and red planes." Highest level of pitch modulation (blue line in main article's Figure 1, bottom panel). 700 ms gap after 3rd tone (corresponding to the word "green").Sares, A. G., Foster, N. E. V., Allen, K., & Hyde, K. L. (2018). Pitch and time processing in speech and tones: The effects of musical training and attention. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61, 496–509. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-17-0207

研究目的：音乐训练常与听觉辨别能力提升相关联，但音乐与言语场景中音高（pitch）和时间（time）加工的相对作用仍不明确。此外，个体间音高与时间加工是否存在相关性，以及注意如何影响二者的加工过程，目前尚无定论。本研究旨在考察言语与音调序列中的音高和时间加工，并纳入音乐训练与注意因素进行分析。
研究方法：招募16名音乐训练者与16名非音乐训练者，要求其检测言语及音调序列中的音高或时序变化，并做出二元反应。部分实验条件下，参与者需专注于刺激的某一特征（定向注意）；其余条件下，则需同时关注所有刺激特征（分配性注意）。
研究结果：正如预期，音乐训练者整体表现更优。音高任务与时间任务的得分呈显著相关，言语刺激与音调刺激的任务得分亦存在相关性，且该相关性在音乐训练者群体中尤为突出。所有参与者在定向注意任务中的表现均优于分配性注意任务，且音乐训练者的表现依旧优于非音乐训练者。
研究结论：总体而言，本实验表明，在听觉领域中，音高辨别能力更强的个体，其时间辨别能力同样更优。此外，尽管音乐训练者整体表现更优，但本研究结果并不支持音乐训练者在分配性注意任务中具备额外优势这一观点。本研究结果有助于进一步理解音乐训练与注意如何影响言语与音调场景下的音高和时间加工，或可应用于特殊人群研究。
补充材料S1：言语刺激"Scott built green and blue and red planes."，对应最低水平音高调制（正文中图1上方面板中的紫色曲线），单词"green"后存在700ms间隔。
补充材料S2：言语刺激"Scott built green and blue and red planes."，对应第二水平音高调制（正文中图1上方面板中的黄色曲线），单词"green"后存在700ms间隔。
补充材料S3：言语刺激"Scott built green and blue and red planes."，对应第三水平音高调制（正文中图1上方面板中的橙色曲线），单词"green"后存在700ms间隔。
补充材料S4：言语刺激"Scott built green and blue and red planes."，对应最高水平音高调制（正文中图1上方面板中的蓝色曲线），单词"green"后存在700ms间隔。
补充材料S5：对应"Scott built green and blue and red planes."的音乐刺激，对应最低水平音高调制（正文中图1下方面板中的紫色曲线），第3个音调后存在700ms间隔（对应单词"green"）。
补充材料S6：对应"Scott built green and blue and red planes."的音乐刺激，对应第二水平音高调制（正文中图1下方面板中的黄色曲线），第3个音调后存在700ms间隔（对应单词"green"）。
补充材料S7：对应"Scott built green and blue and red planes."的音乐刺激，对应第三水平音高调制（正文中图1下方面板中的橙色曲线），第3个音调后存在700ms间隔（对应单词"green"）。
补充材料S8：对应"Scott built green and blue and red planes."的音乐刺激，对应最高水平音高调制（正文中图1下方面板中的蓝色曲线），第3个音调后存在700ms间隔（对应单词"green"）。
参考文献：Sares, A. G., Foster, N. E. V., Allen, K., & Hyde, K. L. (2018). 言语与音调中的音高和时间加工：音乐训练与注意的影响. 《言语、语言与听力研究杂志（Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research）》, 61, 496–509. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-17-0207