Bidirectional transfer between language and musical experience: Based on the categorical perception in Mandarin-speaking musicians

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.1499

Abstract

Abstract:

At the domain-general level, bidirectional transfer between music and language pitch processing experience has been well-documented. However, whether such bidirectional transfer also exists at the domain-specific level in language remains underexplored. This study constructed language and musical tonal continua based on the Mandarin T1-T2 continuum. Thirty Mandarin-speaking musicians and thirty nonmusicians were recruited. Using identification and discrimination tasks within the categorical perception (CP) paradigm, the study investigates: (1) whether musical experience affects phonemic tonal processing in Mandarin-speaking musicians, and (2) whether their phonemic tonal CP patterns influence fine-grained pitch processing in music. Results showed that: (1) Mandarin-speaking musicians exhibited a higher degree of tonal CP compared to nonmusicians, evidenced by steeper identification curves, narrower category boundaries, enhanced between-category discrimination accuracy, and greater discrimination peaks. This superior CP was attributed to enhanced musical pitch processing abilities. Additionally, musicians' category boundary was significantly closer to the T1 endpoint. (2) Musicians demonstrated CP patterns in both the identification and discrimination curves for musical stimuli. These findings suggest that musical experience can cross domains to influence phonemic tonal processing, and that tonal CP patterns can transfer to music perception. This study provides domain-specific evidence for bidirectional transfer between language and music experience in Mandarin-speaking musicians, supporting the “transfer of training effects”.

Key words: music, language, tonal categorical perception, transfer of training effects

YANG Mingchuan, LI Xianzhuo, LIANG Dandan. (2025). Bidirectional transfer between language and musical experience: Based on the categorical perception in Mandarin-speaking musicians. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 57(9), 1499-1511.

Figures/Tables 12

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the T1-T2 continuum pitch pattern.

Table 1 The initial pitch parameters of each stimulus in the continuum

Stimulus	Starting pitch (Hz)	Starting pitch (ERB)	Step (Hz)	Step (ERB)
1	225	6.229	6.63	0.12
2	218.37	6.104	6.52	0.12
3	211.85	5.980	6.41	0.12
4	205.44	5.856	6.30	0.12
5	199.14	5.732	6.19	0.12
6	192.95	5.607	6.09	0.12
7	186.87	5.483	5.98	0.12
8	180.88	5.359	5.88	0.12
9	175	5.235

Figure 2. The waveform and spectrogram of stimulus 9 in the language continuum and the musical continuum.

Figure 3. Flowchart of the identification task.

Figure 4. Flowchart of the discrimination task.

Table 2 The indices in the identification task

Group	Music			Language
Group	Slopes	Boundary position	Boundary width	Slopes	Boundary position	Boundary width
Musicians	−2.49(0.58)	4.85(1.01)	0.92(0.21)	−1.74(0.38)	5.97(0.88)	1.35(0.46)
Nonmusicians	−2.02(0.53)	5.01(1.26)	1.19(0.42)	−1.46(0.32)	6.56(0.78)	1.59(0.40)

Figure 5. The identification curves.

Figure 6. Indices in the identification task.
Note. The error bars represent standard errors.

Table 3 The indices in the discrimination task

Group	Music			Language
Group	Between-category accuracy	Within-category accuracy	Discrimination peak	Between-category accuracy	Within-category accuracy	Discrimination peak
Musicians	0.74(0.09)	0.63(0.06)	0.12(0.11)	0.71(0.11)	0.62(0.04)	0.09(0.11)
Nonmusicians	0.67(0.08)	0.59(0.05)	0.08(0.09)	0.65(0.09)	0.60(0.07)	0.05(0.11)

Figure 7. The discrimination curves.

Figure 8. Indices in the discrimination task.
Note. The error bars represent standard errors.

Figure 9. Regression results of musicians.
Note. The shadow represents the 95% confidence interval.

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