Abstract
Long-term musical training is widely reported to enhance music pitch perception. However, it remains unclear whether tone language experience influences the effect of long-term musical training on musical pitch perception. The present study addressed this question by testing 30 Cantonese and 30 non-tonal language speakers, each divided equally into musician and non-musician groups, on pitch height and pitch interval discrimination. Musicians outperformed non-musicians among non-tonal language speakers, but not among Cantonese speakers on the pitch height discrimination task. However, musicians outperformed non-musicians among Cantonese speakers, but not among non-tonal language speakers on the pitch interval discrimination task. These results suggest that the effect of long-term musical training on musical pitch perception is shaped by tone language experience and varies across different pitch perception tasks. Copyright © 2018 Acoustical Society of America.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 690-697 |
Journal | Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
Volume | 144 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug 2018 |