Sala Giovanni, Gobet Fernand
Institute for Comprehensive Medical Science (ICMS), Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan.
Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.
Mem Cognit. 2020 Nov;48(8):1429-1441. doi: 10.3758/s13421-020-01060-2.
Music training has repeatedly been claimed to positively impact children's cognitive skills and academic achievement (literacy and mathematics). This claim relies on the assumption that engaging in intellectually demanding activities fosters particular domain-general cognitive skills, or even general intelligence. The present meta-analytic review (N = 6,984, k = 254, m = 54) shows that this belief is incorrect. Once the quality of study design is controlled for, the overall effect of music training programs is null ([Formula: see text] ≈ 0) and highly consistent across studies (τ ≈ 0). Results of Bayesian analyses employing distributional assumptions (informative priors) derived from previous research in cognitive training corroborate these conclusions. Small statistically significant overall effects are obtained only in those studies implementing no random allocation of participants and employing non-active controls ([Formula: see text] ≈ 0.200, p < .001). Interestingly, music training is ineffective regardless of the type of outcome measure (e.g., verbal, non-verbal, speed-related, etc.), participants' age, and duration of training. Furthermore, we note that, beyond meta-analysis of experimental studies, a considerable amount of cross-sectional evidence indicates that engagement in music has no impact on people's non-music cognitive skills or academic achievement. We conclude that researchers' optimism about the benefits of music training is empirically unjustified and stems from misinterpretation of the empirical data and, possibly, confirmation bias.
音乐训练一直被认为能对儿童的认知技能和学业成绩（读写能力和数学）产生积极影响。这一观点基于这样一种假设，即参与需要智力投入的活动能培养特定的一般认知技能，甚至是一般智力。本荟萃分析综述（N = 6,984，k = 254，m = 54）表明这种观点是错误的。一旦对研究设计的质量进行控制，音乐训练项目的总体效果为零（[公式：见正文]≈0），且各研究结果高度一致（τ≈0）。采用从先前认知训练研究中得出的分布假设（信息性先验）进行的贝叶斯分析结果证实了这些结论。只有在那些未对参与者进行随机分配且采用非活性对照的研究中，才获得了在统计学上有小的显著总体效果（[公式：见正文]≈0.200，p <.001）。有趣的是，无论结果测量的类型（例如，言语、非言语、速度相关等）、参与者的年龄以及训练持续时间如何，音乐训练都是无效的。此外，我们注意到，除了对实验研究的荟萃分析之外，大量的横断面证据表明参与音乐对人们的非音乐认知技能或学业成绩没有影响。我们得出结论，研究人员对音乐训练益处的乐观态度在经验上是没有根据的，源于对经验数据的错误解读，可能还有确认偏差。
