Effects of musical expertise on line section and line extension

Yilai Pei; Zhiyuan Xu; Yibo He; Xinxin Liu; Yuxuan Bai; Sze Chai Kwok; Xiaonuo Li; Zhaoxin Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1190098

Effects of musical expertise on line section and line extension

Front Psychol. 2024 Apr 9:14:1190098. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1190098. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yilai Pei¹, Zhiyuan Xu¹, Yibo He¹, Xinxin Liu¹, Yuxuan Bai¹, Sze Chai Kwok^{1

2

3

4}, Xiaonuo Li⁵, Zhaoxin Wang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Ministry of Education and Shanghai, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Phylo-Cognition Laboratory, Division of Natural and Applied Sciences, Data Science Research Center, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China.
⁵ Institute of Research of Musical Arts, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Background: This study investigated whether music training led to better length estimation and/or rightward bias by comparing the performance of musicians (pianists) and non-musicians on performance of line sections and line extensions.

Methods: One hundred and sixteen participants, among them 62 musicians and 54 non-musicians, participated in the present study, completed line section and line extension task under three conditions: 1/2, 1/3 and 2/3.

Results: The mixed repeated measures ANOVA analysis revealed a significant group × condition interaction, that the musicians were more accurate than non-musicians in all the line section tasks and showed no obvious pseudoneglect, while their overall performance on the line extension tasks was comparable to the non-musicians, and only performed more accurately in the 1/2 line extension condition.

Conclusion: These findings indicated that there was a dissociation between the effects of music training on line section and line extension. This dissociation does not support the view that music training has a general beneficial effect on line estimation, and provides insight into a potentially important limit on the effects of music training on spatial cognition.

Keywords: line bisection; line extension; musicians; pseudoneglect; spatial evaluation.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32071060) and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology (BK20221267).