Taal, Muziek en Werkgeheugen

The present research addressed the question: "Is there a relationship between individual differences in aptitude for processing musical information and individual differences in aptitude for processing linguistic information?" An extensive exploration of linguistic and musical theory, aptitude studies, and the literature on the processing of language and music, led the author to believe that a relationship between linguistic and musical forms of aptitude could be found in aspects of working memory. Four tests were designed to measure an individual's working memory spans for linguistic and musical processing. The results of 70 participants from a secondary school on these tests and on a French listening examination were compared. Significant correlations were indeed found between the scores on these five measures. Furthermore, the complexity of the information to be processed, the musical experience of the participants and other factors were found to have an effect on correlations. Especially at higher levels of processing, musical and linguistic processing capacity seem to be associated. No definitive conclusions could be drawn, among other thing because of the 1OW reliability of two of the tests, but the results do encourage further research into this relatively new area in second language acquisition.