Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Hearing Science (Health Sciences and Professions)

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of structured musical training on various auditory and memory processes in persons with normal hearing, attention, and memory function at various stages of training and maturation. It is known that musical training influences cortical sound processing through learning-based processes, but also at the preattentive level within the brainstem. Such training strengthens processes in the auditory and motor domains, as well as central processes. This study investigated auditory memory abilities in individuals placed within high and low musical training categories using nonverbal auditory stimuli within listening tasks that stressed attention. Use of nonverbal sounds provided a control for performance characteristics influenced by linguistic knowledge while establishing whether musical training enhances a listener's ability to assemble incoming sound information into an accurate and meaningful mental representation of one's environment. Three experiments measuring auditory working memory capacity, the interplay between frequency discrimination and memory capacity, and pitch matching retention were evaluated. Three different age groups of children and a group of young adults, each split into subgroups based on musical training, participated. The outcomes indicate that both musical training and age influence performance for pitch perception, organization and memory tasks with adult-like performance identified by age 14.

Committee: Jeffrey DiGiovanni (Committee Chair); Dennis Ries (Committee Member); James Montgomery (Committee Member); Kamile Geist (Committee Member) Subjects: Audiology; Cognitive Psychology; Neurosciences