Project Details
Projekt
Music and cognition during infancy and beyond
Subject Area
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551194103
In recent years the beneficial influence of musical experiences on cognitive abilities has been extensively studied in children from approximately 5 years of age onwards. For example, in our own studies with 6- to 7-year-old children we revealed that musically trained children showed higher executive functions compared to active control groups (Frischen, Schwarzer, & Degé, 2019, 2021). However, based on the current state of research, it cannot be conclusively stated that musical experiences cause an increase in children’s cognitive abilities, because at this age pre-existing cognitive differences and also self-selection processes for musical activity cannot be fully controlled. One way to overcome this difficulty is to investigate the potentially emerging link between musical experiences and cognitive abilities from infancy onwards while carefully considering the musical environment at home. So far, it is well known that infants have the remarkable capacity to alter and develop their cognitive abilities in response to their individual environmental experiences (Schwarzer, 2014) but almost no research exists on the relation between musical experience and cognition at this young age. Therefore, we aim to longitudinally investigate whether 1) in natural development a relation between musical and cognitive abilities, especially precursors of executive functions, emerges in infants from 6 to 17 months under systematic consideration of their musical everyday environment, 2) an early musical training program can enhance infants’ cognitive processing (especially precursors of executive functions) and 3) such a musical training program also affects infants’ neuro-cognitive processing. We will conduct a multi-lab longitudinal study at three sites (Giessen, Bremen, Frankfurt) with stratified (musical enriched or non-enriched environment) random assignment to 3 interventions in infants between 6 to 17 months of age. We will have a screening (musical environment, socioeconomic status) at 5/6 months, pretest at 6/7 months, 3-months lasting interventions at 7/8 months, posttest at 10/11 months, follow-up at 16/17 months. At pre-, post- and follow-up test times, we will assess infants’ musical abilities (regarding melody and rhythm) and cognitive abilities (general and precursors of executive functions). The interventions will consist of an active music training group, an active control group (Pekip), and a waiting control group. In an additional workpackage at the Bremen site, we will investigate the effects of the music training compared to the control groups on infants’ neuro-cognitive processes. We will examine infants’ frontal alpha power during a resting-state EEG and ERPs (especially the P3a) elicited through a passive auditory oddball, both basic neuro-cognitive processes that are assumed to be associated with the development of executive functions.
DFG Programme
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