Music and Language

E. Glenn Schellenberg

g.schellenberg@utoronto.ca

Dept. of Psychology University of Toronto
Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada L5L 1C6

www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3psygs/

Course level

Intermediate

Course description

The course will examine similarities and differences between music and language in terms of their structure and function, focusing on how the methods of experimental psychology can be used to answer relevant questions.

Day-to-day program

Monday

Music and language: Similarities and differences

Tuesday

Language acquisition and music enculturation

Wednesday

Abstract vs. surface processing of music and language

Thursday

Disorders of music and language

Friday

Music training, language, and cognition

Reading materials

More readings to be announced. There will be two or three short articles to read before each class.

Background and preparatory readings

Course readings

Lecture 1: Similarities and differences between music and language
Jackendoff, R. (2009). Parallels and nonparallels between language and music. Music Perception, 26, 195-204. Peretz, I. (2009). Music, language, and modularity framed in action. Psychologica Belgica, 49(2/3), 157-175.

Lecture 2: Language acquisition and music enculturation
Hannon, E. E., & Trehub, S. E. (2005). Tuning in to musical rhythms: Infants learn more readily than adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 102, 12639-12643. Kuhl, P. K., Tsao, F.-M., & Liu, H.-M. (2003). Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 100, 9096-9101. Schellenberg, E. G., & Trehub, S. E. (1999). Culture-general and culture-specific factors in the discrimination of melodies. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 74, 107-127.

Lecture 3: Abstract vs. surface processing of music and language
Nygaard, L. C. (2005). Perceptual integration of linguistic and non-linguistic properties of speech. In D. B. Pisoni & R. E. Remez (Eds.), Handbook of speech perception (pp. ??-??). Malden, MA: Oxford/Blackwell. Schellenberg, E. G., & Trehub, S. E. (2003). Good pitch memory is widespread. Psychological Science, 14, 262-266. Stalinski, S. M., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2010). Shifting perceptions: Developmental changes in judgments of melodic similarity. Developmental Psychology. In press.

Lecture 4: Disorders of music and language
Forgeard, M., Schlaug, G., Norton, A., Rosam, C., Iyengar, U., & Winner, E. (2008). The relation between music and phonological processing in normal-reading children and children with dyslexia. Music Perception, 25, 383-390. Hyde, K. & Peretz, I. (2004) Brains that are out of tune but in time. Psychological Science, 15, 356-360. Peretz, I., Brattico, E., Järvenpää, M., & Tervaniemi, M. (2009). The amusic brain: In tune, out of key, and unaware. Brain, 132, 1277-1286.

Lecture 5: Music training, language, and cognition
Hannon, E. E., & Trainor, L. J. (2007). Music acquisition: Effects of enculturation and formal training on development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 466-472. Schellenberg, E.G. (in press). Examining the association between music lessons and intelligence. British Journal of Psychology.