Differences in Mental Abilities between Musicians and Non-Musicians

Abstract

Psychometric performance on different aspects of primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension, word fluency, space, closure, perceptual speed, reasoning, number and memory) was compared in 35 adult musicians and non-musicians. Significant differences could not be revealed for either mean full-scale scores or for specific aspects of intelligence, except verbal memory and reasoning. While performance on verbal memory was reliably higher for the musicians than for the non-musicians, non-musicians performed significantly better on all four subscales of Cattell’s Culture Free Intelligence Test, Scale 3. This latter finding is consistent with the assumption that musical talent may be associated more with intuitive rather than logical thinking. Musicians’ superior performance on verbal memory supports the notion that long-term musical training exerts beneficial effects on verbal memory, which is most likely due to changes in cortical organization.