Early musical training benefits to non-musical cognitive ability associated with the Gestalt principles

Musical training has been evidenced to facilitate music perception, which refers to the consistencies, boundaries, and segmentations in pieces of music that are associated with the Gestalt principles. The current study aims to test whether musical training is beneficial to non-musical cognitive ability with Gestalt principles. Three groups of Chinese participants (with early, late, and no musical training) were compared in terms of their performances on the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT). The results show that the participants with early musical training had significantly better performance in the Gestalt-like Visual Closure subtest than those with late and no musical training, but no significances in other Gestalt-unlike subtests was identified (Visual Memory, Visual Discrimination, Spatial Relationship, Figure Ground in MVPT). This study suggests the benefit of early musical training on non-musical cognitive ability with Gestalt principles.

Automated summary

Musical training has been shown to enhance music perception in relation to the Gestalt principles. This study aimed to investigate whether musical training also benefits non-musical cognitive ability with respect to the Gestalt principles. Chinese participants with early, late, or no musical training were compared on the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT). The results revealed that those with early musical training performed significantly better in the Gestalt-like Visual Closure subtest compared to those with late and no musical training, but no significant differences were found in other Gestalt-unlike subtests (Visual Memory, Visual Discrimination, Spatial Relationship, Figure Ground in MVPT). This study suggests that early musical training has a positive impact on non-musical cognitive ability involving the Gestalt principles.