SynthesisMemory & cognition2020
Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Memory & cognition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Musical Mnemonics in Cognitively Unimpaired Individuals and Individuals with Alzheimer's Dementia: A Systematic Review.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of music training on executive functions in preschool children aged 3-6 years: systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Language experience predicts music processing in a half-million speakers of fifty-four languages.Current biology : CB · 2023Pooled it
- Musical development during adolescence: Perceptual skills, cognitive resources, and musical training.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Pooled it
- No Evidence That Music Training Benefits Speech Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners: A Systematic Review.Trends in hearingPooled it
- Cognitive enrichment through art: a randomized controlled trial on the effect of music or visual arts group practice on cognitive and brain development of young children.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Trial
- How musical rhythm training improves short-term memory for faces.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Trial
- A Pilot Study Examining the Effects of Music Training on Attention in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Trial
- Improved Auditory Function Caused by Music Versus Foreign Language Training at School Age: Is There a Difference?Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2021Trial
- Are Mathematical and Musical Abilities Related Beyond Intelligence?Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Musical ability and emotion recognition in speech prosody: The role of pitch discrimination.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- From Finger Taps to Footsteps: Gait as a Model for Investigating and Training Rhythmic Abilities.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Review
- Impact of Education and Music Training on the Development of Abstract Thinking in the First Years of Schooling.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Music participation, global cortical morphometry, and later language outcomes in the ABCD study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The impact of musical training on reading ability in children: the mediating role of working memory.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Investigating acoustic numerosity illusions in professional musicians.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- The Influence of Music Reading on Spatial Working Memory and Self-Assessment Accuracy.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Relationship between Playing Musical Instruments and Subjective Well-Being: Enjoyment of Playing Instruments Scale.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- What Does It Take to Play the Piano? Cognito-Motor Functions Underlying Motor Learning in Older Adults.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Exploring the role of singing, semantics, and amusia screening in speech-in-noise perception in musicians and non-musicians.Cognitive processing · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Music training has repeatedly been claimed to positively impact children's cognitive skills and academic achievement (literacy and mathematics). This claim relies on the assumption that engaging in intellectually demanding activities fosters particular domain-general cognitive skills, or even general intelligence. The present meta-analytic review (N = 6,984, k = 254, m = 54) shows that this belief is incorrect. Once the quality of study design is controlled for, the overall effect of music training programs is null ([Formula: see text] ≈ 0) and highly consistent across studies (τ
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.