Copyight
Juwl of Gcrcntology:PSYCHOIDGICALSCIENCES
t998.vol. 538. No. l. P6GP69
194,8by The Cconblogical
Society olAwrica
onMemory
TheEffectsof AgeandExperience
Music
for VisuallyPresented
ElizabethJ. Meinz and Timothy A. Salthouse
Georgia Institute of Technology,Atlant4 GA.
pri'
Increasedage is ofien associatedwith lower levek of perfornance in testsof nenory lor spatial informatbry Th-e
relevant
*ry qurrfrn in the current study waswhether thi- relationship could be moderatedas a function of one's
ardlor knowledge. Stimutusnuterials consistedof short (7-11 note), visual$ presentedmusital melodies,rpiirre
ageand
oid ,tn rn otty equivaleni nonmusical stimulLfanictpanti (N = l2E) wererecruitedfrom a wide range of
no
expericncetevils.iAhougn there werestrong nain efiectsof age and erperience-onmemorytor music,there was
to
moderote
jor
with
individuak
were
smaller
stimuli
these
inlnemory
lor
ililferences
that
the
age-relaed
evlidence
large amou* of experiencewith music-
of age in visual searchof pathology slides.Howeveq signifi1/-\NE importantquestionin the agingliteraturethathasyet
\.-f to resultin a definiteanswerconcemstherelationsamong cantly lower performancewith increasedage has been found
tasks' in the spatial abilities of architects, despite a large correlation
on domain-relevant
andperformance
age,experience,
between age and presumably relevant job experience
in
performance
Althoughageeffectsin the directionof lower
(Salthouse,Babcock, Skovronek,Mitchell, & Palmon, 1990).
older adultshavebeenreportedon manytypesof memory
little evidencefor an
tasks(seeSmith,1996;Craik& Jennings,1992,fotreviews) Salthouseand Mitchell (1990) also found
of spatial ability in
measures
in
interaction
X
Experience
and other cognitivetasks(seeCraik & Salthouse,1992; Age
adults.
unselected
of
a
sample
positive
ef& Hess,1996,for reviews),the
Blanchard-Fields
In ihe domain of music, Krampe and Ericsson (1996)
fectsof experienceon domain-relevanttasksmight be exrecently reported a study in which the effects of age
relations.A findingof
pectedto moderatetheseage-memory
(younger/older) and piano expertisegroup (amateur/expert)
this type would suggestthat normalagedifferencesmay be
were investigated on several musical and nonmusical tasks.
taskswith high
minimizedor eliminatedon domain-relevant
The results oi their study were mixed as to whether expertise
levelsof experiencein thatdomain.
performance. On two
Prior researchinvestigatingrelationsof ageandexperience can attenuateage differences in musical
of age, experinteraction
a
significant
tasks,
motoric
results' speeded
memoryhasyieldedinconsistent
on domain-specific
was found
(musical/nonmusical)
type
group,
task
and
tise
For instance,in a study of memory for chesspositions'
age
with
smaller
associated
was
greater
expertise
suctrthat
skill
and
of
age
Charness( 1981a) found significanteffects
task'
nonmusical
on
the
differencei on the musical but not
(andpresumablyexperience)andan interactionof ageand
However, on performance force variation and musical interper
recalled
chunks
of
number
mean
of
the
a
measure
on
skill
"critical factors that repretation, two measuresclaimed to be
position,but ttreinteractionwasnot significanton thepropordegree" (p. 334)' no intertion of chesspiecesrecalled.Experiencedid not eliminateage ilect musical knowledge to a high
were reported. A
group
expertise
and
age
of
actions
recalling
or
narratives,
differencesin pilots recallingaviation
expectedon these
been
have
might
significant interaction
route,altitude,speed,andfrequencycommands,but therewas
to musical
sensitive
presumably
are
they
because
miasutes
an attenuationof agedifferenceswith experiencefor pilots redomain-relevant
more
have
been
may
thus
and
knowledge
calling air traffic control messageheading commands
than the motoric tasks. Becauseof this inconsistent pattern'
(Monow,Leirer,& Altieri, 1992;Monow, Leirer,Altieri' &
no strong conclusions can be reachedfrom the Krampe and
Fitzsimmons,1994).
Ericssorr(1996)study regardingthe role of expertisein miniStudiesincluding tasksotherthanrecall havealsobeeninmizing age differences in musical performance.
consistentwith respectto whetherrelevantexperiencecanreThJeffects of musical expertiseand agehavealso been studexolder
instance,
For
ducethemagnitudeof agedifferences'
ied on cognitive musical tasks' Halpern, Bartleq and Dowling
periencedtypistsareableto maintaina high levelof overall
( 1995) studied the effects of experience(musician/nonmusiiyping speedalthoughthey areslowerin tappingratesand
age (younger/older), and tonality (tonaVatonal)on the
cian),
choicereactiontimesthanyoungertypistsof thesamenet typreiogniiion of transposedmelodies. In only one of
auditory
maintenance
This
1984;Bosman'1993).
ing speed(Salthouse,
interaction of age
a
ofskill acrossagemaybe a resultofpreservedability to exe- four experiments did they find significant
differences in
age
of
smaller
the
direction
and experiencein
despiteagedifferencesin the
movements
cutetyping-related
no
evidencefor
was
there
and
nonmusicians,
than
musicians
of typing(Bosman,1994).Clancyand
translationcomponent
an old/new
on
with
experience
effects
age
of
the
attenuation
and
Hoyer(1994)alsoreporteda significantinteractionofage
weak evidencein their
was
only
there
Thus,
task.
recognition
effects
negative
the
attenuated
experiencesuchthatexperience
P60
AGEAND EXPERIENCEON MEMORY
P6l
studyfor experience-based
attenuation
of agedifferenceson
background
ofconcentriccircles(seeFigurel). In bothcases,
therecognitionof musicalmelodies.
memorywasassessed
by immediatewrittenreproductionof
It is possiblethatfailureto find an ageby experience
inter_ thestimuluspattemsaftereachof four brief (5_seiond)presen_
actionin theHalperneral. (1995)anaotneistudiesis a result tations.
containinga wide varietyof itemsconQuestionnaires
of differinglevelsof domain-relevancy
in the tasks.Morrow
cernedwith fypeandfrequencyof experiencewith musicwere
andhis.colleagues
(Morrowet al., lgd4) havesuggested
that
alsoadministered
to all participants
"expertise(domain
in thepreliminarystudies.
knowledge)cancompensate
hylothesized
majorresultin bothstudieswasa significantlnteraction
-The
agedeclinesin thecognitiveresources
nec"ssaryto perform of experience
andstimulustypesuchthattheeffectsof musi_
pilot taskswhenbothmaterialsandprocedures
aretrigirlyrete_ cal experienceweremuchlargerin thememoryfor musical
vantto p_iloting"
(p.la5). Therefore,althoughthemaierials stimuli thanfor nonmusical
stimuli.Moderatepoiitive correla_
use-d
by Halpernandhercolleagues
(i.e.,aurallypresented tionsbetweentheindexof musicalexperience
andmemoryfor
melodies)werepresumably
domain-relevant,
themusicrans_ musicalstimuli(i.e.,r = .56in preliminaryStudyl, andr =
positionrecognitiontaskmay not havebeenhighly relevantto
.47in PreliminaryStudy2) butnotfor nonmusical
stimuli(i.e..
experiencewith music.
r = in PreliminaryStudy| = .28,andr = .22in preliminary
In particular,their recognitiontask may not havebeen Study2)
werealsofoundin bothstudies.In addition,in thl
highly domain-relevant
because
it did not drawheavilyon
secondpreliminarystudy,a brief testof musicalnotation
knowledgeacquiredthroughexperience.
Onepieceofevi_
performance
knowledgewasadministered.
on thistestwas
dencet}tat supportsthis conclusionis the absenceof an
highly correlatedwith experience
(r - .gO),andadditional
Experiencex{bnalify interactionon recognitionperformance analyses
indicatedthattheeffectsof musicalexperience
on re_
in thatstudy.If musicalexperienceleadsloa greaterknowl_ call were
largelymediatedthroughthis measursofknowledee.
edgeof thetonalstructureof Westernmusic,thenexperienced This finding,
alongwith theinteractions
of experien"."id
musiciansmightbe expectedto outperformlessexperienced stimulus
typeandthestrongcorrelations
betweenexperience
musicianson the tonalmelodies.that is, an Experiencex
andmemoryfor musicalstimuli,suggested
thatthecombina_
StimulusTypeinteractionwouldbe predictedsuchthatexperi_ tion
of thesestimuliandtheimmediate
recall
taskwerehighly
encedparticipantsareableto usetheirknowledgeof muiical
domain-relevant.
Thesematerialsandsimilarprocedures
weri
structureto recognizethoseexcerptsconsistentwith their
thereforeusedin the studyto bereportedin which a moder_
knowledge,
butarelesssuccessful
airecognizingexcelptsthat
atelylargesampleof adultswererecruitedwith a wide ranse
areinconsistent
with theirknowledge.
Thi absence
of thisin_
ofageandmusicalexperience.
teractionin theHalpemet al. (1995)studymakesit difificultto
Althoughmostmemorytasksinvolvea singlerecallattempt
eliminatethepossibilitythatthemusicailyexperienced
were with eachstimulus,threesuccessive
attemptJwere
allowedin
relying solely on their experiencewith aurally presented the
currentstudy.Onereasonfor allowingmultiplerecallat_
music,ratherthanon an acquiredknowledgeof thetonalsfiuctemptswasa desireto obtainsensitivemeasures
of perfor_
tureof Westemmusic.Thus,althoughthJrewereexperience mance,
andwe wereconcernedthattheaveragelevelof per_
effectson this task,thegreateramountsof expenencemay not
formancemight be very low on the first recall attemDt.
havebeenaccompanied
by increased
levelsoidomainknowl_ especiallyin thoseparticipants
with little musicalexperienie.
edgenecessary
to compensate
for thenegativeeffectsof age. The secondreasonfor requiringthree
successive
iecall at_
Alternatively,experienced
participantsmayhavepossessed
the
temptswith the samestimuli wasto investigatepossibleinterrelevantdomainknowledge,but the constrainisof thetask actions
of attemprwith ageor experience.
fni jis potentially
mighthavebeensuchthatit wasnotnecessary
to useit to per_ informativebecause,
for exampli,if olderadultsaresimply
form thetask.
slower-at
encodingtheinformation,thenonemightexpectth!
Oneof themostconvincingwaysto establishthatstimulus agedifferences
in memoryperformanceto deireaseacross
materialsandexperimentaltasksarerelevantto a particulardo_ successive-recall
attemptsbecauseof theadditionalopportuni_
mainis to demonstratea relationbetweenperformanceon the
tiesfor effecriveencoding.Alternatively,the agediiflrences
criticalraskandexperiencein thatdomainwhile demonstrating might increase
acrossattemptsas in i stuayUy Charness
little relationbet'ween
experience
andperformance
on tasksnot
(1981b)in whichthereweregreaterage-relateidi-fferences
in
relevantto thedomain.Two preliminarystudiesweretherefore recallperformance
with increasedstudvtime.
conductedto investigatepossibleexperientialeffectson a task
To summarize,participantsof a wide ageandexperience
involvingmemoryfor visuallypresented
musicalmelodiesand
ftrngewerestudiedto investigatethemoderatingeffeits of ex_
formally similarnonmusicalslimuli (seeMeinz, l996,for a
perienceon therelationsbetweenageandspatialmemoryper_
morecompletedescriptionof thestudies).Themusicalstimuli
formance.Of particularinterestwasa posiibleinteractionof
aredomain-relevant
because
with a few exceptions,
exposure ageandexperience
on therecallof muiical stimuli,suchthat
to printedmusicis involvedin almostall musicalexperiences, experienced
individualswouldshowlittle or no asediffer_
and the task might be considereddomain_relevant
because enceson thesestimuli,whereasin keepingwith repois of ageshort-termmemoryfor visuallypresented
musicis mostlikely
relatedspatialmemorydecline(Cherry& park, 1993;pik,
a componentin musicalsight-reading.
Cherry,Smith& Lafronza.,1990;
Salthouse,
1995),in&viduals
in theseinitial studieswerecollegestudents with little or no experiencewould
. All participants
show
substantial
age_related
because
thegoalwasto examinerelationsof experielnce
to perdifferences.A three-wayinteractionof musicalexperience,
formanceon the experimentaltasks.The musicalstimuii in
age,andstimulustypemight alsobeexpectedif experienceat_
eachstudywerevisuallypresented
7- to I l_notemelodies,
and
tenuatedthe effectsof ageon memoryfor musicalbut not for
thenonmusical
stimuliconsisted
of meaningless
symbolson a
nonmusical
stimuli.
MEINZAND SALTHOUSE
P62
all participants
Becausetime limitationswereanticipated,
andonly
testing,
portion
the
of
stimuli
the
musical
completed
thosefinishingin sufficienttime alsoperformedthe recalltask
on comwith nonmusicalstimuli.Thetaskswereadministered
putersto providegreatercontrolof the testingenvironment
scoringandanalyses.
andto facilitatesubsequent
40.8,SD= 13.0)thanthesubgroupcompletingonly themusicaltask(M = 49.8,Sn= 16.2).In addition,noneof thecorrelationsbetweenageandthevariableswassignificantlydifferentbetweenthesubgrouPs.
Materials
to
by analyzingresponses
wasassessed
Musicalexperience
with
the
frequestions
concerned
containing
a questionnaire
Mmroo
with music.A newlydevised
quincyandtypeof experience
to
wasalsoadministered
knowledge
notation
musical
tlst
of
Panicipants
of
knowledge
to
assess
was
designed
This
test
participants.
all
However,
tested.
participants
were
Onehundredforty-one
of
writtenmusic,with portionsof thetestqueryingknowledge
thedatafrom 13participantswerenot analyzedbecauseof intest
was
in
The
chords.
and
signatures,
pitch,
key
rhythm,
completedataattributableto failure to follow directions,failfrom
were
answers
correct
selected
is,
the
that
form,
matching
ure to completethe session,or computer malfunctions.
andhada maximum
a setof between5 and l0 alternatives,
to be describedarebasedon 128parTherefore,theanalyses
thenamesof
to
identify
were
asked
42.
Participants
of
general
score
through
were
recruited
participants
ticipants.The
identifythe
to
treble
staves;
newspaper
ads,throughspecialrecruitingat schoolsof music musicalnoteson thebassand
to idensymbols;
note
different
by
indicated
beats
numberof
andmusicretailstores,andttrough a local musicians'union.
diminminor,
major,
identify
and
to
key
signatures;
major
tify
rangedin agefrom l8 to 83,andtheir self-reParticipants
comthe
test,
of
The
reliability
chords.
augmented
and
ished,
a
on
activities
in
musical
participating
years
portednumberof
alpha,was.98.Descriptivestatisticson
putedby Cronbach's
primary instntmentrangedfrom 0 to 60. Specialefforts were
itemsandthemusicalnotation
ihe individualquestionnaire
the visualmemorytaskwas
madeto recruitpianistsbecause
2.
Thble
in
listed
test
are
presumedto be similarto bothsight-readingandmemorizaAll musicalstimuliweremelodiesbetween7 andI I notes
tion,bothof whichmaybe especiallyimportantto thedeveldescribedby
andwereadaptedfrom 7-notesequences
long,
participants
listed
percent
of
the
pianist.
Fifty
opmentof a
"tonallystrongitems
were
(1991).
melodies
These
Dowling
pianoastheir primary instrument,with the primary instruconstitutedclearly
mentsof the remainingparticipantslistedas eitherbrass, that startedandendedon thetonic,that
'melodious'in thesense
were
and
that
key,
pattems
in
the
tonal
Background
instruments.
woodwind,string,or percussive
Kershner,
of usingrelativelysmallpitchintervals"(Pechstedt,
characteristicsof the participantsperformingthe musical
7-l
I note
The
l99l).
in
Dowling,
1989,cited
memorytask,andof the53 participantswho alsoperformed & Kinsbourne,
key
within
the
notes
adding
by
were
constructed
melodies
in Thble1.A sethenonmusicalmemorytash aresummarized
work
and
Dowling
the
from
taken
to
the
melodies
perstructure
riesof t-testswereconductedto comparethesubsample
pitches.
No
measure
to
the
values
=
by
assigning
rhythm
(N
adding
with
53)
tasks
nonmusical
and
forming boththe musical
hadfewerthantwo or greaterthansix notes.Melodieswerein
only performingthe musicaltask(N= 75) on
the subsample
the variableslisted in Table 1. There were no significant commontime andweredrawnfrom all possiblemajorkeys.
Rhythmswererandomlyassignedfrom all possiblecombi(p<.01)differencesbetweenthe groupsexcepton age,such
=
(M
of a specifiednumberof notes'Thepossiblenotevalnations
younger
was
tasks
both
that the subgroupcompleting
CompleteSampleandSamplewith NonmusicData
Tablel. ParticipantCharacteristics:
Participants with Nonmusic Data
Entire Sample
SD
n
Age
VoFemale
Education
Healthrating
Vocabulary
Yearsof musicalactivityprimary instrument
Hours/weekmusicalactivitycunently
Hours/weekmusicalactivitymost activetime
Self-ratedmusicalability
Musical notationknowledgetest
128
46.r
66.4
t5;7
Age r
15.6
r.9
t3.4
t2.5
2.9
0.9
5.0
r5.l
4.6
8.7
t4.g
2.7
19.3
-0.16
-0.06
0.l3
0.15
Mean
53
40.8
ffi.4
t6.4
2.0
SD
Age r
13.0
;
t.0
-o.r+
t2.o
r3.6
0.21
0.34
0.14
4.18
6-4
10.7
-o.14
15.8
4.24*
16;l
l9.l
-o.18
1.3
14.5
4.26x
4.2r
2.8
20,7
1.4
14.4
-o.30
4.21
I J.J
5.1
from I = excellent to 5 - poor' The vocabuNole: Education refers to years of formal education, and health rating is a self-assessment on a scale ranging
choice tests. Self-rated musical ability is
multiple
=-20)
and
antonym
synonym
(maximum
".-..
responses
of
correct
number
lary scorc is the sum of the
based on a I (poor) to 5 (excellent) scale.
*P <.ol
AGEAND EXPERIENCEON MEMORY
uesincludeddonedhalf (3 beats),half (2 beats),dottedquarter
(1rlzbeats),quarter(l beat),eighth(r/zbeag,andsixteenth('/l
beat).Noneof themelodieswereassigned
th" ,"-" sequence
of rhythms.Theorderof notevalueswasassignedin iuch a
way that thecombinationof melodyandrhythm seemedtypi_
cal of Westernmusic,asjudged by two individualswith
greaterthanl0 yearsof musicexperience
each.Key andtime
signatures
aswell asclef wereprovidedto theparticipant.
Thenonmusicalbackgroundwasconstructed
to bssimilarin
all of its components
to themusicalstaff.Themusicalstaffcon_
sistsof fivelinesdividedinto two measures,
andthenonmusical backgroundwasfive concentriccirclesdividedinto two
equalhalves.Thesymbolswerealsoconstructed
to be similar
to musicalnotation,butnot recognizable
asmusic.Therewasa
nonmusicalstimuluspairedwith eachmusicalstimulus,such
thata l:l mappingcouldplacesymbolson boththestaffand
circle.Extrasymbolswereincludedon thecircleto parallelttre
key andtime signanues
on themusicalstimuli.Thenonmusical
stimuli were,however,arrangedaccordingto a differentpitch
orderthanthemusic.For example,theD in a musicalstimulus
corresponded
to anE in thenonmusicalstimulus.Thepattem
in which thenonmusicalstimuli werearrangedwascomposed
soasto reducethepossibilityof encodingby anytonalmusic
strategy.
An exampleof a musicalstimulusandthecorrespond_
ing nonmusicalstimulusareshownin Fieurel.
Design and Prccedure
In the single sessionlasting benveen2 and 2.5 hours, partici_
pants completed a consent form, a demographicinformation
sheet,two brief vocabulary measures(rnultiple_choice syn_
onym and antonym testsdescribedin Salthouse,1993),the mu_
sical notation test,and the musical experiencequestionnaire.
They then received supervised practice using the computer in_
terface to reproducethe musical melodies. There were three
practice melodies, with the first provided to the participant on a
piece ofpaper so that he or she could practiceusing ihe inter_
face without relying on memory. Informal comments collected
by participants indicated that threepractice trials were sufficient
to be comfortable in using the interface. Two blocks of six
melodies each followed the practice trials, and an additional
block of six nonmusical stimuli on the circular, nonmusical
background was administered if time permitted. The stimuli in
this last block were formally identicalio those in the fint block
of musical stimuli, but convertedto nonmusical stimuli. The
presentationorder was always practice(music), music, music,
practice (nonmusic),nonmusic.Two setsof melodieswere
used,each with equal numbersof melodies of differing lengths.
Set one was usedin the first music condition and the nonmusi_
cal condition, and settwo in the secondmusic condition.
Participantsviewed the stimulus presentedon a computer
screenfor 5 seconds,and then attemptedto reproducethe ob_
Table2. DescriptiveStatisticson ExperienceMeasures(N = | 2g)
Experience Measure
SD
Range
7o minimum
responses
Component Loading
CI
C2
c3
0.38
0.32
0.39
0.3r
0.s3
0.36
o.29
0.53
4.57
-.0.07
-0.63
-0.07
4.27
o.t2
-o.63
4.20
0.24
0.26
0.r0
o.27
-0.30
o.tz
0.55
4.25
0.r0
0.49
0.14
-0.40
0.20
-o.30
0.28
4.20
0.14
4.24
0.35
-o.30
-0.03
4.27
8.37
0.42
2.99
0.r5
r.60
0.08
Correlation with age
Correlation with corrctly placed musical stimuli (third attempr)
Correlation with correctly placed nonmusiial srimuli (third attempt)
4.12
*0.63
0.04
0.04
0.21
-0.20
Correlations with subjective overall similarity rating
*0.65
0.21
0.00
0.03
*0.75
0.19
0.05
0.02
Years of musical activity-primary instrument
Years of musical activity-secondary instrument
Yearsof private study-primary instrument
Years of private study-secondaryinstrument
Number of paid performances
Number of solo recital performances
Number of accompanying performances
Number of ensembleperformances
Hours/week alone practice-currently
Hours/week alone practice-most active time
Hours/week deliberate alone practice-cunently
HourVweek deliberate alone practice-most active time
HourVweek total musical activity-currently
Hours/week total musical activity-most active time
HourVweek sight reading-currently
HourVweek sight reading-most active time
Hours/week memorization-currently
HourVweek memorization-most active time
Self-rated musical ability
Self-rated sight reading ability
12.5
A 1
4.8
t.2
245.7
12.8
47.7
238.6
2.1
9.3
1.5
l-3
4.6
t4.9
0.8
J-l
0.7
3.0
2.7
2.5
1 5I.
8.8
5.6
2;1
774.2
26.9
163.9
620.1
4.5
9.9
3.9
8.9
8.7
15.9
2.2
4.4
t.o
+.)
t.3
t-J
M0.0
G41.0
u24.0
0-t6.0
0-5000.0
0-150.0
0-1300.0
0-3500.0
0-30.0
o-45.0
0-30.0
042.0
0-45.0
0-70.0
0-20.0
u24.0
0-10.0
0-20.0
1.0-5.0
1.0-5.0
t2.5
44.5
28.|
64.8
tu.8
35.9
6't.2
35.2
64.1
r3.3
68.0
15.6
53.9
I t.7
67.2
27.3
77.3
34.4
22.7
38.3
Eigenvalues
Proportion of variance accounted for
Musical notation knowledge test - Descriptives and
correlations with the components
* p< . o l
19.3
l4.S
M2.O
t2.5
0.66
0.60
0.59
0.48
0.46
0.43
0.48
0.s0
0.73
0.82
0.66
0.78
0.78
0.87
0.61
0.57
0.57
0.67
0.73
030
{r.J/
{J.ll
-o.16
4.44
0.28
0.06
0.r3
0.39
0.61
-O.15
0.01
4.23
0.06
-{.28
0.1I
-O.03
0.00
-0.00
0.17
0.t9
-.X.15
-0.09
0.15 -{.10
0.u
0.03
0.03 {.03
P64
MEINZAND SALTHOUSE
servedpatternon a musical staff or nonmusicalbackground
that appearedon the computer screen.The recall attempts were
produced by pressingarrow keys to position the desired note
on the staff, and then using the arrow keys to identify which
type of note (i.e., quarter,half, eighth) was to be placed in the
chosenposition.An exampleof the computerinterfaceis illustrated in Figure 2. After the participants had placed all of the
"Enter" key was pressedto
notes they could remember,the
view the stimulus again for five seconds.The secondstimulus
presentationwas followed by a secondrecall attemptin which
the previouslyplacednoteswere displayedandcould be added
to, changed,or deleted.A total ofthree presentationsand recall
attemptswere administeredin this mannerfor each stimulus.
Participantswere thoroughly debriefed following the testing.
Scoring
Each symbol placedon the staff was assignedone of four
scoretypes: correct,colrect placement,correct symbol, or incorrect. Correct scores were those that were correct both in
placementas well as in symbol type.A colrect placementscore
was assignedto responsesin which the vertical position on the
musical staff or nonmusical background was colrect, but the
symbol chosenwas incorrect.Those correct symbols with in-
MusicalSymbolson Staff
correct vertical or horizontal positioning were designatedas
conect symbol, and those with incorrect symbol type and
placementwere designatedas incorrect.Although it was possible for participants to correct their incorrect responsesacross
repeatedrecall attempts,no significant decreasesin the number of errors across attempts occurred for any elTor type.
Additionally, the frequencyof errorswas quite low in all cases
(i.e., meansof lessthan l.l ), and thusthe error analyseswill
not be discussedfurther.
Two criteria were usedto scorethe reproductionresponses.
The conservativecriterion began scoring eachresponsesymbol at the beginning of the melody, matching sequentially,so
that, for example, the third symbol in the responsemelody was
scoredagainstthe third symbol in the stimulus.This criterion
is conservativebecauseit does not accountfor possibleinsertions or omissions.
The liberal criterion also beganscoringeachresponsesymbol at the beginning of the melody, however, when it reacheda
symbol that was incorrect (i.e., not matching on symbol or
placement), a serial searchwas performed uritil an item matching on either symbol type or vertical position was found. Once
a match was found, the searchcontinuedwith the next symbol
from the stimulus note that was last matched.If no match was
MusicalStimuliInterface
ftosr <ENTEF> t'h.n dq|e erturiE not$.
Prg€s O lo r€mve a notg.
E:IJ J . ) f) b
flr r r P ?
.-
-'
o
a
Circles
Symbolson Concentric
Nonmusical
Arrow keys rno\D ct sor. Place w/ lspee] .
StimuliInterface
Nonmusical
Press <ENTEF> r,han cbm €nio|ilg swnbols
PrgesD io fdr|o\re a sYrbd
. @ .
\
6, /
B .
\ \ \
d
/
/
f
Arow ksys pcition box. Place w/ lsPacel.
Figure i. Example of a musical stimulus and the corresponding nonmusical stimulus.
Figure 2. Illustration of musical and nonmusical stimuli computer
interface.
AGEAND EXPERIENCEON MEMORY
found,ttresymbolwasscoredasincorrect,andthe scoringre_
sumedat thenextsymbol.This scoringcriterionis moretib_
eral thanthe conservativecriterion becauseit takesinsertions
andomissionsinto accounton thescoring.However,thecorrelationbetweenthesetwo criteriawasvery high (r = .99),and
consequently
all subsequent
analyseswereperformedusing
theconservative
criterion.
A subjectivescoringmethodwasalsousedwith themusical
stimuli to evaluatepossiblequalitativedimensionsof recall
performance.
Thefinalresponse
attemptfor eachof the 1536
(i.e.,128X 12)response
parternswasindependently
ratedon
four criteriaby a musicianwith over 15yearsof musicalexpe_
rience:tonalify, rhythm,contour,andoverall similari$ to ihe
stimulusmglody.Theratingsrangedfrom I lcompletetydis_
similar)to 5 (identical).Inter-raterreliability,assessed
by com_
paringtheratingson a subsetof 96 stimuli with a secondinde_
pendentrater,washigh (r = .94,.95,.97, and.96for overall
similarity,rhythra contour,andtonality,respectively).
. As onemight expect,thecorrelationsamongtheratingsfor
theseattributeswerehigh (i.e.,r > .84).Conelationsbetlween
thefour rating scalesandthe computer-derived
scoreswere
alsoquite high. To illustrate,the correlationsbetweennumber
of symbolscorrectlyplaced(conservative
criterion)andrat_
ingsof overallsimilarity,rhythm,contour,andtonalitywere
.97,.93,.88,and.93,respectively.
Because
thesehighc-onelationsimply thatthedifferenttypesof scoresrver"uJry similar,
all subsequent
analyseswerebasedon thecomputer-derived
(conservative)
scor€s.
F9r thefollowing analyses,
correctscoresfrom eachattempt
on themusicalstimuli wereaveragedacrossthe l2 stimulus
pattems,andthe correctscoresfrom eachattempton the non_
musicalstimuliwereaveraged
acrossthe6 stimuluspattems.
Reliability of the musicalrecall, computedby using the
Spearman-Brown
formulato boostthecorrelationbetweenthe
averagecorrectscoreson the final attemptfor thetwo blocks,
wasgreaterthan.99.
Rrsulrs
Musicalexperience
A principalcomponentsanalysiswasperformedon the experiencequestionnaireitemsto transformthem into a few.
moregeneralvariablesthat could parsimoniouslyaccountfor
the variancein the original questionnaireitems.Eachcompo_
nentrepresents
a weightedlinearcompositeof thequestion_
naireitemsandaccountsfor thegreatestpossibleproportionof
thevariancein the itemsthatis distinctfrom thevarianceal_
P65
readyexplainedby theprecedingcomponents.
l,oadingsofthe
questionnaireitemson thefour componentswittr eigenvalues
greaterthan1.0arelistedin Table2.
The first principalcomponent,Cl, waschosenasthepri_
marymeasureof musicalexperience
becauseit wasassociited
with a largeproportionof the total variance(42Vo),andbe_
causeall of thequestionnaire
itemshadfairly high loadingson
this componenr
(> 0.4).Althougheachof theremaining-om_
ponentshadsomeitemswith high loadings,theywerenot eas_
ily interpretableandmayhavebeenindicatorsof professional
musicalexperience
(i.e.,accompanying,
ensembleperfor_
mance,and paid performances).
In addition,eachof these
components
accountedfor considerablysmalleramountsof
variancethanthe first(l5Voor less)andnoneconelatedsienificantly with musicalrecall. Correlationsof the experiJnce
componentswith age,musicalnotationknowledge,andrecall
on thetwo stimulustypesarcreportedin Thble2.
Domain-Relevance
Stimulustypeeffects.- Beforeproceedingto morecomplex analyses,it wasfirst necessary
to confirm thattheperformancemeasurein this taskwasrelevantto musicalexperi_
ence.One way to do this was to determinewhethei the
ExperienceX StimulusTypeinteractionwassignificant.Only
thoseparticipantswho completedthe recall taskwith botlr
stimulustypeswereincludedin thisanalysis.Characteristics
of thissubsample
(N = 53) arecontained
in Thblel, andcorrelationsamongexperience,
musicalknowledge,age,andrecall
for this samplearelisted in Table3. Note that althoughthe
subsample
wassomewhatyoungerthanthetotal sample,the
subsample
still hada wide rangeof ageandwascomparable
wjth thetotal sampleon mostrelevantcharacteristics.
Usingonly thesubsample's
datafor bothmusicalandnon_
musicalstimuli,regression
analyseswereconductedwith stimulus type and experienceas predictorsof recall accuracy.
Recall attemptswerelargely cumulative,and the rangeof
scoreswaslargerwith successive
attempts,andthus,this analysis wasperformedon thefinal recallattemptonly.Therewere
significantmaineffecrsof stimulustype,F(1,51)= 133.72,
(Ms [and.SDs]
= 4.7(2.6),and1.9(1.4)for musicalandnonmusicalstimuli,respectively),
andexperience,
F(1,51)=29.M,
but theseeffectswerequalifiedby an interactionof stimulus
typeandexperience,
F(I,5 I ) = 70.80.As expected,
thisinteractionwasattributableto significanteffectsof experience
on
themusicalstimuli(i.e.,F'(1,51)=64.96,B =.75) butnoton
thenonmusical
stimuli(i.e.,l'(1,51)= .07,g =.M).
Table3. CorrelationsAmongExperience,
MusicalNotationKnowledge,Memoryperformance,
andAge
r
l. Age
2. Experienceu
3. Musicalnotationknowledgetest
4. Musicalmemory
5. Nonmusicalmemory
-0.1I
4.21
-o.31
-o.35
2
3
4.r2
4.17
0.75*
0.85*
0.75*
0.04
0.87*
0.l8
4
4.43*
0.63*
*
0.81
o.34
Note" Above the diagonal are correlations for all subjects (N = 128). B,elow the diagonal
are correlations for only those with nonmusical aata 1lv = 53f
'Experience refers to the first principal
component from the analysis of the experiericequestionnaire.
*P < .ol.
A,IEINZANDSALTHOUSE
P66
Musicallmowledge.- Anotherindicationthatperformance
is sensitivityto domainknowlmeasrues
aredomain-relevant
that the absenceof an
was
earlier
Indeed,
it
argued
edge.
Experiencex Tonaliryinteractionin theHalpemet al. (1995)
reto weakexperience-knowledge
studycouldbeattributable
lations.Thus,it is our argumentthatexperiencealoneis not
relations;
sufficientto producestrongexperience-performance
possess
levelsof
must
higher
individuals
experienced
rather,
relevantknowledge,presumablyacquiredthroughrelevantexperience,andtheperformancemeasuremustbe sensitiveto
domain-relevant.
thisknowledgeto be considered
Therefore,anotheranalysiswasperformedpredictingrecall
performanceon the final attempt,this time with knowledge
(i.e.,scoreon themusicalnotationtest)andstimulustypeas
predictors.Therewasa significantmaineffectof knowledge,
f(1,51)= 70.73,butnotof stimulustype,F(1,51)= .13.Most
importantly,theinteractionof stimulustypeandknowledge
to sigF(1,51)=99.63,whichwasattributable
wassignificant,
nificantmaineffectsof knowledgeon themusicalstimuli,
stimuli,
f(1,51) = 162.68,9= .87,butnoton thenonmusical
f(1,51)-- l;79,P = .18.
Thesetwo setsof resultsclearlyindicatethatthemeasures
of musicalmemoryin thecurrentstudyarcsensitiveto experiencewith musicandto knowledgeaboutmusicalnotationthat
analyses,
Subsequent
acquiredwith experience.
is presumably
experience
age
and
of
the
interrelations
focused
on
therefore,
on thesemeasures.
periencereflecteda tendencyfor therelationsbetweenexperienceandmemoryperformanceto be strongerwith greater
Althoughthenonlinearpatternwas
amountsof experience.
with the
significant,the proportionof varianceassociated
with the
quadratictrendwassmallrelativeto thatassociated
nonlinthe
(i.e.,
vs
and
consequently
.04
.40),
Rz=
lineartrend
analyses.
earrelationswereignoredin subsequent
Age x Experiencex Anempt.-Table 4 containsthemean
numberof symbolscolrectlyrecalledasa functionof experiencelevel,agedecade,andattemptnumber.A repeatedmeaon thesedatawith
analysiswasconducted
suresregression
andattemptnumberaspredictorsof musical
age,experience,
attemptswerelargelycumulative
recall.Scoreson successive
from Attempt I wereinthe
symbols
for example,
because,
2 unlesssymbolswere
Attempt
from
in
the
score
cluded
deletedby the participant.The main effects of attempt,
F(2,248)= 164.48,age,F(|,124) = 29.33,andexperience,
of attempt
F(l,124) = 30.59,werequalifiedby interactions
=
F(2,248)=
and
experience,
attempt
35.26,
andage,F(2,248)
andage,F(|,124) =7.65.Thethree12.20,andexperience
andattemptwasnot signifway interactionof age,experience,
icant,F(2,248)= 2.50,P = .09.
Examinationof themeansinvolvedin theserelationsrevealedthatparticipantsplacedsignificantlymorecorrectnotes
trial (Ms andSDs= I .4(l.l ), 2.9(2'l), and
on eachsuccessive
respectively),
4.0(2.5)for thefirst,second,andthird attempts,
wasgreaterfor exandthatthis increasein correctplacements
participants
andlesserfor older
perienced
thaninexperienced
AgeandExpeienceEfects
Thediscoverythatthebenefits
thanfor youngerparticipants.
weregreaterfor experiencedand
of repeatedpresentations
wereconductedto
Nonlinearrelations.- Initial analyses
youngindividualssuggeststhat the poorerperformanceof
determinethe magnitudeof anynonlineareffectsof ageand
experienceon the musicalrecall measure(final attempt). older and inexperiencedindividualswas not simply atHierarchicalregressionanalyseswereusedfor this purpose tributableto a sloweror lesseffectiveinitial encodingof the
stimuli,becausetherewasno tendencyfor thedeficitsto be reterminroduced
with thequadraticageor quadraticexperience
Becauseanalysesremediatedwith repeatedpresentations.
afterfint controllingfor thelineareffectsof that variable.The
patterns
each
attempt,andbecause
of
results
on
resultsdid not reveala significantquadraticeffectof age, vealedsimilar
analysubsequent
all
were
cumulative,
largely
=
attempts
=
recall
linear
F(|,I25) .26,I .24, aftercontrolfor thesignificant
performance
the
final
anempt
from
performed
using
were
quadratic
ses
effect
was
a
significant
there
age;
however,
effectof
asthemeasureof recall.
F( 1,I 25)= 14.99,I = -.37, aftercontrolof the
of experience,
The significantinteractionof experienceandagewasnot in
linearexperienceeffect.The significantquadraticeffectof exby Age Decade,ExperienceLevel,andAttemptNumber
Thble4. MeanNumberof MusicalSymbolsConectlyPlacedPresented
Age Decade
30
M S D
4A
M S D
2.6
4.0
0.4
0.9
1.8
l0
0.9 0.4
1.9 0.9
2.9 1.1
t6
0.8 o.4
1 . 7 0.8
2.6 1.0
l4
2.5
5.1
7.0
l.l
2.1
2.0
13
1.9 1.2
4.0 2.4
5.6 2;7
15
2.3
4.4
6.0
20
M S D
Inexperienced
N
Attempt I
Anempt 2
Attempt 3
Experiencedu
N
Attemptl
Attempt 2
Attempt 3
9
l.J
l.l
2.O
2.2
50
M S D
l6
0.8 0.5
1.6 1 . 0
2.4 1 . 6
8
2.5
4.6
5.9
60
M S D
ll
0.6 0.4
1.0 0;7
r . 3 0.9
70
M S D
5
0.8 0.9
1.5 1.8
2.3 2.8
l0
1.5
2.3
2.1
t-z
0.8
l-J
3-t
l.)
r.3 0.9
1.6 0.8
2.t 1.3
Note: Ttrc mean number of symbols acrossthe l2 melodies was 8.83, and thus, this is the maximum possible in each cell.
.Experience level was obtainld by dichotomizing experience by the median score on the first principal cornponent from the experiencequestionnaire.
AGEAND EXPERIENCEON MEMORY
the predicted direction becauseexperiencedmusicians did not
show smaller age differenceson recall of the musical stimuli
than inexperienced participants. Instead, the opposite appears
to be tnre, in that there were smaller age differenies among inexperiencedthan among experiencedmusicians, most likelv
becauseoffloor effects in the older, inexperiencedparticipana.
Figure 3 illustrates this trend with data from the final attempt,
with experiencedichotomized by dividing the sample into high
and low groups at the median of the composite index of expi_
rience. The low experience group in this illustration corre_
spondsto a mean of 2.6(SD = 2.8) years of musical activity on
a primary instrument, a mean of 0.3(SD = 0.9) hours per week
of current musical activity, and a mean of 0. I (SD = b.6) current hours per week of practice alone. The high experience
group correspondsto meansof 22.3(SD = 15.9), 9.0(SD =
10.6),and 4.I(SD = 5.6) on theseactivities,respectively.
Additional Arwlyses Conductedfor Interpretation of the Age X
Expeience Interaction
Other mcasuresof expeience. -Although the results sum_
marized in Table 2 indicate that most of the experienceques_
tionnaire items had moderateto high loadings on ttre Rrst prin_
cipal component, separateanalyseswere conducted usingiach
F
(L
llJ
F
F
o
!!8
:c
F
z
o
o
-+-high
:il';'.'.
'
'"'t
TU
O
o
t'
",'
'
J
F
c
.-
-
n
"
t
o-I
o
o.o_oo
E ,
o
(n
D
o o o
oa
5
6
(L
o
trJ
(r
-0.23
- €-'lollr @erience
y*4.90.05*ege
R'=0.18
B"
{o
J
o
(I)
o _ oi
t r t ' o }- q- \
a
"
U
LEr LLI N-- U
%-nq \ " _
a 2
t].
o
o
-a?H
\!
aoX
L
aozntr
t r t r -n - O
\ -\
t
uJ
o
e
e l l
z o
m
4
o
6
0
8
0
AGE (YEARS)
(dichotomized
by medianscoreon the
- Figure3. TheAge X Experience
first principalcomponentfrom an experience
questionnaire)
interactionfor
musicalstimuli. Maximum meannumberof symbolscorrectlyplaced=
8.83.The meanagewx 47.9 (SD = 14.1;for the low experiencioanicipantsand 44.2(SD = 16.8)for the high experience
panicipants,with
rangesof 22-79and I 8-33 years,respectively.
P67
individual item as the experiencemeasure.Individual experi_
enceitem conelationswith musicalmemon'varied from.l6
to .60, but with none of the experiencemq$ures was the interaction of age and experience significant in the direction of
smaller age diftbrencesin the more experiencedparticipans.
Modcration versusmediation. -Theprimarv
focus in this
study was on the moderating effects of experienceon the rela_
tions betrveenage and memory but small negativecorrelations
between age and some experience measures(seeTables I and
2) raise the possibility that lower levels of experiencein the
older sample might have actually mediated some of the nqga_
tive age relations. If this were the case, the age differenies
should be substantially attenuatedafter statistical control of
musical experience.Although the effects of age on musical recall were reducedafter conEolling for experience,i.e.,.P= .19
for age alone and . 14 after control of the first experiencecomponent,the residualeffect ofage was still significantly greater
than.zero. Repeating the regression analyseswith a sample
consistingofonly the upper halfofthe experiencedistribution
also revealedno evidencefor moderation of age effects with
experience,F(1,60) = 3.15,p > .07, or for a r.ill", "ge .oo.lation with musical recall (r = -.48). Thus, the age differences
observed in musical recall were most likely not attributable to
lower levels of experiencein the older participants.
Recencyof expeience. - Becauseof the rather high correlation betweenage and years since musical activity ceased
(i.e., r = .44), it was possiblethat the lack of the predictedage
by experienceinteraction was due to variationsin re."ncy of
experience.Indeed, Ericsson and Charness(1994), in discussingthe existenceof age-relateddecline acrossexperience
levels, have suggestedthat "much of the age-relateddecline in
performance may reflect the reduction or termination of pracnce" (p.744). Moreover, Krarnpe and Ericsson (lg6) reported
that an important predictor of altemate hand tapping speedin
pianists was the amount of deliberate practice in whiih a pianist was engagedduring the past l0 years.Thus, maintenance
of domain-relevantskills may dependon the degreeto which
relevant deliberatepractice is continued in later years.
Given this interpretation, one might expect a significant
three-way interaction of age, experience, and recency of experience in the direction oflarger experience-basedmoderation
of the age relations for individuals with greater amounts of recent experience.However, regressionanalysesrevealedthat
the interaction of age, experience,and recency of experience
(the number of years since musical activity ceased)was not
significant,F = 1.78,p = .19, and furthermore,therewas still a
negative correlation between age and correct recall (i.e., r =
-.53) when the sample was limited to only recently active participants (i.e., those with musical activity within the past 3
years,N = 61,M*= 45.9(15.1). Therefore,the resultsof these
analysesdo not provide support for a moderation of experience effects by recency ofexperience. Additionally, it doesnot
appearthat older adults change their patternsof musical engag€mentsuch that they spend most of their time playing familiar pieces rather than sight-reading, becausewhen the sample was restricted to include only those participants who
reportedthat they currently spent time sight-readingin an av-
P68
MEINZAND SAI:THOUSE
erageweek,thecorrelationbetweenageandcorrectmusicrenegative(i.e.,r= -.54).
call wasstill significantly
Instrumentanalyses.-Although specialeffortsweremade
to recruit pianistsfor this study,thoselisting pianoasa priinstrumentcomprisedonly 67Voof thesammaryor secondary
ple; therefore,theresultsmight havebeenmoderatedby instnrmenteffects.If instrumenteffectsmoderatedthe effectsof
experienceon recall,thenan interactionof experienceandinstrumentmight be expectedwhenpredictingmusicalrecall
experience,
and
from primaryinstrument(piano/nonpiano),
age.In addition,if instrumenteffectsmoderatedthe effectsof
ageon recall,thenan interactionof ageandexperiencemight
be expected.However,therewasno evidenceto suggestthat
therewasan effectof instrumenton correctrecallof musical
effectsweremoderstimuli, F(I,120) = .06,that experience
F(1,120)= 1.39,or thatageeffects
atedby typeof instrument,
F(1,120)= .06.The
weremoderated
by typeof instrument,
three-wayinteractionof age,experience,andinstrumenttype
wasalsononsignificant,
F(1,120)=2.47.
possibility,similaranalyseswereperformedusingonly those
participants
who scoredabove19on the notationknowledge
test.Evenwhenusingthismoreselectsample(N= 59),however,the samepattemof resultsemergedin that therewasno
significanteffectof musicalexperienceon musicalrecallafter
controllingfor knowledge,F( 1,56)= . I 3. Furthermore,the
patternof ageeffectson musicalrecallin this samplewassimilar to thatof theentiresample,wittr a significantnegativecorrelationbetweenageandmusicalrecall(r = -.60).
DrscussloN
Themajorresultof this projectwasthe failure to find an attenuationof thenegativeeffectsof ageon memoryfor domainAlthoughthererelevantstimuli with increasedexperience.
asto whether
inconsistent
been
have
ofprevious
studies
sults
experiencecan reduceagedifferenceson domain-relevant
tasks,attenuationwaspredictedbecausethe currenttaskwas
on thebasisof thesigbelievedto be highly domain-relevant
nificantrelationsbetweenexperienceandrecall performance
in thepreliminarystudiesandin theprimarystudy.Additional
evidencefor therelevanceof thestimuli wasin theform of a
Response
bias.- Becausetherewasa significantcorrela- significantKnowledgeX StimulusTypeinteractionon recall,
which is importantgiventhe argumentthat experienceeffects
tion betweenageandthe averagenumberof symbolsplacedin
-.34),
=
(r
alonemaynot be a sufficientconditionfor establishingtherelthere
might
of accuracy
the final attemptregardless
evanceof a taskto a domain.
response
biasin ttratrelativeto young
havebeenan age-related
Despitesffongeffectsof experienceandof knowledgeon
adults,olderadultscouldhavebeenlessinclinedto guess
recall of the musicalstimuli, andstrongage-relatedeffectson
whenthetotalnumberof symwhenuncertain.Nonetheless,
memoryfor bothmusicalandnonmusicalstimuli,therewas
bolsplaced(correctandincorrect)wasusedasa covariatein
pattern
no evidencein this studythat greateramountsof experience
X
of
results
in
this
the
Age
Experience
analysis,
the
moderatedtheeffectsof ageon performancein a domain-releAlso, it
analysiswasidenticalto thatof theinitial analysis.
for this findingwere
vanttask.Severalpossibleexplanations
moreon
doesnot appearthat certainindividualsconcentrated
of thepredictedAge X Experience
explored,but theabsence
pitch values(verticalposition)thanrhythms(notetype),bewith correctpitchvalueswereused interactioncouldnot be accountedfor by recencyof expericausewhenall responses
biases,or
activity,response
ence,reductionsin sight-reading
asthe dependentmeasure,the pattemof resultswassimilar to
with theexceptionof a nonsignifi- instrumenteffects.Moreover,althoughthe brief exposurepethatof theinitial analyses
for the older
riod (5 seconds)might havebeena disadvantage
(i.e.,F(\,124)= l.9l).
cantinteraction
of ageandexperience
adults,thepresenceof anAge X Attemptinteraction,in which
agedifferenceswereactuallylargerwith moreattempts,indiRelatioruBetweenExperienceandKnowledge
catesthat older adultswerenot ableto capitalizeon the reTo furtherexplorethe relationshipbetweendomainexperipeatedexposuresto the stimuli. Finally, thepossibilitythat
enceandknowledge,andto investigatethepossibilitythat the
effectsof experienceon taskswithin a domainaremediated someof the negativeeffectsof agemight havebeenmediated
wasexplored,but there
amountsof experience
throughknowledgeaboutthai domain,theeffectsof experi- by decreased
encewereexaminedbeforeandaftercontrolof themusical waslittle attenuationof age-relatedeffectsafter conhol of the
notationknowledgemeasure.Hierarchicalregressionanalyses availablemeasureof experience.
A discoveryof a significantAge X Experienceinteraction
with experienceandscoreon thenotationtestaspredictorsof
on
musicalrecall wouldhavebeenconsistentwith the view
were
no
signifirevealed
that
there
additional
musicalrecall
thatolderadultswereableto maintainhigh levelsof perforcanteffectsof experienceon recall performanceafterperforspatialmemorytaskdespitelower
mancein a domain-relevant
manceon themusicalnotationtestwasheldconstant.TheF
142.95and.40, levelsof perfonnanceon generalspatialmemorytasksbewith experiencewere
andR2valuesassociated
causeof the positiveeffectsof experience.In otherwords,berespectively,whenexperiencewastheonly predictor,but only
causepeopleoftencontinueto engagein musicalactivitieslate
.74 md.00 aftercontrolof theknowledgevariable.This patthattheeffectsof musicalexperience into life, theymighthavebeenexpectedto somehowcircumternof resultssuggests
on this taskwerealmostentirelymediatedthroughthemea- ventdecliningabilitiesto maintainhigh levelsof performance
in tasksrelevantto their experience.However,despitethe use
sureof musicalnotationknowledge.
is
of a taskin which moderatelylargeexperienceeffectshave
recall
task
musical
argued
current
It could be
that the
experiencewith music(up
evenconsiderable
beenestablished,
qualitativelydifferentfor thosewho haveno musicalbackfor the age-relateddifgroundbecausefor thoseindividualsthestimuli wouldconsist to 60 years)wasunableto compensate
on this particulartask.
of unfamiliarstimuli,whereas ferencesin memoryperformance
configurations
of meaningless
Onefactorthat may havecontributedto the observedage
individualswith a backgroundin musicwouldbe ableto code
differencesin this studywasthatthecomputerinterfacecould
the musicalsymbolsasmeaningfulnotes.To investigatethis
AGEAND EXPERIENCEON MEMORY
have placed a large burden on the working memory of participants.Age-relatedworking memory limiAtions havebeen welldocumented(e.g.,Salttrouse,1994),and thus the useof an unfamiliar computer interface could have contributed to the poor
performanceof older adults. Severalefforts were made to minimize the influence of this factor. First, the interface was relatively simple and included the use of only six different keys
with no time pressure.Second,extensiveguided practice was
given, usually lasting around 15 minutes, and feedbackfrom
the participants indicated that they were comforrable with the
interfaceby the end ofthe third practicetrial. Nonetheless,although the samepattern of experiential relations was found in
preliminary studies with undergraduate participants using
paper-and-pencilversionsof this task, we cannot rule out the
possibility that older adults were differentially penalized by ttre
computerized nature of this task. That is, older adults might
have found the conversionof ttre stored stimulus information to
a novel interface difhcult becauseof working memory limitations. Also, becauseof this slower conversion,older adults
might have had a longer interval between the presentationof
the stimulus and the time taken to recall the stimuli. which
would necessitateholding the presented stimuli in working
memory for a longer period of time. One meansby which this
interpretation might be investigatedwould involve repeating
ttre study with a different type of responsemode, such as recognition or actualreproduction of the melody on an instrument.
The results of this study are also relevant to the issue of how
experienceexerts its effects on cognitive performance.That is,
an interpretation suggestedby the current results is that the effects of experienceon a task might be explained by the specific knowledge and skills gained ttrough experience.The discovery that most of the effects of experience on the present
task were mediatedthrough the measureof musical notation
knowledge is clearly consistent with this view. However, we
suspectthat other types of knowledge or skills would be
neededto account for the effects of experience on more complex musical activities. For example, the recall of longer, more
complex melodies might draw on more detailed knowledge of
musical notation or of relations among musical notes.
In conclusion, this project capitalized on the breadth of musical experience,musical knowledge, and age in the general
population in illustrating the skilled memory effect in music,
documenting relations among experience,knowledge, and domain-relevant memory and in examining the effects of experience on the relations between age and domain-relevant recall
performance. Becauseno attenuation of the age differences
with increasedamounts of experience was found in this study,
the challenge remains to characterize tasks in which there are
little or no age-relateddifferences and to identify the processes
that allow older adults to maintain high levels of performance
despitelower levels of functioning in many cognitive abilities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This researchwas supportedby MA Training Grant AG00175 to the first
author and NIA Grant 6826 to the second author. An earlier version of this
manuscript received an award for completed researchat the Master's thesis
level from the Retirement Research Foundation and Division 20 of the
American Psychological Association.
We wish to acknowledge the assistanceof Jerry Bowling and Kristen Lukas
in collecting and scoring data, and the assistanceof George Manning in providing the subjective ratings of the data. We also would like to thank John
P69
Haskinsfor programmingthe study,JayDowlingfor theuseof his stimuli,
andRandyEngleandthreeanonymousreviewersfor helpfulcommentson
earlierversionsof this manuscript.
Conespondence
concerningthis articleshouldbe addressed
to ElizabethJ.
Meinz,Schoolof Psychology,
GeorgiaInstiote of Technology,
Atlanta,GA
30332.E-mail:gt4956b@acme.gatech.edu
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ReceivedDecember2, I 996
AcceptedMay15,197