Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 348-357.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.03.05

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Musical Experience Mitigates the Age-related Decline in Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones: Working Memory Is the Mediator

HE Mengjie1, YAO Yao1, CHEN Fei2   

  1. 1. School of Foreign Studies, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114;
    2. School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha 410082
  • Published:2026-05-15

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Abstract: Previous studies have shown that musical experience is beneficial for improving speech perception at the segmental level in older adults. However, it is unclear whether it could help mitigate the decline in categorical perception (CP) of lexical tones at the suprasegmental level. Furthermore, the cognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of musical experience on CP in older adults remains unknown. To investigate the issue, this study employed a classical CP experimental paradigm to compare the performance of younger musicians, younger non-musicians, older musicians, and older non-musicians on the perception of Mandarin tones (T1-T2) continuum. The results revealed that: (1) Compared to younger individuals, older participants showed a significant decline in CP of lexical tones, but musical experience could enhance their CP competence; (2) Age and musical experience had opposite impacts on influencing older adults’ CP performance through working memory mediation. The findings indicated that musical experience could improve CP ability by enhancing working memory, thereby delaying the decline in fine-grained pitch perception in older adults. The findings provided a solid theoretical foundation for conducting musical training to combat age-related decline in speech perception, which will further deepen the application of musical training in the fields of education and healthcare.

Key words: categorical perception of lexical tones, musical experience, aging, working memory

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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