It’s Never too Late to Learn to Play the Piano (and benefit from it!)
If you open up the App Store on any smartphone and type in “memory improvement” or “mental training,” you are bound to find applications such as Lumosity, Impulse, and Elevate. While the claims made by these applications vary (Impulse supposedly provides mental training by targeting brain plasticity, Elevate allegedly improves critical cognitive skills, the list goes on), each one of them purports to improve some sort of executive functioning such as working memory or processing speed. Now, some would call me a pessimist, but I put little faith in the accuracy of these claims. I’m not the only one who feels this way either, just take a look at this article about the repercussions Lumos Labs (the company behind Luminosity) had to face for their dubious claims about the cognitive benefits of their app. If you want a second opinion on this I’d recommend checking out this meta-analysis conducted in 2016 which found that, while working memory can be improved in the short term, this improvement is usually only applicable to training task-related activities (near transfer) and there are hardly any far transfer (e.g., Using knowledge and skills developed in a cognitive training task in a novel and unrelated problem-solving task) or “real-world” cognitive skill effects (Melby-Lervåg, 2016).
This societal preoccupation with improving memory or executive functioning is nothing new — take the Method of Loci better known as the Memory Palace for instance — nor is it going away anytime soon. This makes it all the more important to validate claims made by these apps and studies alike (Zielinski, 2014). The “study of the day” (if you haven’t figured it out already) is focused on training and executive function improvement (i.e., improvement in everyday skills that allow us to function in and manage our day to day lives), specifically piano training and improvements in psychosocial outcomes (i.e., the influence of social factors on psychological well-being), executive functions, and physiological benefits in aging adults (Bugos & Wang, 2022).
Why piano training exactly? Why not guitar or vocal training? Playing the piano is an attention-demanding task that requires the use of fine motor finger movements as well as some basic knowledge of music theory. While one could argue that guitar training demands the same things, one key difference between the two is that guitar training arguably has a faster learning curve. If you learn to play a few key chords on a guitar you’ll be able to play a basic song by the end of the day, the same cannot be said for piano training. In theory, guitar and piano training can be used interchangeably here, but the longer learning curve associated with piano training coupled with the extensive prior research centered around piano training seems to make it more attractive to researchers interested in how music training can benefit people.
While looking at the cognitive benefits of music training is not particularly novel, studies focused on music training in aging adults are more uncommon. The lack of research surrounding this demographic group makes the current study all the more interesting. What happens when you introduce music training in an attempt to generate some sort of cognitive benefit in an aging population instead of a relatively healthy one? Before we dive into the present study it is important to acknowledge that although it makes an important contribution to the larger body of literature on this topic, it exists within a limited context. In other words, we need more studies on this subject before we can come to any “definite” conclusions.
To explore the effects of piano training on cognitive, physiological, and psychosocial benefits, Bugos & Wang (2022) recruited one hundred and fifteen American participants (60–80 years) from the Southeast and separated them into three conditions: participants in the experimental condition engaged in two 90-minute piano sessions for sixteen weeks, those in the second condition attended two computer-assisted cognitive trainings for sixteen weeks, and those in the control condition were told that they were on a waiting list to participate. One thing of note regarding both forms of training (piano and computer-assisted) is that they were conducted in small groups. Group training instead of individual training introduces a social element in both conditions that we must consider when exploring the results of the study.
In the present study the researchers hypothesized that aging adults in the piano training condition would show cognitive, psychosocial, and physiological benefits through positive changes in executive functions, self-efficacy beliefs, and cortisol levels (intended to act as a measure of stress) respectively, when compared with aging adults in the computer-assisted and waiting list (no treatment) conditions (Bugos & Wang, 2022). To record any change or evidence of benefit the researchers used executive, psychosocial, and physiological measures and tested each before the study (pre-test), after the study (post-test), and 3 months after the conclusion of the study (to see if any long term effects or benefits were present).
The measures used to assess executive functioning were focused on various dimensions such as working and verbal memory (measured through the N-Back Task) as well as processing speed (measured through the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test) and verbal fluency (measured through category switching and overall switching tasks). As mentioned before, the researchers assessed psychosocial benefits through measures of self-efficacy (measured through the General Self-Efficacy Scale) and music self-efficacy (measured through the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale). In terms of physiological measures, the researchers used saliva samples to measure stress (through cortisol levels) and immune function (through the antibody salivary secretory immunoglobulin).
Bugos & Wang (2022) found improvements in executive functioning and efficacy for participants in the piano training condition when compared to participants in the computer-assisted cognitive training condition and waitlist condition. Interestingly, improvements in executive functioning in the piano training condition were only statistically significant in verbal fluency and verbal memory at the post-test and at the follow-up (Bugos & Wang, 2022). As the authors point out in their discussion of the results, the complexity involved in piano training could act as a mitigating factor when it comes to verbal fluency loss induced by aging. Of course, it is important to consider how much training (frequency) and the duration of training would be needed for these improvements to have a long-term effect on verbal fluency and verbal memory in aging adults. As expected (by me at least) there were no physiological benefits to playing the piano in regard to stress or immune function. But wouldn’t it be cool if there were? Imagine, piano lessons as a cure-all for colds and an answer to all your stress relief needs.
In terms of psychosocial benefits: the participants in the piano training condition showed an increase in both general self-efficacy (i.e., believing in yourself/in your ability to persist at whatever task you are currently working on) and musical performance self-efficacy (i.e., self-efficacy as a musician/your belief in your musical performance abilities). While the authors note that the broadness of the general self-efficacy scale is a limitation, I am curious about the potential regional/cultural bias and its effect on the improvements seen in general self-efficacy in participants in the piano training condition. While I have had formal music training, I have zero experience playing the piano. As an outsider looking in, I have always associated the piano with elegance and viewed people who can play the piano as skillful individuals. The participants in this study were in the same state I am (minus the age factor of course), they had either no or little formal music training and no experience playing the piano. How much of the improvement in general self-efficacy should be attributed to the physical training they took part in and how much did their potential biases about piano players influence this improvement? While I cannot provide you (or myself) with an answer to this question, this is a perfect example of how research is never finished. There will always be questions that remain unanswered and factors that have yet to be considered.
So what exactly did we, as the inquiring individuals that we are, gain from this? We learned that there is a causal link between piano training and improvements in verbal fluency and memory. We also learned that piano training can improve both music performance self-efficacy and general self-efficacy. So does this mean music training is the answer to improving cognitive functioning in aging adults? No, not exactly. But it does show that, in certain domains, music training can improve aspects of executive functioning that aging may impact. While these results may not seem like they are particularly important to you and the stage of life you are in, they do have important implications for future studies regarding the impact of musical training on executive functioning. In my opinion, replicating this study on a greater scale and with the consideration of preexisting opinions or stereotypes about piano playing is a possible future direction. Another direction would be to compare the impact of piano training in a group setting (as was done in this study) versus in an independent setting. No matter what direction researchers decide to take in the future, I hope this has inspired you to consider the ways in which musical training can be beneficial, regardless of the age at which it begins.
REFERENCES
Bugos, J. A., & Wang, Y. (2022, February 3). Piano Training Enhances Executive Functions and Psychosocial Outcomes in Aging: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbac021
Melby-Lervåg, M., Redick, T. S., & Hulme, C. (2016). Working Memory Training Does Not Improve Performance on Measures of Intelligence or Other Measures of “Far Transfer”: Evidence From a Meta-Analytic Review. Perspectives on psychological science: a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 11(4), 512–534. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616635612
Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy scale. In J. Weinman, S.Wright, & M. Johnston, Measures in health psychology: A user’s portfolio. Causal and control beliefs (pp. 35–37). Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON.
ScienceDirect. (2022). N-back. Science Direct. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/n-back#:~:text=N%2DBack%20Task&text=N%2Dback%20tasks%20are%20continuous,one%20presented%20n%20items%20ago.
ScienceDirect. (2022). Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test. ScienceDirect. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/paced-auditory-serial-addition-test
Walters, J. (2016, January 6). Lumosity fined millions for making false claims about brain health benefits. The Guardian. Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/06/lumosity-fined-false-claims-brain-training-online-games-mental-health
What the Stroop Effect Reveals About Our Minds. (n.d.). Lesley University. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://lesley.edu/article/what-the-stroop-effect-reveals-about-our-minds
Zielinski, S. (2014, February 3). The Secrets of Sherlock’s Mind Palace | Arts & Culture. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secrets-sherlocks-mind-palace-180949567/
