Do musicians have better short-term memory than nonmusicians? A multilab study

Abstract

Musicians are often regarded as a positive example of brain plasticity and associated cognitive benefits. This emerges when experienced musicians (e.g., musicians with more than 10 years of music training and practice) are compared with nonmusicians. A frequently observed behavioral finding is a short-term memory advantage of the former over the latter. Although available meta-analysis reported that the effect size of this advantage is medium (Hedges’s g = 0.5), no literature study was adequately powered to estimate reliably an effect of such size. This multilab study has been ideated, realized, and conducted in lab by several groups that have been working on this topic. Our ultimate goal was to provide a community-driven shared and reliable estimate of the musicians’ short-term memory advantage (if any) and set a method and a standard for future studies in neuroscience and psychology comparing musicians and nonmusicians. Thirty-three research units recruited a total of 600 experienced musicians and 600 nonmusicians, a number that is sufficiently large to estimate a small effect size (Hedges’s g = 0.3) with a high statistical power (i.e., 95%). Subsequently, we measured the difference in short-term memory for musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli. We also looked at cognitive, personality, and socioeconomic factors that might mediate the difference. Musicians had better short-term memory than nonmusicians for musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli with an effect size of, respectively, Hedges’s gs = 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.94, 1.22]; large), 0.16 (95% CI = [0.02 0.30]; very small), and 0.28 (95% CI = [0.15, 0.41]; small). This work sets the basis for sound research practices in studies comparing musicians and nonmusicians and contributes to the ongoing debate on the possible cognitive benefits of musical training.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Grassi, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3784-2784 Talamini, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6083-0282 Altoè, G. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1154-9528 Brattico, E. Caclin, A. Carretti, B. Drai-Zerbib, V. Ferreri, L. Gambarota, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6666-1747 Grahn, J. Guiotto Nai Fovino, L. Roccato, M. Rodriguez-Fornells, A. Swaminathan, S. Tillmann, B. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9676-5822 Vuust, P. Wilbiks, J. Zentner, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8580-8030 Aguilar, K. Aryanto, C.B. Assis Leite, F.C. Baldé, A.M. Başkent, D. Bishop, L. Kalsi, G. Bouwer, F.L. Calcus, A. Carraturo, G. Cepero-Escribano, V. https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6394-8034 Čerič, A. Criscuolo, A. Dairain, L. Dalla Bella, S. Daniel, O. Danielsen, A. de Parcevaux, A.-I. Dellacherie, D. Endestad, T. Fialho, J.L.D.B. Fitzpatrick, C. Fiveash, A. Fortier, J. Fram, N.R. Fullone, E. Gloggengießer, S. Gonzalez Sanchez, L. Gordon, R.L. Groussard, M. Habibi, A. Hansen, H.M.U. Harding, E.E. Hawkins, K. Herff, S.A. Holma, V.P. Jakubowski, K. Jol, M.G. Kalsi, A. Kandro, V. Kelo, R. Kotz, S.A. Ladegam, G.S. Laeng, B. Lee, A. Lense, M. Lima, C.F. Limmer, S.P. Liu, C.K. Martín Sánchez, P.D.C. McEntyre, L. Michael, J.P. Mirman, D. Müllensiefen, D. Najafi, N. Nokkala, J. Nzonlang, N. Oliveira, M.G.M. Overy, K. Oxenham, A.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9365-1157 Passarotto, E. Plasse, M.-E. Platel, H. Poissonnier, A. Rajappa, N. Ritchie, M. Rodrigues Menezes, I.R. Román-Caballero, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0943-6217 Roncaglia, P. Sa’adullah, F.Y. Saarikallio, S. Sammler, D. Samson, S. Schellenberg, E.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3681-6020 Serres, N.R. Slevc, L.R. Souffiane, R.-N. Strauch, F.J. Strauss, H. Tantengco, N. Tervaniemi, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9651-2929 Thompson, R. Timmers, R. Toiviainen, P. Trainor, L.J. Tuske, C. Villanueva, J. von Bastian, C.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0667-2460 Whiteford, K.L. Wood, E.A. Worschech, F. Zappa, A.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Keywords:	musicians; music training; nonmusicians; multilab; cognitive abilities; open data; open materials; preregistration
Dates:	Published (online): 6 November 2025 Published: October 2025
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield)
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2025 11:26
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2025 11:26
Status:	Published
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1177/25152459251379432
Related URLs:	Conference
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:234140

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Do musicians have better short-term memory than nonmusicians? A multilab study

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