Figure 1.

Music training and transfer effects conceptualized as a multidimensional continuum. The extent of a transfer effect from one activity to another can be characterized by two continuous, orthogonal dimensions: (1) the level of affected processing (low-level sensory vs. high-level cognitive); and (2) the “distance” of transfer from the domain of training (near vs. far). These complementary dimensions explain a wide range of transfer and cognitive benefits observed across many studies that have examined music-related plasticity (denoted by the colored orbs). The specific amount of benefit and the extent of transfer from music to language (represented by the location within the pyramid model) might be mediated by the extent to which cognitive skills (e.g., attention/inhibition control) are tuned by music training itself.