Table 3.
Musical skill: tonal and rhythmic skills.
| Author/Year | N | Agea (years) | Skill(s) | Task(s)/Tool(s) | Finding(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lense and Dykens, 2016 (2 studies) | (WS) 74 (TD) 52 | (WS) 26.4 ± 9.6 (TD) 24.3 ± 9.4 | Beat perception Meter perception | Beat Alignment Test (BAT)b: determine if a metronome matched the beat of a musical passage; Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia-meter subtest (MBEA-m)c: determine if a melody was in duple or triple meter | WS < TD CA on both beat and meter perception; High degree of individual variability in both groups |
| (WS) 50 | (WS-BATb) 26.2 ± 8.4 (WS-MBEAc) 26.8 ± 8.3 | Beat perception Meter perception | Compared measures of beat and meter perception to measures of cognitive and adaptive function (Vineland-II) | Beat perception significantly associated with communication and socialization Meter perception significantly associated with socialization | |
| Martínez-Castilla et al., 2016 | (WS) 20 (TD) 54 | (WS) 6–17 (TD) 4–17 | Pitch discrimination Chord discrimination Dissonance perception Tonal closure | Compared performance pitch related skills to CA and standardized measures of cognitive development | WS showed atypical development of pitch-related skills |
| Martínez-Castilla and Sotillo, 2014 | (WS) 14 (TD) 26 | (WS) 8–17 (TD) 8–17 | Pitch discrimination | Compared pitch processing in both music and prosody discrimination | WS < TD CA on pitch and prosody discrimination; Pitch discrimination in music predicted pitch discrimination in prosody |
| Martínez-Castilla et al., 2011 | (WS) 20 (TD) 30 | (WS) 20.10 (5.87) Range: 12–32 (TD) 20.03 (6.20) | Rhythm discrimination Rhythm production | Same/different discrimination task Echo clapping task | WS < TD CA on rhythm discrimination and production; Rhythm skills were affected by IQ |
| Martens et al., 2010 | (WS) 25 (TD) 25 | (WS) 8–41 (TD) 8–41 | Various tonal and rhythm skills in discrimination and production | Specimen Aural Test (SAT)d Bentley Measures of Musical Abilitiese | WS < TD CA on tonal and rhythmic perceptual and production tasks; WS = TD clapping in time to beat of musical passage |
| Martínez-Castilla and Sotillo, 2008 (2 studies) | (WS) 7 (TD) 7 | (WS) 10–30 (TD) 10–30 | Singing | Singing a familiar song, measured using both acoustical analysis and perceptual judgments by musicians/non-musicians | WS < TD CA singing skill; Those with musical training performed better; |
| (WS) 15 (TD) 15 | (WS) 17–32 (TD) 17–32 | Pitch matching Singing | Pitch matching task; Singing a familiar song, measured using both acoustical analysis and perceptual judgments by musicians/non-musicians | WS may benefit less from musical training than D | |
| Hopyan et al., 2001 | (WS) 14 (TD) 14 | (WS) 12 (3) (TD) 12 (3) | Pitch discrimination Rhythm discrimination Melodic imagery Phrasing perception | Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA)f; Musical Aptitude Profile (MAP)g | WS < TD CA on pitch and rhythm discrimination; WS = TD CA on perception of musical expressiveness |
| Don et al., 1999 | (WS) 19 (TD) 19 | (WS) 8–13 (TD) 5–12 | Pitch discrimination Rhythm discrimination | Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA)f | WS = TD MA on pitch discrimination WS < TD MA on rhythm discrimination; Music and language skills moderately correlated |
| Levitin and Bellugi, 1998 | (WS) 8 (TD) 8 | (WS) 9–20 (TD) 5–7 | Rhythm production | Echo clapping task | WS = TD MA |
CA, Chronological Age; MA, Mental Age; TD, Typically Developing Control; WS, Williams Syndrome.
a
Age in years, expressed in one of the following formats based on information available: (a) range in years, (b) mean (standard deviation), or (c) mean ± years.
b
BAT, Beat Alignment Test (Iversen and Patel, 2008).
c
MBEA-m, Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia-meter subtest (Peretz et al., 2003).
d
SAT, Specimen Aural Test (Nickson and Black, 1962).
e
Bentley, Bentley Measures of Musical Abilities (Bentley, 1985).
f
PMMA, Primary Measures of Music Audiation (Gordon, 1986).
g
MAP, Musical Aptitude Profile (Gordon, 1995).