Role of Age in the Ability to Accurately Identify the Function of a Song

Are older ages more or less accurate at identifying the function of a song? The “Natural History of Song” database features participants’ analyses of the functions of songs from around the world. Participants were randomly assigned 36 out of 118 possible songs to complete this task. The participants were asked to analyze a song with different functions: soothing a baby, dancing, healing, or expressing love. It is hypothesized that older adults would be less accurate in their identification of the function of a song, because they typically have more difficulties in hearing and have significantly reduced automatic auditory processing compared to younger adults. In reality, the older participants were significantly more accurate in identifying the functions for dance and love songs, showing that even though their automatic auditory processing is less acute as they age, they have more experience listening to songs and are able to accurately think through this task.