From Tones to Tunes: Emerging Associations Between Tonal Language Immersion Education and Musical Pitch Perception in Children

This study investigated perceptual near transfer across the domains of language and music by examining how early exposure to a tonal language influences musical pitch perception in young children. Previous research has found a tonal language advantage in musical pitch perception in children, but this work often does not account for cultural and cognitive differences among participants. To address this, we compared musical pitch perception of U.S. kindergarten and 1st grade children enrolled in Mandarin immersion education to their peers in traditional English-only education at the same school. This design allowed us to assess the emergent effects of early tonal language exposure on musical pitch perception with a culturally similar comparison group. Inclusion of a working memory measure provided the ability to account for cognitive differences as well. Results indicated that children enrolled in Mandarin-immersion education demonstrated higher Mandarin lexical tone discrimination accuracy and greater musical pitch sensitivity relative to their peers in traditional English-only education, even when differences in working memory were controlled for. Critically, mediation analyses showed that lexical tone accuracy for the most discernable condition statistically mediated the association between immersion education and musical pitch sensitivity. These results provide support for language-to-music perceptual transfer grounded in shared pitch-processing and highlight the potential of tonal language immersion education to enhance perceptual abilities that benefit learning music. SUMMARY: Compared musical pitch perception of young US children enrolled in Mandarin-language immersion education to their peers enrolled in English-only education at the same school. Mandarin-immersion education is associated with children's enhanced ability to discriminate musical pitch, even when differences in working memory are controlled for. Mediation analyses revealed lexical tone accuracy for the most discernable trials mediated the relationship between immersion education and musical pitch sensitivity. These results provide support for language-to-music perceptual near transfer, grounded in shared pitch-processing mechanisms.