Correlation = causation? Music training, psychology, and neuroscience
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Most studies in the field are correlational, which does not allow establishing firm conclusions about the causal role of musical training in cognitive advantages.
“Unfortunately, most of the studies in the field are correlational, which does not allow establishing firm conclusions about the causal role of musical training in those advantages (Schellenberg, 2020).”
From Please don't stop the music: A meta-analysis of the cognitive and academic benefits of instrumental musical training in childhood and adolescence (2022) · cites this paper as Schellenberg, 2020
Cites
Overadjustment bias and unnecessary adjustment in epidemiologic studies.
Schisterman, E. F., Cole, S. R., & Platt, R. W. (2009) · Epidemiology · doi:10.1097/ede.0b013e3181a819a1 · Cited by 2,096 · see citing works
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., Rothstein, H. R., & Saleem, M. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0018251 · Cited by 2,048 · see citing works
Is working memory training effective? A meta-analytic review
Melby-Lervåg, M., & Hulme, C. (2013) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0028228 · Cited by 1,782 · see citing works
The influence of improvement in one mental function upon the efficiency of other functions. (I).
Woodworth, R. S., & Thorndike, E. L. (1901) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/h0074898 · Cited by 1,223 · see citing works
Do “brain-training” programs work?
Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., Charness, N., Gathercole, S. E., Chabris, C. F., Hambrick, D. Z., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. L. (2016) · Psychological Science in the Public Interest · doi:10.1177/1529100616661983 · Cited by 1,183 · see citing works
Mental Exercise and Mental Aging: Evaluating the Validity of the “Use It or Lose It” Hypothesis
Salthouse, T. A. (2006) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00005.x · Cited by 679 · see citing works
Macnamara, B. N., Hambrick, D. Z., & Oswald, F. L. (2014) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797614535810 · Cited by 656 · see citing works
Bilingualism and the development of executive function: The role of attention
Bialystok, E. (2015) · Child Development Perspectives · doi:10.1111/cdep.12116 · Cited by 375 · see citing works
Does Far Transfer Exist? Negative Evidence From Chess, Music, and Working Memory Training
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2017) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721417712760 · Cited by 309 · see citing works
Cognitive Training Does Not Enhance General Cognition
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2019) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.10.004 · Cited by 303 · see citing works
Video game training does not enhance cognitive ability: A comprehensive meta-analytic investigation
Sala, G., Tatlidil, K. S., & Gobet, F. (2018) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000139 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Working memory training in typically developing children: A meta-analysis of the available evidence.
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2017) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0000265 · Cited by 216 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for when writing or reviewing a manuscript
Makin, T. R., & Orban de Xivry, J.-J. (2019) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.48175 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2020) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/s13421-020-01060-2 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
Román-Caballero, R., Vadillo, M. A., Trainor, L. J., & Lupiáñez, J. (2022) · Educational Research Review · doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100436 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
- Authors
- Schellenberg, E. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Schellenberg, E. Glenn
- Venue
- Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
- Published
- 2020-11
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 475-480
- ISSN
- 1931-3896 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-390X
- OpenAlex
- W2946181019
- Cited by
- 113
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 10.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Diverse Music Education Insights
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Keywords
- musical training, music and psychology, music and neuroscience, correlation versus causation, music cognition
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
