Musical strategies to improve children’s memory in an educational context

Abstract

Music-based interventions and music lessons modulate cognitive functions, such as language or attention. However, the specific and differential effects of musical activities are a new focus of research. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of musical improvisation, a focal musical intervention, on the emotional memory of 4- and 5-year-old children. Each child individually looked at 24 neutral and emotional pictures and rated their valence and arousal. After that, the children were exposed to one of three interventions: musical improvisation (experimental intervention), musical reproduction (active control intervention), or rest (passive control intervention). Then, recall and recognition (immediate and deferred) were used to evaluate memory performance. The main results indicated that musical improvisation, compared with a reproduction music activity, improved memory. In addition, rest improved recognition compared with reproduction. Besides, children recalled more emotional than neutral images. Musical improvisation is a promising technique to be implemented in the educational field.