Many studies show associations between music training and enhanced performance on nonmusical tasks, such as speech perception (e.g., Coffey et al., 2017). Nevertheless, recent evidence suggests that variation in natural musical ability, rather than music training, could explain these associations. Indeed, some nonmusicians have good musical skills and can perform as well as musicians on speech perception tasks (Correia et al., 2022). An important topic that remains poorly understood concerns the perceptual and cognitive factors that contribute to differences in musical ability. We asked whether individual differences in low-level auditory skills predicted musical expertise (musical ability, music training, abilities and behaviors). Because low-level attributes of sound (e.g., pitch, intensity, duration) form the basis of our capacity to perceive complex sounds, such as speech and music, auditory skills could explain some of the variance observed in the development of musical abilities. Musicians show lower auditory thresholds compared to non-musicians, suggesting a link between general listening skills and musical expertise (e.g., Micheyl et al., 2006). At the other end of the spectrum, music disorders, such as amusia, have been hypothesized to arise from impairments in perceiving low-level acoustic cues (pitch; Hyde & Peretz, 2004). We collected data from 140 adults with varying levels of musical ability. Listeners completed nine psychoacoustic tests, each tapping into attributes of sound including pitch, duration, and intensity. Musical abilities were assessed with an objective test of melody and rhythm discrimination, the Musical Ear Test, and two self-report questionnaires, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI), and the Big Five Inventory (BFI). We used non-verbal reasoning ability and short-term memory capacity as measures of general cognitive abilities. Music training and melody perception were predicted by performance on the pitch tasks, even after accounting for demographics, cognition, and personality. Rhythm perception correlated with seven of nine psychoacoustic thresholds, although none stood out as being particularly relevant. Psychoacoustic thresholds considered jointly had no association with self-reported musical abilities and behaviors, which were mainly predicted by music training and the personality trait openness-to-experience. This study contributes to our understanding of the perceptual skills that shape musical expertise.

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music perception,musical ability,auditory processing,psychoacoustics