Learning New Skills

Learning New Skills

Linas Juozenas
Intelligence Unleashed · Learning and neuroplasticity

Learning changes the learner

A new language and a musical instrument are not magic “brain hacks.” They are something more valuable: demanding human abilities that can reshape perception, memory, prediction, movement and attention through sustained use. This guide separates genuine learning from exaggerated transfer claims, then turns the evidence into practical ways to build skill at any age.

Skill acquisitionBilingualismMusicTransferPractice designLifelong learning
  1. AttendNotice the information that matters
  2. AttemptGenerate speech, sound or action
  3. CompareDetect the gap between intention and result
  4. CorrectUpdate the next attempt with useful feedback
  5. RetrieveReconstruct the skill without leaning on prompts
  6. ConsolidateReturn after time, rest and changing contexts
What the evidence supports

Rich skills produce real adaptation

Language learning reliably improves language; musical training reliably improves musical ability. Longitudinal studies also show selective changes in brain structure, connectivity and recruitment as people acquire these skills. Retrieval, spacing, feedback and appropriately difficult practice improve retention. These are substantial findings without any need to promise a universal rise in IQ, creativity or executive control.

The central correction

Brain change is not the same as broad transfer

A scan can show that experience altered a measured feature. It does not automatically show that the person became more intelligent, that the change caused a behavioural gain, or that the gain will transfer to unrelated tasks. The strongest question is not simply “Did the brain change?” but “What improved, by how much, for whom, under which conditions, and did it last?”

01 · A changing system

What skill learning changes

Learning is an enduring improvement in the capacity to act, understand or remember—not merely a good performance while cues and fresh repetition are still present.

Neuroplasticity is the nervous system’s capacity to alter activity, connections and sometimes measurable structure in response to experience. Skill acquisition can change synaptic influence, representations, strategies, inhibition, myelin and network coordination. Structural MRI findings are indirect summaries of tissue properties, not photographs of knowledge being stored.

Unfamiliar tasks may initially recruit broad resources. With experience, useful patterns can expand, differentiate and become more selective. The expansion–renormalization account proposes that detectable expansion during learning may later partly recede as effective circuitry is selected and stabilized.1 More volume or activation is therefore not the only—or always the best—sign of learning.

RepresentationRelevant sounds, symbols and movements become easier to distinguish.
PredictionThe learner anticipates likely words, notes and consequences.
ControlAttention and working memory coordinate selection while a skill is effortful.
AutomationStable sequences need less supervision, freeing attention for strategy and expression.
Do not collapse different outcomes into one claim of “brain power”
Outcome Meaning What it does not establish
Performance Success during the current session Retention after a delay
Retention Ability preserved after time Transfer to another task
Near transfer Benefit on a closely related new demand General reasoning improvement
Far transfer Benefit on a substantially different ability That training caused an observed association
Neural adaptation Measured change in activity, connectivity or anatomy That “more” is inherently better

Intelligence, knowledge and expertise cooperate

People differ in how quickly they infer patterns, hold relations in mind and transfer principles. Valid measures of general cognitive ability provide meaningful, imperfect evidence about such differences. Education also matters: a meta-analysis using quasi-experimental evidence concluded that additional education can improve intelligence-test performance, although estimates varied across designs and outcomes.8 This is neither a fixed annual dose nor a reason to dismiss intelligence.

Expertise adds organized knowledge, perceptual discrimination, efficient routines and judgement. Practice contributes greatly, but a meta-analysis across music, games, sport, education and professions found that deliberate practice did not explain all performance differences.7 Biology, instruction, opportunity, motivation, health and chance also shape what develops.

Plasticity is powerful because it is selective

A stable brain cannot change equally in response to every repeated event. What is attended, attempted, corrected, retrieved and used matters. Constraint does not make growth unimportant; it makes training design important.

02 · Evidence before enthusiasm

How to judge a “brain benefit” claim

A colourful scan can accompany weak causal evidence. Study design—not novelty or a dramatic headline—determines what a result supports.

An evidence ladder for training claims
Design Can show Main limitation Ask
Cross-sectional Experienced and inexperienced groups differ now They may have differed before training Were ability, education, health and opportunity considered?
Longitudinal The same people change while learning Maturation and repeated testing can contribute Was there a credible comparison group?
Randomized trial Assignment strengthens causal inference Small samples and unequal engagement remain possible Did an active control receive similar attention?
Synthesis and transfer Effects across studies and unfamiliar tasks Weak studies, bias and distant proxies can mislead Does the effect survive quality checks and real-world testing?
1

Measure the skill

Judge language teaching by comprehension and communication; music teaching by listening, timing, technique and performance. Direct learning comes first.

2

Demand transfer

Near transfer uses related unfamiliar material. Far transfer needs stronger controls, durable follow-up and a plausible mechanism.6

3

Read scans modestly

Volume, thickness, diffusion and blood-oxygen signals are proxies. A regional difference is not a direct measure of knowledge or human worth.

  • Self-selection: persistent learners may begin with different abilities and resources.
  • Unequal controls: lessons add structure, attention and social contact.
  • Multiple testing: many outcomes increase the chance of a positive result.
  • Publication bias: exciting benefits are more likely to appear and spread.
03 · The learning engine

Attention, error, retrieval and return

Effective practice makes the learner generate an answer or movement, compare it with a standard, correct a useful error and return after enough time for retrieval to be necessary.

  1. DefineName the performance
  2. AttemptAct before full support
  3. ObserveHear, see or feel the result
  4. DiagnoseFind the bottleneck
  5. AdjustChange one feature
  6. ReturnRetrieve later and elsewhere

Retrieval is not recognition

Looking again at a translation, fingering or score can create familiarity without reliable access. In a classic vocabulary experiment, repeated retrieval after initial learning produced much better delayed recall than repeated study without continued testing.4 Retrieval can mean naming an object, summarizing a recording, singing before checking or playing from memory.

Spacing has no universal clock

Distributed practice usually supports long retention better than massing, but the useful gap depends on the desired retention interval and difficulty. A review of hundreds of experiments found that the best spacing changes with how long knowledge must last.5 Daily practice is useful, not magical; immersion and performance endurance sometimes require longer blocks.

Challenge

Work where success is possible but not automatic. Too easy produces little adaptation; near-total failure produces poor information.

Feedback

Correct a manageable number of high-value errors, then reduce support so the learner can judge independently.

Variation

After stability, change speaker, tempo, key, prompt or setting so ability is not tied to one practice surface.

Recovery is part of ambitious training

Sleep participates in memory consolidation, although no single stage stores every skill.31 Fatigue can rehearse tension and inattention. Record errors as information—“this consonant disappears in fast speech” or “the left hand rushes here”—not as identities such as “I have no talent.”

04 · A second system for meaning

Language learning and bilingualism

Another language changes what a person can hear, predict, remember, express and access. Those direct gains are established. A universal advantage in unrelated executive functions is not.

Sound and script

Phonemes, stress, rhythm and writing conventions must become meaningful categories rather than noise filtered through the first language.

Words and grammar

Vocabulary includes pronunciation, associations, register and grammatical behaviour. Grammar becomes useful when patterns can be predicted and produced, not merely explained.

Pragmatics

Competence includes turn-taking, politeness, implication, humour and knowing what fits a relationship or setting.

Bilingualism is a continuum, not one condition. Age of acquisition, proficiency, literacy, language similarity, switching, immersion and social context differ. A daily reader of two languages has a different history from a simultaneous bilingual who changes language by conversation partner. A yes-or-no label can hide the adaptation under study.

What longitudinal brain studies show

Intensive learning can accompany selective anatomical and connectivity change. Interpreter trainees showed changes in hippocampal volume and cortical thickness after three months; adults learning Chinese showed progressive white-matter changes across nine months; and a 2024 six-month study of Arabic-speaking adults learning German found connectivity changes that tracked aspects of progress.91011 A 2026 scoping review likewise found evidence of adult structural and functional adaptation while emphasizing heterogeneous methods and findings.22

These results show responsiveness, not one “bilingual brain,” a guaranteed IQ increase or one pattern for every learner. Samples and training contexts are selective, and imaging measures do not reveal one microscopic mechanism by themselves.

Control adapts to use

Multilingual speakers select words and respond to conversational context. The adaptive control hypothesis proposes that separating languages, switching often and mixing them densely create different control demands.12 That is more precise than saying every bilingual constantly performs the same inhibition exercise.

The “bilingual advantage” became too broad

Some experiments find advantages in inhibition, switching or monitoring, but large syntheses do not support a universal effect. An adult meta-analysis found no systematic advantage after publication-bias correction; a population study of more than 11,000 adults found no general cognitive advantage after relevant matching; and child meta-analyses describe effects as marginal, variable or potentially explained by bias and other factors.14151617

Claims about bilingualism, separated
Claim Best reading Accurate expectation
Language ability Strong and direct Practice builds comprehension, production, literacy and cultural access.
Brain adaptation Supported; pattern varies Experience can alter measured recruitment and structure.
Executive control Not universal Some contexts may differ; large reviews find small or inconsistent effects.
IQ Not established generally Complex knowledge and skill are not a guaranteed IQ increase.
Dementia prevention Not established Reserve associations are interesting but not causal proof.

Reserve and dementia: association is not prevention

Some retrospective studies report later clinical symptom onset among bilingual patients. A 2020 meta-analysis found evidence for later onset but much weaker evidence concerning incidence, while a systematic review noted that retrospective delays were not consistently confirmed prospectively.1819 Recent imaging studies report hippocampal associations in older bilingual adults, including people with Alzheimer’s disease, but education, migration, occupation and lifelong use remain entangled.2021 Learn a language to enlarge life and exercise a difficult skill—not as guaranteed medical treatment.

A practical language-learning system

Build the skill stack

  1. Choose a real destinationConversation, reading, customer service or a defined examination.
  2. Map the bottleneckSound, vocabulary access, grammar, speed or lack of interaction?
  3. Use meaningful inputFollow understandable material containing a manageable amount of novelty.
  4. Retrieve and produceRecall, predict, speak or write before revealing the answer.
  5. Vary and testChange speaker, topic and medium; measure communication outside the lesson.

One flexible 30-minute session

  1. 5 minutes · RetrievalRecall yesterday’s phrases without looking.
  2. 10 minutes · ComprehensionRead or listen for meaning, then revisit one difficult segment.
  3. 10 minutes · ProductionRetell, answer, write or converse with the target material.
  4. 5 minutes · DecisionRecord one recurring error, one useful phrase and the next test.

A template is not a biological dose. Long immersion and short maintenance sessions serve different goals.

  • Use spaced-repetition software as a scheduler, not a substitute for communication.
  • Train perception before demanding perfect production of a contrast you cannot hear.
  • Ask partners to negotiate meaning and correct selected high-value errors.
  • Test transfer with unfamiliar speakers, spontaneous questions and new texts.
05 · Hearing and acting in time

Music learning

Instrumental and vocal practice bind perception to precisely timed movement, memory, notation, expression and interaction. That makes music a rich model of plasticity—not proof of a universal cognitive upgrade.

Auditory models

Pitch, timbre, harmony and rhythm become organized expectations.

Motor control

Hands, breath, voice and posture produce a planned result while feedback arrives.

Symbol and memory

Notation, sound, movement and form become linked into retrievable chunks.

Coordination

Ensemble players predict one another; solo playing coordinates several internal roles.

What longitudinal studies show

Musicians and non-musicians differ in many studies, but selection can precede training. Longitudinal evidence is stronger: after about fifteen months, children receiving instrumental training showed structural changes in motor and auditory regions related to musical improvement; a longer study reported micro- and macroscopic changes among children in music training compared with sport and no systematic after-school program.2324

The conclusion is selective: sustained experience can shape developing auditory-motor systems. It does not mean every difference is desirable, that larger is better or that music uniquely activates unused brain tissue.

A musician’s brain records a history, not a rank

Training can make distinctions faster, predictions more accurate and movement more economical. That expertise deserves respect, but it does not guarantee superiority on every unrelated task.

IQ, academics and executive function

A small 2004 randomized study reported modestly greater IQ-test gains after music lessons than after drama or no lessons.25 One experiment is not a universal rule. A later meta-analysis concluded that broad cognitive and academic transfer was small and sensitive to study quality, with little compelling support under the strongest controls.26

Inhibitory control in children is more promising: a 2024 meta-analysis found an encouraging effect, including a moderate-to-large estimate among randomized trials, while stressing that trial numbers were limited and results varied.27 This warrants better research, not the slogan that music makes every child generally smarter.

Musical gains and wider claims
Outcome Evidence Expectation
Musical skill Direct and strong Better listening, timing, control, repertoire and expression.
Auditory-motor adaptation Supported Selective changes related to training demands and history.
Child inhibition Promising Possible transfer in some programs; stronger trials are needed.
General IQ or academics Mixed Do not promise broad improvement.
Dementia prevention Not established Engagement is valuable, not a proven preventive treatment.

Music can carry memory, regulate attention and create shared timing. Ensembles practise listening, repair and trust, but hormone averages should not become promises about every rehearsal. Creativity also follows practice: learners seeking it should improvise, vary, arrange and compose—not assume that reproducing a score automatically transfers to every kind of originality.

Starting later still produces learning

In a randomized trial of 132 healthy older adults, six months of piano practice or an active musical-culture program accompanied auditory-working-memory improvement and measured grey-matter changes, although imaging changes did not simply separate piano from the active control.28 A four-year 2025 study reported working-memory and subcortical findings in older adults undertaking instrumental training.29 These findings show continuing responsiveness, not dementia prevention. The certain gains remain music, challenge, repertoire and participation.

A practical music-learning system

Build each block

  1. Name the resultClean rhythm, shaped phrase, secure entrance or remembered form.
  2. Hear before repeatingSing, imagine or clap so movement serves an auditory goal.
  3. Isolate the bottleneckReduce tempo or coordination only enough to expose it.
  4. Change one variableAdjust fingering, breath, balance, subdivision or gesture.
  5. Reconnect and retrieveReturn to the phrase, vary entry points and test without prompts.

One flexible 30-minute session

  1. 5 minutes · PrepareComfortable posture, pulse and one relevant movement.
  2. 10 minutes · RepairWork on the narrowest high-value problem.
  3. 10 minutes · IntegrateReconnect phrases and perform under realistic timing.
  4. 5 minutes · Create or retrieveImprovise, sight-read, play by ear or record one take.

Audition preparation, a first chord sequence and jazz improvisation require different distributions.

  • Use slow practice when it improves perception; later restore speed, continuity and endurance.
  • Alternate repair with complete performances so correction retains musical direction.
  • Record occasionally and seek teaching when a bottleneck remains invisible.
  • Protect hearing and adapt posture or duration when pain or tension appears.
06 · Shared demands, different skills

Language and music together

Both organize sound through time, form predictions and convert perception into controlled output. Overlap creates useful hypotheses, not a guaranteed “double brain boost.”

Overlap and boundaries
Demand Language Music Boundary
Auditory categories Phonemes, stress, prosody Pitch, timbre, rhythm Training may sharpen dimensions, not all listening.
Prediction Syntax and turn-taking Pulse, meter and entrances Shared timing is plausible; tasks matter.
Symbols Script to sound and meaning Notation to sound and action Fluency in one system does not teach the other.
Motor planning Articulation and gesture Voice, breath and hands Both use error loops; movements remain specific.

Patel’s OPERA hypothesis proposes that music may support speech encoding when the domains overlap, music demands greater precision, training evokes emotion, relevant activity repeats and attention is engaged.30 A direct child study comparing short music and second-language programs likewise found task- and intervention-specific changes rather than one identical executive benefit.32

Combine at real contact points

Sing phrases, mark stress with rhythm, compare contours, transcribe short patterns and use songs for cultural context.

Protect depth

Beginners may need separate blocks to hear a vowel, solve a fingering or understand harmony. Synergy should simplify a problem, not fragment attention.

07 · From enthusiasm to architecture

Build a practice system that survives real life

Consistency grows when practice has a destination, a minimum version, a feedback route and visible evidence of transfer.

1–2

Baseline

Record one real task and identify the few components driving the gap.

3–5

Foundation

Build accurate categories and movements with frequent feedback.

6–9

Expansion

Increase range, speed and variability while reducing prompts.

10–12

Integration

Perform under ordinary conditions, test retention and choose the next bottleneck.

Twelve weeks is an organizational frame, not a neurological threshold. The purpose is to cycle from baseline through targeted work to independent performance instead of remaining indefinitely inside exercises.

A small weekly dashboard
Measure Language Music Why
Independent performance Spontaneous conversation or writing An uninterrupted take or rehearsal Shows what survives without support
Delayed retrieval Phrases recalled days later Form or passages recovered later Separates learning from familiarity
Recurring error One sound or construction One timing or coordination fault Directs the next block
Variation and recovery New speaker plus attention quality New setting plus tension or fatigue Tests flexibility without hiding overload

Minimum

Retrieve a few phrases or play one passage with full attention. Preserve continuity without pretending it replaces deep work.

Standard

Combine retrieval, focused correction, integration and a real-world test.

Deep

Reserve longer blocks for immersion, rehearsal, conversation, composition and performance simulation.

08 · Attention and relationship

Solitude, teachers and community

Skills grow through private concentration and contact with other minds. Healthy learning allows withdrawal for attention and return for knowledge, feedback and shared work.

Protected concentration

Slow listening, awkward experiments and unfinished interpretation may need freedom from interruption. Solitude can protect a personal voice, but it does not automatically create expertise; without standards, errors may remain invisible.

Trustworthy collaboration

Teachers sequence challenges and diagnose what the learner cannot yet perceive. Partners and ensembles add uncertainty, timing and responsibility. Good correction expands agency rather than using humiliation or forced conformity.

Protect the concentration in which a difficult skill takes shape; then bring it to people capable of testing, strengthening and celebrating what has been built.
Independence and collaboration serve the same development

Quietness, autism, dyslexia, attention differences, anxiety or unconventional communication do not invalidate intelligence. Written instructions, visual pulse, predictable rehearsal, slower turn-taking or freedom from eye contact can remove irrelevant barriers without lowering the intellectual goal.

09 · Development without expiry

Learning across the lifespan

Age changes starting conditions, pace and strategy. It does not divide humanity into young brains that learn and adult brains that only decline.

Children

Early exposure offers years of use, but quality, sleep, play and safety matter. Children deserve serious teaching without being treated as optimization projects.

Adults

Adults bring literacy, concepts and deliberate strategies. Work and care obligations make protected sessions and real use more important than waiting for an empty life.

Older adults

Hearing, vision, fatigue and motor comfort may require adaptation. Clear acoustics, larger notation, recovery and meaningful settings can support demanding learning.

People do not begin equally or progress at one rate. General intelligence, auditory discrimination, working memory, motor anatomy, prior exposure and health can matter. Pretending abilities are interchangeable hides both exceptional potential and genuine support needs. High ability deserves challenge; difficulty deserves intelligent support rather than shame.

A wider view of return

Learning can be worthwhile before it transfers elsewhere

A language can restore family communication, open an archive or enable collaboration. Music can preserve tradition, create beauty and give people a place to meet. These are important outcomes, not consolation prizes for failing to raise a laboratory score.

10 · Better claims, better decisions

Myths worth retiring

Plasticity becomes more impressive—not less—when described as real adaptation rather than limitless transformation.

“Any hard hobby is a whole-brain workout.”Complex activities recruit distributed systems; the phrase does not identify durable improvement or transfer.
“A larger or more active region is better.”Learning can involve expansion, selection, efficiency or strategy change. There is no universal direction of goodness.
“Bilingual people automatically have better executive control.”Large reviews find small, inconsistent or bias-sensitive effects, not a universal advantage.
“Music lessons reliably raise every child’s IQ.”Some trials report transfer, but stronger controls weaken broad claims. Musical ability is the dependable gain.
“Language or music prevents dementia.”Reserve associations are interesting; causal disease prevention has not been demonstrated.
“Ten minutes daily always beats a long session.”Spacing helps retention, while immersion, rehearsal and endurance may require longer blocks.
“Practice explains excellence completely.”Practice is vital; ability, instruction, opportunity, health, knowledge and chance also matter.
“Adults missed the window.”Age changes typical learning, but adult language and music studies demonstrate meaningful adaptation.
11 · The whole picture

Learn for the ability—and let any wider benefit earn its evidence

Language and music show what a living brain can do: develop new distinctions, predictions, movements, memories and forms of expression through years of contact with structured difficulty. The resulting adaptations are real. They are also selective. Better speech is not automatically better inhibition; a changed pathway is not automatically higher intelligence; an association with reserve is not proof of disease prevention.

This precision does not diminish intellectual development. It honours it. General intelligence helps people learn and reason; education and experience can develop measured abilities; disciplined practice builds knowledge and expertise that tools alone cannot supply. A human being who has cultivated another language, an instrument or any deep skill carries a biological history of attention and effort. Protect the learner, design practice intelligently, test real performance, welcome correction and celebrate what the skill makes possible.

Evidence library

Sources and further reading

Foundational experiments, longitudinal studies, meta-analyses and recent reviews supporting the distinctions made in this guide.

  1. Wenger, Brozzoli, Lindenberger & Lövdén. Expansion and Renormalization of Human Brain Structure During Skill Acquisition (2017).
  2. Draganski et al. Neuroplasticity: Changes in Grey Matter Induced by Training (2004).
  3. Zatorre, Fields & Johansen-Berg. Plasticity in Gray and White: Neuroimaging Changes in Brain Structure During Learning (2012).
  4. Karpicke & Roediger. The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning (2008).
  5. Cepeda et al. Distributed Practice in Verbal Recall Tasks: A Review and Quantitative Synthesis (2006).
  6. Barnett & Ceci. When and Where Do We Apply What We Learn? A Taxonomy for Far Transfer (2002).
  7. Macnamara, Hambrick & Oswald. Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education, and Professions: A Meta-Analysis (2014).
  8. Ritchie & Tucker-Drob. How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis (2018).
  9. Mårtensson et al. Growth of Language-Related Brain Areas After Foreign Language Learning (2012).
  10. Schlegel, Rudelson & Tse. White Matter Structure Changes as Adults Learn a Second Language (2012).
  11. Wei et al. White Matter Plasticity During Second Language Learning Within and Across Hemispheres (2024).
  12. Green & Abutalebi. Language Control in Bilinguals: The Adaptive Control Hypothesis (2013).
  13. Pliatsikas. Understanding Structural Plasticity in the Bilingual Brain: The Dynamic Restructuring Model (2020).
  14. Lehtonen et al. Is Bilingualism Associated With Enhanced Executive Functioning in Adults? A Meta-Analytic Review (2018).
  15. Nichols et al. Bilingualism Affords No General Cognitive Advantages: A Population Study of Executive Function in 11,000 People (2020).
  16. Gunnerud et al. Is Bilingualism Related to a Cognitive Advantage in Children? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2020).
  17. Lowe, Cho, Goldsmith & Morton. The Bilingual Advantage in Children’s Executive Functioning Is Not Related to Language Status (2021).
  18. Anderson, Hawrylewicz & Grundy. Does Bilingualism Protect Against Dementia? A Meta-Analysis (2020).
  19. van den Noort et al. A Systematic Review on the Possible Relationship Between Bilingualism, Cognitive Decline, and the Onset of Dementia (2019).
  20. Coulter, Phillips and the CIMA-Q and COMPASS-ND groups. Bilinguals Show Evidence of Brain Maintenance in Alzheimer’s Disease (2024).
  21. Peitz et al. Bilingualism and “Brain Reserve” in Subregions of the Hippocampal Formation (2025).
  22. Alghamdi. Neuroplasticity in Adult Second Language Learning: A Systematic Scoping Review of Structural and Functional Neuroimaging Evidence (2026).
  23. Hyde et al. Musical Training Shapes Structural Brain Development (2009).
  24. Habibi et al. Childhood Music Training Induces Change in Micro and Macroscopic Brain Structure (2018).
  25. Schellenberg. Music Lessons Enhance IQ (2004).
  26. Sala & Gobet. When the Music’s Over: Does Music Skill Transfer to Children’s and Young Adolescents’ Cognitive and Academic Skills? (2017).
  27. Jamey, Foster, Hyde & Dalla Bella. Does Music Training Improve Inhibition Control in Children? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024).
  28. Marie et al. Music Interventions in 132 Healthy Older Adults Enhance Cerebellar Grey Matter and Auditory Working Memory, Despite General Brain Atrophy (2023).
  29. Wang et al. Never Too Late to Start Musical Instrument Training: Effects on Working Memory and Subcortical Preservation in Healthy Older Adults Across Four Years (2025).
  30. Patel. Why Would Musical Training Benefit the Neural Encoding of Speech? The OPERA Hypothesis (2011).
  31. Rasch & Born. About Sleep’s Role in Memory (2013).
  32. Janus, Lee, Moreno & Bialystok. Effects of Short-Term Music and Second-Language Training on Executive Control (2016).

Educational note: This article explains general evidence about learning and does not diagnose an individual, prescribe treatment or guarantee cognitive or neurological outcomes. Hearing, speech, motor or neurological concerns may require assessment by an appropriately qualified professional. Training should be adapted when pain, sensory difficulty or illness affects participation.

Continue exploring
Return to the Intelligence Unleashed hub
Back to blog