Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech: A Registered Report.

Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a "musi-linguistic" continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech.

Sensorimotor Learning in Response to Errors in Task Performance.

The human sensorimotor system is sensitive to both limb-related prediction errors and task-related performance errors. Prediction error signals are believed to drive implicit refinements to motor plans. However, an understanding of the mechanisms that performance errors stimulate has remained unclear largely because their effects have not been probed in isolation from prediction errors. Diverging from past work, we induced performance errors independent of prediction errors by shifting the location of a reach target but keeping the intended and actual kinematic consequences of the motion matched. Our first two experiments revealed that rather than implicit learning, motor adjustments in response to performance errors reflect the use of deliberative, volitional strategies. Our third experiment revealed a potential dissociation of performance-error-driven strategies based on error size. Specifically, behavioral changes following large errors were consistent with goal-directed or model-based control, known to be supported by connections between prefrontal cortex and associative striatum. In contrast, motor changes following smaller performance errors carried signatures of model-free stimulus-response learning, of the kind underpinned by pathways between motor cortical areas and sensorimotor striatum. Across all experiments, we also found remarkably faster re-learning, advocating that such "savings" is associated with retrieval of previously learned strategic error compensation and may not require a history of exposure to limb-related errors.

Psychometric properties of the behavior rating inventory of executive function, second edition (BRIEF2) in a sample of children with ADHD in Iran.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of a Persian translation of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function(BRIEF2) in 253 children with ADHD in Iran (137 boys, 116 girls)ages 8 to 12 years old (M = 10.04; SD = 1.42). The parents of the children completed the Persian BRIEF2 and the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI). The findings indicated that the Persian version of BRIEF2 had good reliability (internal and test-retest) and satisfactory to good validity (convergent and construct). With respect to its construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a three-factor solution was the best model fit for the nine subscales of the BRIEF2, which supports the valid interpretation of the three BRIEF2 indexes in the Persian BRIEF2. These findings support the clinical relevance of the Persian BRIEF in Iranian children with ADHD, as well as the multidimensional nature of executive functions.