Deep Beats, Deep Thoughts? Predicting General Cognitive Ability from Natural Music-Listening Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Music is more than just entertainment. It is a complex auditory stimulus that engages various cognitive processing systems. Accordingly, natural music-listening patterns may reveal insights into individual differences in general cognitive ability (GCA). In this study (N = 185), we used real-world smartphone-based music-listening records collected over five months to explore this question. We quantified participants' listening habits (e.g., listening durations) and music preferences based on audio characteristics (e.g., tempo, mode) and lyrical characteristics (e.g., positive emotion words, affiliation words) of the songs they had listened to. These strictly behavioral features were used to predict GCA scores using linear LASSO regression and nonlinear random forest models. Out-of-sa

SUBMITTER: Sust L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12941781 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature