Journal of Research in Music Education

Cognitive transfer theory, specifically Thorndike and Woodworth's theory of identical elements, was applied to music preferences. Two separate but related issues were examined in this study: (a) the effect of student familiarity through performance-oriented instruction as a means of increasing preference toward a genre of music and (b) the transfer of preference from taught to untaught pieces of an unfamiliar genre. Traditional African, Asian Indian, Japanese, and Hispanic songs with instrumental accompaniment were taught to 26 sixth-grade students over a 5-week period. A pretest-posttest listening test was administered, incorporating taught and untaught selections from the ethnic genres, as well as current popular and western classical pieces. Results indicated significant preference differences between the taught and untaught selection of the treatment genres. Although instruction increased preference for unfamiliar non-Western songs, there was no transfer of preference to untaught pieces of the same genre.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the Computer-Assisted Program in Error Detection (CA-PED) was an effective method for developing that skill in college music education majors through a comparison with an effective error detection program, the Program in Error Detection (PED). The computer program, written for the Apple II + microcomputer, is an interactive, programmed-instruction format that utilizes four-voice examples of published band literature. The results indicated significant gains in error-detection skill for both groups, but no significant difference (p < .05) between treatment groups on the Test in Error Detection (TIED) in each of three analyses of covariance, utilizing TIED pretest, Aliferis-Stecklein Music Achievement Test, College Midpoint Level (AS), and combined TIED pretest and AS as the covariates, respectively.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the structure of a newly developed survey instrument for the measurement of children's attitudes toward severely handicapped (retarded) peers integrated into music school and recreational environments. An Acceptance Within Music Scale (AMS) was developed to parallel items on a general Acceptance Scale (AS) that has demonstrated validity and reliability (Meyer, 1981). Factor analysis was used to explore the structure of the AMS and to determine whether the dimensions found are similar to those dimensions being assessed by the AS (i.e., social contact willingness, actual contact-wheelchair, name calling, and deviance consequation). Both the AS and AMS were administered to 136 public school students in an elementary school specifically selected as a low-contact school. No severely or moderately retarded students were enrolled in the school. Results suggest that there are four dimensions assessed by the AMS. Based on factor-loadings and item-by-item comparisons, the factors found for the AMS were very similar to those dimensions suggested by Meyer. The most prominent factor and the factor with identical correspondence was social contact willingness.

This study investigated the effectiveness of group breath-control training in teaching children to sing. Forty-four subjects in grades 2,3, and 4 were randomly assigned within each grade to the two treatment groups, which met twice weekly in half-hour sessions for 18 weeks. The experimental group received training in breath control in addition to the singing of songs. The control group's instruction was that of the traditional song approach. Pre- and posttraining data for each subject on four dependent variables (vocal range, vocal intensity, tonal duration, and pitch accuracy) were analyzed for the effects of the training variable (reflected in measures of abdominal and thoracic movement and vital capacity) between groups and among grade levels. Data were subjected to a two-way multivariate analysis of covariance on each dependent variable considered separately but as a “set” with each covariate breathing measure. Results of the study showed that breath-control training significantly differentiated between groups, but not among grade levels. The subjects in the experimental group responded to training in such a way as to reflect a change in breathing from “chest” or clavicular to abdominal-diaphragmatic-costal breathing, with a corresponding improvement in vocal range, vocal intensity, and pitch accuracy.

The purpose of this study was to identify and define possible age-related characteristics of children's aesthetic responsiveness to music they performed on the violin; to investigate the relationship between any identifiable characteristics with an area of musical conceptualization (conservation of rhythm); and to determine the relationship between musical training and aesthetic responsiveness. Forty-six violinists between the ages of 3 and 16½ were presented an author-designated Aesthetic Responsiveness Task designed to elicit verbal responses on aesthetic judgments and experiences in the areas of preferential judgment, qualitative judgment, emotional experience, and empathy. The high level of agreement found between the judges' scoring of the Aesthetic Responsiveness Task tended to support protocols established for the study. Results seemed to indicate that age was the primary factor in the development of aesthetic judgments and experiences over both training and rhythmic conservation.

This study was designed to assess subjects' perceptions of teacher approval/disapproval given to elementary students compared to the actual responses of the teacher. Subjects were 109 graduate and undergraduate music therapy (n = 50) and music education (n = 59) majors enrolled in classes in behavioral techniques that constituted parts of teacher/therapist training programs. Subjects viewed a 23-min videotape of an ongoing kindergarten music class involving listening, movement, and rhythm instrument performance activities. Subjects were instructed to write as many succinct statements as possible while observing the tape concerning the setting, teacher behavior, teacher/student interactions, lesson organization, and students' musical and social behaviors. Following the viewing, subjects evaluated various aspects of the approval and disapproval, using seven-point semantic differential scales, and also estimated the percentages of teacher time spent giving approval, disapproval, and instruction. All subjects inaccurately estimated the amount of teacher time devoted to approval and disapproval. There were significant differences between the two groups regarding the perceived use of teacher time, with music education students estimating a significantly greater amount of time devoted to approval (p < .01). Both groups indicated that there was “too little” approval given by the teacher; however, the music therapy subjects expressed this more strongly (p < .02). There were no significant differences between the two groups across other semantic differential scales. All subjects considered approval and disapproval to be generally “good,” “meaningful,” “beneficial,” “valuable,” and “effective.” A significant difference between music therapy and music education majors was found in the number and content of written statements.