Psychology of Music

The purpose of this study was 1) to examine the effect of psychomotor activities on achievement in temporal discrimination tasks; and, 2) to examine the interaction of this treatment with the cognitive style variable of field dependence/independence (FDI). A one-group pre-test-posttest design was utilized in the study. An intact class (n = 29) of normal fourth graders received eighteen class sessions in which musical concepts pertaining to tempo, meter and rhythm were reinforced through activities involving a psychomotor response. FDI was measured by means of the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT); subjects were classified as field dependent (FD) or field independent (FI) on the basis of a median split of the GEFT. The following standardized tests were used as both pre- and posttests; 1) Music Aptitude Profile (MAP)-Meter; 2) MAP-Tempo; and 3) Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation (IMMA)-Rhythm.

Data were analyzed through repeated measures ANOVA procedures. Results indicated that pre- to posttest differences for IMMA-Rhythm and MAP-Meter and interactions with FDI were non-significant. For MAP-Tempo, the pre- to posttest difference and the interaction effect for FDI were statistically significant, with the interaction effect accounting for 15% of the variance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate burnout symptoms among public school music educators (N = 101) using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and to determine potential demographic and job related factors that may be associated with burnout using the Demographic and Data Sheet (DDS) questionnaire. Based on multiple regression analyses it was found that the DDS variables; work load and time to complete the work, desire to change professional careers, contentment with job, unclear goals from administration, and lack of personnel goals in career plans, lack of recognition by students, and lack of cooperation among teachers in the district outside the area of music, significantly contributed to the variance in the regression models and were determined to be reliable predictors of burnout as measured by the MBI.

Results of the third and fourth stage of a longitudinal study with boys and girls in the early teens indicated a relationship between musical talent and visual-spatial ability. The onset of puberty influenced the outcome. Musical talent decreased in those children who attained extremely high test scores on the Wing tests and were able to compose/improvise. The decline was more marked in girls than in boys. The onset of puberty was also related to an increase of spatial ability. The improvement was more marked in girls. The influence of puberty on the relationship between musical talent and visual-spatial ability was reflected in changing pattern of connections between two musical capacities and three spatial factors.

Finnish upper level primary school pupils preference for different kinds of music ware compared with their estimates of their peers preference for the same kinds of mUsic. The results indicate fairly consistent trends of overestimating the peers preference for music of the tough, wild, protesting, loud and rock-oriented kind, and of underestimating their preference for classical music and music of a more "quiet kind. The tendency to overestimate others preference for the former kinds of music was more pronounced when judging the taste of a larger and more nroryros peer group, than when judging the taste' of one's own classmates. The teenagers false beliefs about each others musical taste may have SOme non-desirable consequences, and it could be seen as a task for the school to prevent and correct the misconceptions.

It is argued that psychological research in music tends to ignore musical matters. In modern Western culture music is prized for qualities of uniqueness and individualism, and musicians are regarded more for their giftedness than their training. In other cultures social acceptability is more important and everyone performs as an essential part of everyday life. Researchers into visual perception and visual art utilise art from any source aS base-lines or guides in their interpretation of children's drawings. In contrast, psychological researchers in music tend to be constrained by narrow definitions of music. It iS also argued that psychological research in mUsiC has resulted in musically undesirable applications in education. The basic point is that the musical inadequacy of such research stems from the applications, in scientific method, of rationalism and empiricism to a study of mUStC Music is a product of mans unique, intuitive and irrational imagination. The traditions of rationalism and empiricism and the artistic products of mans irrational imagination are in opposition. It is not possible, therefore, to promote understanding of the latter from the tenets of the former. This clearly calls into question the efficacy of relying solely on modes of rational enquiry and utilising models based on scientific empiricism in psychological research in music. Examples are cited to defend this viewpoint.

Two studies examined the effect of repetition on the familiarity and likeability of popular music recordings, utilising the "natural" repetition of records in the music media. The rationale is that the higher the chart position a record achieves and the longer it stays in the chart the more repetitions it receives. One study obtained familiarity and likeability ratings for recordings which had recently completed chart runs. The other measured familiarity and likeability as a function of how long current hits had been in the chart. Familiarity was a function of chart performance but likeability was not. Hence repetition increases familiarity but has little effect on likeability. Various reasons for the absence of a link between repetition and likeability are discussed, including the possibility of a self-regulating mechanism which decreases exposure once likeability begins to decline. The need to consider likeability in terms of appeal to specific "taste publics" is also recognised.

Subjects underwent a structured interview and aural testing. Aural testing revealed idiosyncratic but consistent color associations for specific pitches and confirmed the subjects' reported absolute pitch. Higher octaves of a note were described as being lighter shades of the basic color for that pitch. Chords were perceived as combinations of the colors of the individual notes in the chord. Subjects generally were not able to divorce their absolute pitch ability from the color associations, and reported that their chromesthesia helped them to identify pitches, take dictation, play by ear. and memorize music. All subjects were formally trained musicians who had begun piano study at about age five. All were actively involved in the visual arts or reported considerable arts training. Two subjects reported childhood pairings of colors and pitches in books where notes or pitch letter names were colored.