; one test measured spatial-temporal reasoning
and three tests assessed spatial recognition. Post-treatment test
scores showed a significant improvement on the spatial-temporal
test only for the keyboard group. No group improved significantly
on the spatial recognition tests. That the computer group showed
no effect provides a control for extra attention, involvement,
etc. The authors suggest that the improvement in spatial reasoning
may be related to the linear spatial layout of the keyboard.
They propose that keyboard training may enhance the learning of
standard subjects, such as mathematics and science, in which spatial-temporal
reasoning is particularly important.
Rosenbaum, J.L. and Prinsky, L. (1991). The presumption of influence:
Recent responses to popular music subcultures. Crime &
Abstract: Studies the juvenile justice system in California within
a labeling theory context and outlines approaches currently taken
in response to teenagers who are part of the punk and heavy metal
subculture. 12 hospitals that have adolescent care programs responded
to a hypothetical situation in which the parents' main problem
with their child was music the child listened to, clothes the
child wore, and posters on the child's bedroom wall. 83% of the
facilities indicated that the youth needed hospitalization. Labeling
theory suggests that the process of labeling minors as juvenile
delinquents or mentally ill because of their dress and tastes
in music may have the effect of pushing them into a deviant role.
Without the negative label, the offending adolescent might simply
Music Perception, Cognition and Behavior
Bigand, E., Parncutt, R. and Lerdahl, F. (1996). Perception of musical tension in short chord sequences: the influence of harmonic function, sensory dissonance, horizontal motion, and musical training. Perception and Psychophysics, 58:124-141.
Abstract: This study investigates the effect of four variables (tonal hierarchies, sensory chordal consonance, horizontal motion, and musical training) on perceived musical tension. Participants were asked to evaluate the tension created by a chord X in sequences of three chords [C major-->X-->C major] in a C major context key. The X chords could be major or minor triads major-minor seventh, or minor seventh chords built on the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. The data were compared with Krumhansl's (1990) harmonic hierarchy and with predictions of Lerdahl's (1988) cognitive theory, Hutchinson and Knopoff's (1978) and Parncutt's (1989) sensory-psychoacoustical theories, and the model of horizontal motion defined in the paper. As a main outcome, it appears that judgments of tension arose from a convergence of several cognitive and psychoacoustics influences, whose relative importance varies, depending on musical training.
Repp, B. H. (1996). The dynamics of expressive piano performance:
Schumann's "Traumerei" revisited. Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America, 100:641-50.
Abstract: Ten graduate student pianists were recorded playing
Robert Schumann's "Traumerei" three times on a Yamaha
Disclavier. Their expressive dynamics were analyzed at the level
of hammer (MIDI) velocities. Individual dynamic profiles were
similar across repeated performances, more so for the right hand
(soprano and alto voices) than for the left hand (tenor and bass
voices). As expected, the soprano voice, which usually had the
principal melody, was played with greater force than the other
voices, which gained prominence only when they carried temporarily
important melodic fragments. Independent of this voice differentiation,
there was a tendency for velocity to increase with pitch, at least
in the soprano and alto voices. While there was an overall tendency
for velocities to increase with local tempo, there were salient
local departures from this coupling. Individual differences in
expressive dynamics were not striking and were only weakly related
to individual differences in expressive timing.
Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., Huang, Y., Staiger, J.F. and Steinmetz, H. (1995). Increased corpus callosum size in music