Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Music psychology'

This thesis concerns the importance, uses and effects of music in everyday life. The first study investigated the importance of music for 1000 Pakistani students. Results indicated that the great majority enjoyed listening to music, which was preferred to most of the other indoor and outdoor activities considered, and listening to and playing music had different perceived benefits. The second study used a variant of the experience sampling method to investigate the uses and experiences of music in the course of everyday life among 200 Pakistanis. Results indicate that the importance of several functions of music depends particularly upon with whom the participant was with and the place where the music was heard. The third study investigated the relationship between listening to music, health and happiness among 301 British and 594 Pakistani students. Results indicated that there were significant positive relationships between time spent listening to music and each of health and happiness. The fourth study investigated the effect of religious music on mental health among 175 Pakistanis hospitalized with psychotic depression. The results indicated that, relative to other types of psychosocial support materials, religious music led to the greatest decrease in depression levels. A fifth study used qualitative methods to investigate the musical peak experiences of six white British and six Pakistani participants. Several similarities were noted in the musical peak experiences of these two groups, suggesting that musical peak experiences may be a universal phenomenon. The sixth study investigated the relationship between musical peak experiences and the general health and level of happiness among 105 British and 115 Pakistani students. Results indicate that peak experiences of music were related positively to health and happiness and that these effects were not mediated by ethnicity.

Digital music piracy is a divisive contemporary issue which continues to dominate public debate on civil liberties, emphasising the far-reaching impact of the digital revolution on everyday music listening. To date, conventional approaches to curbing music piracy have largely failed. The collective knowledge produced by economists, criminologists, and lawyers, broadly depicts music pirates as immoral deviants who show no concern for the implications of their behaviours. Yet, there is little evidence to suggest that music piracy poses any major threats to the recorded music industry. This thesis explores the psychology of music piracy in order to gain a fuller understanding of why individuals engage in this activity, and what it means for the recorded music industry. Further to a comprehensive multidisciplinary Literature Review, eight empirical studies were conducted which adopted a suitably diverse mixedmethodological approach to match varied research questions. Findings from quantitative research find unique personality traits as predictors of pro-piracy attitudes. Results also suggest that individuals favouring music piracy are less fair than those who do not, with follow-up research failing to find that such individuals are immoral. Preference for digital music was also found to be a predictor of pro-piracy attitudes, with young males noted as principally engaged in music piracy. Findings from qualitative research centred on the justifications for engaging in music piracy, including rationalisations and neutralisations, as well as suggesting an imperfect understanding of commercial realities; such findings highlight that music piracy is easily justified in the absence of evidence to show that it poses real threats to the recorded music industry.

Sound and music, both independently and inside film are sometimes considered to be secondary to the visual. Some disciplines wish to classify them as triggers to neurological systems while some others will emphasise their affect-inflicting capacity; in both cases these remain as secondary functions and in the case of film as nothing but accompanying elements. Yet, observed psychologically sound and music have a unique and wholesome function in the human psyche. Carl Gustav Jung’s analytical psychology opens the door for the understanding of both as images, far beyond the consensual acceptance of image being of a visual faculty only. Understanding music as image puts music in a different position inside a film as well as a stand-alone phenomenon in the every-day life. Analytical psychology, in both original Jungian and contemporary Post-Jungian versions, using the core ideas of archetype, opposites, functions of the psyche and image - supports the very concept of music/sound as image. This thesis will approach the consequent understanding of the role of music in film beyond the decorative-accompaniment task attributed to it and as an image on its own right. The work is divided into three main parts: Part I will introduce general Jungian aspects to build the case of a Jungian psychological account of the music-image. Part II will attempt to combine theory with practice in analysing how the auditory image (mainly music) works (or sometimes clashes) with the visual (picture) to create the ‘film as a whole’ experience. Part III will implement a specific understanding of three individual film cases of different genres, eras and styles as psychologically scrutinised ‘case histories’.

This thesis is concerned with the social psychology of music and musical taste. It deals with four main research questions: (1) Why do people listen to music? (2) Do stereotypes of musical taste influence how individuals judge other people and themselves? (3) Do people exhibit in-group favouritism towards those who share their musical taste? and (4) Do stereotypes of musical taste influence how individuals perceive other people? The findings of this thesis serve to highlight musical taste as an important socio-cultural construct that is likely to influence social cognition, perception and intergroup behaviour. The thesis also provides further insight as to why people listen to music, and why it is so important to them. This thesis serves to highlight the potential for music psychologists to use well-established theories from mainstream social psychology to understand musical behaviour.

The present study is a comparison of music and non-music students with respect to their response patterns on the Brief Symptom Inventory as well as several demographic questions. The sample consisted of 148 non-music students and 141 music students at three levels: (1) freshmen/sophomore; (2) juniors/seniors; and (3) graduate students. Music students consisted of volunteers from several different music classes and non-music students were volunteers from non-music classes. There were no significant differences found among or between groups for the BSI subscales. However, music students were significantly less likely to have gone to counseling in the past and to seek professional counseling for future problems. Recommendations for psycho-educational interventions with musicians are discussed as well as suggestions for future research.

This thesis investigates temporal coordination in music performance. Previous investigations of temporal coordination have focused on people's coordination of simple movements with experimenter-controlled stimulus sequences or with other people performing similar movements. The research presented here focuses instead on coordination of the rhythmically and sequentially complex sequences required of music performance. The study presented in Chapter 2 shows that musicians adapt the timing of their movements relative to a stimulus sequence in response to sensory information that occurs in the intervals between stimulus events. The amount of adaptation depends on the modality of the sensory information, but adaptation is evident whether the sensory information arises from the performer or from an external source. The experiments presented in Chapter 3 show that musicians are better able to adapt the timing of their movements when coordinating them with a stimulus sequence that decreases rather than increases in rate. This work also shows that musicians' coordination performance better matches the predictions of an oscillator model of temporal coordination than a timekeeper model. The influence of individual differences in musical experience on coordination performance is also demonstrated. Chapter 4 investigates interpersonal coordination between pairs of pianists. This work shows some evidence that each performer in a pair activates mental representations of his or her co-performer's actions during temporal coordination. This study also shows that differences between performers' preferred performance rates influence the accuracy of the temporal coordination between them, and that performing with a partner influences individual performers' subsequent performance rates. Together, this work sheds light on the influence of sensory information and events occurring at multiple temporal levels on coordination performance, elucidates the mechanisms underlying adaptation to
Cette thèse explore la coordination temporelle nécessaire à la performance musicale. Les études sur la coordination temporelle se sont jusqu'à maintenant principalement intéressé à la coordination de mouvements simples faits par des individus en réponse à des séquences de stimuli contrôlées par l'expérimentateur ou à des mouvements exécutés par d'autres individus. Les travaux de recherche présentés ici se concentrent plutôt sur la coordination de séquences rythmiquement et séquentiellement complexes requise durant la performance musicale. L'étude présentée dans le Chapitre 2 démontre que les musiciens adaptent le rythme de leurs mouvements à une séquence de stimuli en réponse à l'information sensorielle disponible durant les intervalles séparant les stimuli. La magnitude de l'adaptation dépend de la modalité de l'information sensorielle, mais l'adaptation a lieu que l'information sensorielle provienne de l'interprète ou d'une source externe. Les études présentées dans le Chapitre 3 démontrent que les musiciens adaptent le rythme de leurs mouvements plus facilement lorsqu'ils les coordonnent à une séquence de stimuli diminuant plutôt qu'augmentant en vitesse. Ces travaux démontrent aussi que la performance de coordination des musiciens est mieux expliquée par un modèle oscillatoire que chronométrique. L'influence des différences individuelles en termes d'expérience musicale sur la coordination est aussi démontrée. Le Chapitre 4 s'intéresse à la coordination interpersonnelle au sein de paires de pianistes. Ces travaux suggèrent que chaque interprète active une représentation mentale des actions de leur co-interprète pendant la coordination temporelle. Cette étude démontre aussi que les différences de préférence individuelles en termes de rapidité de performance au sein d'une paire d'interprètes influencent la précision de leur coordination. Elle démontre que la performance au sein d'une paire influenc

This study addresses a specific gap in research concerning personality type and aesthetic preference. The goal of this study was to assess the following question: is there a positive correlation between an enjoyment of atonal harmony and the personality trait dimension known as “openness to experience”? A survey was crafted, and a number of musical pieces with various degrees of tonality and atonality were composed for this study. Respondents of the survey answered a personality test, listened to the musical pieces and ranked their enjoyment of them. What was found is that not all people who are open to experience enjoy atonal harmony, but a majority of the enjoyers of atonal harmony are open to experience. Potential avenues for future research are discussed, including how knowledge of the relationship between music and the mind can help composers and music theoreticians, as well as game developers.

Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.

The personality of musicians, artists, and other creative persons is of considerable interest to researchers and educators who seek to identify traits associated with musical behaviors. Personality traits can influence music behaviors such as instrument choice, ensemble choice, practice habits, and musical experience, which may contribute to continued music participation. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between personality type, music ensemble section, instrument choice (vocal or instrumental), and musical experience in college students and individuals who choose to continue participation after college. Few studies have concentrated on personality characteristics of ensemble members at the collegiate level and after formal education ceases. This is particularly relevant as personality characteristics may not be stable with age. This study examined the following questions: 1) To what extent do personality traits (Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience) relate to ensemble choice (instrumental, vocal no musical ensemble participation) and gender?; and 2) To what extent do personality traits (Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience) relate to ensemble section (e.g., brass, alto voice)? Participants were given a survey containing demographic questions and the Big Five Personality Inventory IPIP (Goldberg, 1992). Results showed that vocalists scored higher in Extroversion and Agreeableness compared to instrumentalists, and Instrumentalists scored higher in Neuroticism than vocalists. These results are consistent with previous research findings. This study has many implications for ensemble directors, such as rehearsal structure and repertoire choice. Music educators could also benefit from this knowledge when developing lesson plans and group assignments. Understanding different personality traits would also help ensemble members with communication within the ensemble.

I explore music's early role in social cognition, testing the hypothesis that infants interpret singing as a social signal. Over six experiments, I examine 5- and 11-month-old infants' social responses to new people who sing familiar or unfamiliar songs to them. I manipulate song familiarity with three training methods: infants learn songs from a parent; from a musical toy; or from an unfamiliar adult who sings first in person and subsequently via video chat. I use two main outcome measures: a test of visual preference for the singer of a familiar song; and, in older infants, a more explicitly social test of selective reaching for objects associated with and endorsed by novel individuals. I also test infants' memory for the songs they hear in these studies. I find that infants garner social information from the songs they hear, which they subsequently act upon in the context of social interaction; when songs are not learned in a social context, infants recall them in great detail after long delays. These results demonstrate a social function of music in early development. Music is not just pleasurable noise: it is a member of a class of behaviors, including language, accent, and food preference, that reliably inform infants' social behavior.

We investigated the concurrent effects of arousal and encoding specificity as related to background music on associative memory accuracy. Extant literature suggested these factors affect memory, but their combined effect in musical stimuli was not clear and may affect memory differentially for young and older adults. Specifically, we sought to determine if music can be used as a mnemonic device to overcome the associative memory deficits typically experienced by healthy older adults. We used a paired-associates memory task in which young and older adults listened to either highly or lowly arousing music or to silence while simultaneously studying same gender face-name pairs. Participants' memory was then tested for these pairs while listening to either the same or different music selections. We found that young adults' memory performance was not affected by any of the music listening conditions. Music listening, however, was detrimental for older adults. Specifically, their memory performance was worse for all music conditions, particularly if the music was highly arousing. Young adults' pattern of results was not reflected in their subjective ratings of helpfulness; they felt that all music was helpful to their performance yet there was no indication of this in the results. Older adults were more aware of the detriment of music on their performance, rating some highly arousing music as less helpful than silence. We discuss possible reasons for this pattern and conclude that these results are most consistent with the theory that older adults' failure to inhibit processing of distracting task-irrelevant information, in this case background music, contributes to their elevated memory failures.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether isolated musical chords and chord progressions are capable of communicating basic emotions (happiness, sadness, and fear) and sensory perceptions of tension and dissonance to eighty-two university students differing in musical expertise. Participants were recruited from ULL’s psychology and music department, and were divided into three different groups based on their formal training in music. Participants listened to forty-six music excerpts and were asked to identify and rate the emotions they felt each stimulus was attempting to convey. Participants were also asked to rate how much tension and dissonance they experienced after each excerpt.

The results demonstrated that major chord progressions played in fast tempo more readily expressed happiness than minor and chromatic chord progressions. Minor chord progressions played in slow tempo were associated with sadness and were rated higher in tension and dissonance than major chord progressions. Chromatic chord progressions, regardless of tempo, expressed fear most reliable, and received higher tension and dissonance ratings than major and minor chord progressions. Furthermore, results showed that isolated major chords were perceived as the least tense, the least dissonant, and the happiest sounding. Isolated minor chords readily conveyed sadness, and were perceived as more tense and dissonant than majors. Additionally, isolated augmented and diminished chords were the most likely to express fear and were rated highest in tension and dissonance. Contrary to previous research findings, participants’ level of musical expertise influenced sensory and emotion perception ratings. Participants with three to four years of formal training outperformed experts and novices. Future research directions and possible applied implications of these finding are also discussed.

Depression affects over three million people in the United States every year, with that number increasing drastically as we look at the entire global scale. Depression is described as “a brain disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life” (Mayo Clinic). Possible causes include a combination of biological, psychological, and stress factors. One explanation that psychologists have found includes some abnormal activity by neural circuits in the brain. Depression is characterized by a continuing feeling of sadness and loss of all interest in daily life. Depression can lead to a range of behavioral and physical symptoms. Some of these symptoms include trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, decreased energy level, inability to concentrate, changes in daily behavior, and low self-esteem (Mayo Clinic). In more serious cases, depression can also be associated with thoughts of suicide. Usually, doctors and psychologists will prescribe medications to hopefully combat the feelings of depression and help the patient get out of their altered state. Other forms of treatment include consistent therapy sessions with a psychiatrist or psychologist, during which the patient talks and vents their feelings. Some medications and talk therapy have been proven to be very successful, while others have not. A possible treatment that not many have considered may be the use of music therapy with depressed and lonely individuals. A main issue facing many people with depression and loneliness seems to be a need and desire for connection. What if music could be that connection they are missing? Many studies show that sad music can be used as a therapeutic tool to help cope with sad feelings, but the song and the patterns of sound within may also be giving the patients something else; a connection that they may not have had in the past. Because of this, music can give these individuals a reference point and a new outlook on their situation. If they struggle to find a strong connection with another human, music could be something for them to identify with and an outlet that could help change the way that they see their situation. Sad music can be a positive influence and a coping mechanism for depressed individuals, due to the fact that it provides them with feelings of happiness and gives them a connection and vantage point that they may not necessarily have seen before they listened to the music.

Critical topics of teaching music continue to undergo philosophical evolution as unique concepts and perspectives are introduced by a variety of experts both in and out of the field. One concern among many is the role of the secondary music educator in the ideal classroom for student learning, part of which is impacted by teacher-student rapport. Teacher-student rapport is defined in this paper by the author as an adaptation of the general definition of rapport by Carey et al. (1986a): the quality of relationship between teacher and student that is characterized by communication and mutual, emotional understanding. The following questions were explored through content analysis of an education practitioner journal as well as literary analysis: how are teacher-student rapport-building strategies informed by the behaviorist, cognitivist, constructivist, and humanist schools of psychology; how can the information garnered from a literary analysis guide the transformation of teacher disposition policy; what are best practice techniques for teachers to build rapport in the secondary instrumental ensemble as implied by the data? It is with the data and discussion of this study that the author hopes to support teachers’ positive rapport-building efforts with students in the secondary instrumental classroom through the avenues of immediate classroom application, and policy transformation.

Data reveals that articles in the Journal of Educational Psychology examining positive rapport-building elements most comprehensively cite principles of the constructivist school, and the top three cited psychologists are Albert Bandura, Abraham Maslow, and Jean Piaget. Recommendations for teacher disposition policy transformation are suggested to help preservice teachers cultivate positive rapport-building practice, and they include standards for promoting socio-cultural investment, positive expression, student discourse recognition, reflective practice, empathy, and effective communication. Examples of potential applications in the secondary instrumental music classroom include, but are not limited to, engaging in students’ referential (Reimer, 2010) connections to rehearsed repertoire and permitting exploration of expressive interpretation of said connections; consistently raising standards of musicianship and community in response to achievement through promotion of reflective processes and demonstrations of exemplary performance; recognizing and utilizing students’ abilities to think critically and abstractly about the expression and artistic merit of class repertoire. Other implications of best practice are refined from Bandura’s (1986) self-efficacy, Maslow’s (1943 & 1971) hierarchy of needs, and Piaget’s (1952) schema and genetic epistemology theories. Finally, potential operations in chamber music are presented in relation to constructivist principles.

Connections between athletes and musicians have been drawn recently by scholars, sports psychologists, and musicians. Literature on these connections, however, has focused on individuals rather than exploring connections between teams and ensembles. The broad goal of our study was to determine whether leadership roles like those observed in sports research emerge in chamber music ensembles. We chose to focus on connecting the literatures of leadership in sports and music by using a questionnaire drawn from sports research (Fransen, et al., 2014) in a chamber music setting. Fransen’s model was designed to measure the emergence of four leadership roles (Task, Social, Motivational, and External) in teams. In our study, fifty local musicians responded to an online questionnaire derived from Fransen (2014). We found that all four of Fransen’s leadership roles were identified by respondents as present in chamber ensembles. Respondents were also asked to describe leadership roles in their ensemble that did not fit Fransen’s four leadership roles, where such existed. From their responses, we postulate the roles of “organizational leader” and “leader by example” in chamber ensembles. We interpreted the organizational leader to be an extension of Fransen’s “external leadership” role. We interpret he leader by example role to be a set of attributes as predictors of shared leadership in individuals, rather than as a separate leadership role. In light of our findings, we offer suggestions for improving the functioning of chamber ensembles and for future research in this topic.

This qualitative study explored a university teacher's approach to incorporating music in a Cognition psychology course. Data sources included participant interviews, professor interviews, and field notes. The study was guided by three main research questions: How is music integrated into a higher education Cognition psychology course? How do students perceive the role music plays in the course? What does the professor do in the classroom and how does he explain what he does? Constant comparison analysis of the participant interviews revealed three major themes, each comprising patterns that ran through the data. Under the theme “Connecting With Students,” the patterns were: establishing a personable atmosphere; showing empathy to students; facilitating student involvement; and tapping into student culture with music. The patterns under the “Optimizing Learning” theme were: enticing students with passion; reducing exam tension; and clarifying concepts dynamically. The “Creating Salient Moments” theme contained two patterns: holding attention (with music and humour) and triggering memory (with music and humour). Data analysis also involved the writing of musical memos, a musical way to represent data that served to highlight the essence of a pattern, create holistic representations that drew from the different data sources, and represent the data in an embodied way. To contextualize the participant themes, the analysis of the field notes produced vignettes, which were detailed aggregated descriptions of typical classroom events. Using the analogy of “Teaching as Improvisational Performance,” this study explores the notion that a constructivist teacher is essentially an improvisational performer. Although the research site was a large university classroom with almost 600 students, the analysis of the data revealed that the professor was able to implement constructivist principles in his teaching. The study concluded that teachers need preparation and support to develop improvisation skills to deliver a constructivist teaching approach, particularly in large classrooms. Future research should explore the links between constructivist teaching, performing, and improvising as well as the implications for pedagogy and teacher preparation.
Cette étude qualitative explore l'approche d'un professeur d'université qui a incorporé la musique dans un cours de psychologie cognitive. Les sources incluent des entrevues avec des participants, des professeurs et des notes d'observations sur le terrain. L'étude a été alimentée par trois questions de recherche principales: comment la musique s'intègre-t-elle dans un cours de psychologie cognitive? Comment les étudiants perçoivent-ils le rôle que la musique joue dans le cours? Qu'est que le professeur fait dans la classe et comment l'explique-t-il?Une analyse constante et comparative des entrevues des participants a révélé trois thèmes majeurs qui comprennent chacun des éléments saillants qui ont été identifiés à travers les données compilées. Sous le thème « entrer en relation avec les étudiants », les éléments saillants étaient: établir une atmosphère personnalisée; démontrer de l'empathie pour les étudiants; faciliter l'implication des étudiants et entrer dans leur culture à l'aide de la musique. Les éléments saillants sous le thème « Apprentissage optimisé » étaient: captiver les étudiants avec passion; réduire la tension des examens et clarifier les concepts de façon dynamique. Le thème « créer des moments marquants » comprend deux éléments saillants: soutenir l'attention (avec la musique et l'humour) et déclencher la mémoire (avec la musique et l'humour). L'analyse des données a également impliqué l'écriture de « mémos musicaux » dans le but de représenter les données qui ont servi à exposer la composition d'un élément saillant de manière concrète et à créer des représentations holistiques issues de différentes sources. Afin de contextualiser les thèmes des participants, l'analyse des notes d'observation a produit des fiches qui sont en fait des descriptions détaillées d'évènements typiques qui peuvent se produire en classe. En utilisant l'analogie « enseigner à la manière d'une performance improvisée », cette étude explore la notion qu'un enseignant constructiviste est essentiellement un improvisateur. Même si le site où s'est conduite la recherche était une grande salle d'université de 600 élèves, l'analyse des données a révélé que le professeur demeure en mesure d'implanter des principes constructivistes dans son enseignement. L'étude conclut que les enseignants nécessitent de la formation et du soutien pour développer des notions d'improvisation afin d'utiliser une approche constructiviste, et ce, particulièrement dans une grande classe. De futures recherches devraient explorer les liens entre l'enseignement constructiviste, l'enseignement-spectacle, l'improvisation ainsi que leurs implications dans la pédagogie et dans la formation des maîtres.

Since Csikszentmihalyi identified the psychological experience of flow over 40 years ago, the experiences have been heralded as the optimum human function and prescriptive to high levels of well-being and quality of life. Csikszentmihalyi theorized that flow represented an autonomous reality that represented an altered state unlike any other human experience. Flow states emerged from intrinsically motivated behavior that represented a fragile balance between the level of enjoyment from novel task stimulation and a sense of self-efficacy required to meet the specific task demands. However, flow is not well understood and research is skewed toward to phenomenological investigations that described the nature of the experience and many of the significant variables of interest across a diverse range of activities. The lack of experimental exploration of flow has created fundamental research gaps. The general problem is that flow is predictive and related to positive psychological outcomes; however, current assessment methodologies and research have not provided the functional neuroanatomy involved. The purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to examine the hypofrontality theory that a flow state occurs concurrently with decreased cognitive activation in the frontal cortex (hypofrontality) during the flow phenomena. Participants consisted of expert piano players that were assessed for changes in alpha activity in the frontal cortex during a flow and non-flow condition. Results from the paired samples paired t-test conducted revealed there were statistically significant differences in alpha power in the experimental conditions (DV) versus the control conditions (IV; M = 93, SD = 105, N = 14), t(13) = 3.29, p = .006. These results supported the main hypothesis that there is increased alpha power in the frontal cortex during flow states. This finding provides the first empirically validated biomarker for a flow. These results will assist future research to understand flow experiences as a conceptually unambiguous variable.

Bibliography: leaves 157-170.
The relationship between music and emotion is complex, and has defied explanation for a great many years. The present study addressed one particular aspect of this issue: to what extent can young children interpret the emotions expressed in short musical excerpts drawn from larger works, and how do their interpretations differ from those of adults and change as they mature? Following an appraisal of current theoretical approaches and empirical research, a structural model of emotions incorporating the ideas of fuzzy, prototypically organised emotion concepts based on underlying dimensions of degree of pleasure and arousal or activation (Bullock & Russell, 1984, 1986; Russell, 1989) was used to reveal and interpret patterns and developmental trends in children's understanding of emotion in music. 5-year-old, 7-yearold and 9-year-old children and adults (n = 30 in each age group) participated in the main study. They were asked to link 18 musical excerpts to an emotion word/facial expression pair selected from the following alternatives: calm, happy, excited, scared, angry/cross and sad. These were presented to the subjects in a set of three tasks utilising different combinations of musical excerpts and emotion words.

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is reported in musicians of all experience, levels, and genre. However, solo classical musicians report MPA more often and at higher levels than performers in other genres because of its formal culture and traditional structure. Within solo classical musicians, collegiate training greatly differs between conservatories that award a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) and liberal arts institutions that award a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.). In 2 studies, the proposed research examines the differences in general anxiety, MPA, and private lesson content between these two groups. Participants will be from the two groups of types of collegiate music students. In Study 1, participants will take the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (K-MPAI), and a Personal and Musical Background Questionnaire (PMBQ) at 3 times intervals before a public, solo performance in order to assess general connections between anxiety and MPA. In Study 2, participants will partake in weekly session of 1 of 3 interventions (meditation, journal entry, and biofeedback training) in order to determine an effective method for preventing and coping with MPA. Proposed results suggest higher levels of general anxiety and MPA in conservatory music students and lower levels of MPA in participants who undergo biofeedback training. Individuals who report learning about MPA strategies in their lessons will have lower levels of MPA, suggesting the need to consistently address MPA in classical music pedagogy.

Little research has been carried out in order to understand the mechanisms underlying the perception of polyphonic music. Perception of polyphonic music involves thematic recognition, that is, recognition of instances of theme through polyphonic voices, whether they appear unaccompanied, transposed, altered or not. There are many questions still open to debate concerning thematic recognition in the polyphonic domain. One of them, in particular, is the question of whether or not cognitive mechanisms of segmentation and thematic reinforcement facilitate thematic recognition in polyphonic music. This dissertation proposes a connectionist model to investigate the role of segmentation and thematic reinforcement in thematic recognition in polyphonic music. The model comprises two stages. The first stage consists of a supervised artificial neural model to segment musical pieces in accordance with three cases of rhythmic segmentation. The supervised model is trained and tested on sets of contrived patterns, and successfully applied to six musical pieces from J. S. Bach. The second stage consists of an original unsupervised artificial neural model to perform thematic recognition. The unsupervised model is trained and assessed on a four-part fugue from J. S. Bach. The research carried out in this dissertation contributes into two distinct fields. Firstly, it contributes to the field of artificial neural networks. The original unsupervised model encodes and manipulates context information effectively, and that enables it to perform sequence classification and discrimination efficiently. It has application in cognitive domains which demand classifying either a set of sequences of vectors in time or sub-sequences within a unique and large sequence of vectors in time. Secondly, the research contributes to the field of music perception. The results obtained by the connectionist model suggest, along with other important conclusions, that thematic recognition in polyphony is not facilitated by segmentation, but otherwise, facilitated by thematic reinforcement.

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a common problem in musicians of all ages, genders, socio-economic backgrounds, and levels of performance experience. The intensity of symptoms associated with the condition range from mild to debilitating. Even at lower levels, chronic MPA is associated with stress-related illnesses and maladaptive coping behaviors, such as self-medication with licit (cigarettes and alcohol) and illicit or off-label drugs. Acute MPA is known to destroy musical careers.

Faced with the pervasiveness and potential gravity of MPA, clinicians have developed a number of nonpharmacologic treatment protocols, some of which have been studied for efficacy. Most of the outcome studies have reported pairwise comparisons (experimental versus control) of measures taken of small samples of performing musicians. The robustness of the treatment was determined by tests of statistical significance of observed differences on outcome measures or by the calculation of effect size.

Previous narrative reviews of outcome studies have provided summary descriptions of their characteristics and findings. However, these analyses do not provide quantitative evidence of the efficacy of different treatments for ameliorating MPA.

Since it was first employed in psychological research by Smith and Glass in 1977, meta-analysis has become the gold standard for synthesizing quantitative research findings across studies. The method involves integration of standardized treatment effect estimates from different studies. It can provide comparisons of the effectiveness of subgroups of therapies (approaches), characterize a therapeutic approach in terms of an outcome profile, and determine whether a particular psychotherapeutic intervention is effective. The present review is the first to use meta-analysis to integrate the findings of research studies in the literature on nonpharmacologic psychotherapies for MPA and to compare their effectiveness.

An exhaustive search of the literature identified 46 efficacy studies. Of these, 29 met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The accumulated data represents autonomic, self-report, and observational measures of MPA for 852 advanced music students and professional musicians. Each measure was coded for type (autonomic, self-report or observational) and for therapeutic approach (cognitive, behavioral, complementary and alternative, and combined). Analysis of the synthesized data indicated statistically significant therapeutic effects of each therapeutic approach. Additionally, when the approaches were compared, the class of psychotherapies that was made of combinations of two or more types of interventions (combined) showed the strongest treatment effect.

Among the implications of these findings is the plurality of good choices for an individual suffering with MPA. The development of programs to raise awareness of the prevalence of music performance anxiety and available treatments is recommended. For researchers, greater standardization in methodology and periodic meta-analysis is encouraged.

Music performance anxiety is an issue that affects musicians at all levels but can begin in early adolescence. The researcher investigated three variables and their ability to predict music performance anxiety: catastrophization, self-regulation, and goal-setting style. Catastrophization is a negative thought that amplifies perceived criticism. Self-regulation is a metacognitive skill that allows students to plan strategies and evaluate learning. Goal-setting style refers to a student's framework when establishing learning objectives – whether they are focused on mastering the subject matter, or only trying to avoid being the worst in the class. A sample of adolescent wind musicians (n = 68) were administered four self-reporting measures for the predictor variables and music performance anxiety. Catastrophization, self-regulation, and goal-setting style were all statistically significant in predictor music performance anxiety, with catastrophization alone explaining 69% of the variance in the predictor variable. Overall, the whole model was able to explain 46% of the variance in music performance anxiety.

The purpose of the study was to investigate freshman music students' identification with expected tasks in music theory class including aural, written, and performance requirements. The second research problem compared students' descriptions with actions in class to determine the presence of role taking (the conscious adherence to a set of behaviors) or role playing (the unconscious assumption of a set of behaviors).

Many models of memory retrieval assume that events in a sequential context are incorporated in planned representations during sequence production. Serial ordering errors, in which correct events are produced in incorrect sequence positions, offer evidence for the simultaneous accessibility of sequential elements. Musical sequences pose a challenge to contextual models of planning; contextual relationships among events in music may enhance sequence planning and retrieval, contrary to traditional effects of list length on forgetting. We tested predictions of the range model (Palmer & Pfordresher, 2003; Pfordresher et al., 2007), a formal contextual model of retrieval, regarding the effects of sequential context on event planning in music performance. Twenty-six skilled pianists practiced novel musical excerpts that were embedded in large and small musical contexts until they achieved an error-free performance, and subsequently performed the sequences at fast and moderate tempi, chosen to elicit errors. Serial ordering pitch errors tended to arise from greater sequential distances and from more metrically similar events when excerpts were placed in larger contexts, as predicted by the range model. Large contexts also enhanced the effect of tempo on error rates in the excerpt, relative to small contexts. These findings suggest that larger contexts facilitate sequence planning by increasing the salience of hierarchical event relationships, making it possible for performers to prepare larger ranges of contextual events. Advantages conferred on sequence planning by larger contexts support incrementality models and qualify theories in which contextual information is viewed as always detrimental to remembering. In music performance, larger contexts may facilitate planning by strengthening associations among proximal and similar sequence elements, consistent with contextual theories of pitch memory.
Plusieurs modèles de récupération en mémoire proposent que le contexte d'une séquence est intégré aux représentations planifiées lors de la production de cette séquence. Les erreurs d'ordre sériel, où des évènements corrects sont produits aux mauvais endroits dans la séquence, démontrent que l'accès à de multiples éléments dans une séquence se fait simultanément. La production de séquences musicales remet en question les modèles de planification qui se basent sur le contexte. Les relations contextuelles entre les évènements d'une séquence musicale pourraient améliorer la planification et la récupération des séquences, ce qui contredit l'idée que de longues séquences nuisent à la mémoire. Nous avons testé les prédictions du Range Model (Palmer & Pfordresher, 2003; Pfordresher et al., 2007), un modèle formel de récupération contextuelle, concernant les effets du contexte sur la planification de séquences musicales. Vingt-six pianistes expérimentés ont pratiqué de nouveaux extraits musicaux qui étaient placés dans des contextes longs et courts, jusqu'à ce qu'ils atteignent une performance sans erreurs. Ensuite, ils ont joué les séquences à des tempos rapides et modérés, qui ont été choisis pour induire des erreurs. Pour les contextes longs, les erreurs dans l'ordre sériel des notes étaient associées à de plus grandes distances entre les évènements en question dans la séquence, ainsi qu'à des évènements similaires au niveau métrique. Ces résultats confirment les prédictions du Range Model. Les contextes longs, comparés aux contextes courts, augmentaient également l'effet du tempo sur le taux d'erreur. Ces résultats suggèrent que les contextes longs facilitent la planification de séquences en augmentant la saillance des relations hiérarchiques entre les évènements, ce qui permet aux pianistes de planifier de plus longues étendues d'évènements dans la séquence. L'avantage que ces contextes longs apportent à la planification d'évènements appuie les modèles incrémentiels, et nuance les théories qui considèrent l'information contextuelle comme étant nuisible à la récupération. Dans le domaine de la performance musicale, les contextes longs peuvent faciliter la planification de séquences en renforçant les associations entre les évènements proches et similaires. Ceci est conforme aux théories contextuelles de mémoire pour les hauteurs musicales.

AbstractThis research sought to translate three standardized assessment measures of phonological processing known to be related to text reading, into experimental tasks that measure music processing. The primary aim of this thesis was to ascertain the relationship between these musically-adapted tasks and sight-reading performance in music. A broader goal was to explore and compare task performance across text and music, thereby informing a larger issue in cognitive and educational psychology: the relationship between music and language. In this manuscript-based thesis, there are six chapters, including three manuscripts (one previously published) that contribute to these goals. The first manuscript, published in the journal Music Perception, is a 26-year review of the field of music perception and cognition. The categorical and bibliometric analysis sought to document the longitudinal course of empirical studies in the journal Music Perception, by examining 384 empirical articles, as well as the full set of 578 articles, published between 1983 and 2010. The review suggested that only 9% of music perception studies use any assessment measures (mostly standardized tests, but also measures of musical ability). An increase over time in the use of assessment measures (ß = .40, p < .05) as data collection instruments was observed. It was thus inferred that the development of tasks which measure musical ability would be important to the continued advancement of psychometrics in the field of music perception and cognition. The second and third manuscripts were devoted to designing measures of music processing based on standardized tests of text reading. The objective was to search for relationships between the language and music tasks themselves, as well as testing their capacity to predict errors in musical sight-reading (SR) performance. In other words, an investigation of whether musically-adapted tasks, initially developed specifically for the assessment of text reading, would be significant predictors of SR performance. The second manuscript explored the effectiveness of the Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) task in predicting SR by testing 41 participants: pianists aged 18 to 36. For all RAN tasks, response times (interonset intervals of vocal responses) were used to predict errors in sight reading performance of piano music. Correlational analyses revealed several significant associations between performance on standard RAN and music RAN tasks. Regression analyses revealed that the RAN letter task was the most consistent predictor of SR, with music RAN tasks adding additional explanatory power to the model. These findings suggested that processing specific to musical symbols may underlie aspects of SR performance, but that an already existing standardized task typically used for text reading could be more useful in predicting SR ability. The third manuscript reports an experiment in which musical tasks were designed to mirror two phonological awareness tasks from the "Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing" (CTOPP), Elision and Blending Words. Participants were 25 pianists, aged 18 to 53. Regression analyses revealed the importance of music training and working memory in SR, and showed that performance on a musical blending task was important to the prediction of SR performance in certain cases.
RésuméCette recherche a tenté de traduire trois mesures d'évaluation normalisées d'habiletés de traitement phonologique liés à la lecture du texte, en tâches expérimentales mesurant le traitement de musique. L'objectif principal de cette thèse était de déterminer la relation entre ces tâches adaptées musicalement et la lecture à vue musicale. Un objectif plus large était d'explorer et de comparer la performance des tâches dans le texte et la musique, élucidant ainsi une question plus vaste de la psychologie cognitive et éducative: la relation entre la musique et la langue. Cette thèse comprend six chapitres, et trois manuscits (un publié) qui contribuent à ces objectifs. Le premier manuscrit, publié dans la revue Music Perception, est une analyse de 26 ans de littérature dans domaine de la perception et de la cognition musicale. L'analyse bibliométrique et catégorique a cherché à documenter l'évolution longitudinale des études empiriques dans la publication Music Perception, en examinant 384 articles empiriques, ainsi que l'ensemble complet des 578 articles publiés entre 1983 et 2010. L'analyse suggère que seulement 9% des études sur la perception de la musique utilisent des mesures d'évaluation (essentiellement des essais normalisés, mais aussi des mesures de la capacité musicale). J'ai observé une augmentation au fil du temps dans l'utilisation des mesures d'évaluation (ß = .40, p < .05) comme des instruments de collecte de données. Par conséquent, j'ai déduit que le développement de tâches qui mesurent la capacité musicale était considéré important pour l'avancement continu de la psychométrie dans le domaine de la perception et la cognition de la musique. Les deuxième et troisième manuscrits ont été consacrés à l'élaboration de mesures de traitement de la musique basés sur des tests standardisés de lecture de texte. L'objectif était de chercher les relations entre les tâches langagières et musicales elles-mêmes, ainsi que de tester leur capacité à prédire des erreurs dans la lecture à vue musicale. Autrement dit, j'ai examiné si les tâches musicales, initialement développées spécifiquement pour l'évaluation de la lecture du texte, seraient des prédicteurs significatifs de la lecture à vue. Le second manuscrit a exploré l'efficacité de la tâche Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) dans la prédiction de la lecture à vue en testant 41 participants: des pianistes âgés de 18 à 36 ans. Pour toutes les tâches RAN, le temps de réponse (intervalles "interonset" de réponses vocales) a été utilisé pour prédire des erreurs dans la lecture à vue des performances de musique pour piano. Les analyses de corrélation ont révélé plusieurs associations significatives entre les performances sur les RAN standards et les RAN musicaux. Les analyses de regression ont révélé un modèle dans lequel la tâche RAN lettre était le prédicteur le plus constant de la lecture à vue, avec une des tâches RAN musique ajoutant un pouvoir explicatif au modèle. Ces résultats suggèrent que le traitement spécifique des symboles musicaux peuvent sous-tendre les aspects de la performance de la lecture à vue, mais aussi qu'une tâche déjà existante normalisée généralement utilisée pour la lecture du texte pourrait être plus utile pour prédire la capacité de la lecture à vue. Le troisième manuscrit présente une expérience où des tâches musicales ont été conçues pour refléter deux tâches de conscience phonologique comprises dans le "Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing", Elision et Blending Words. Les participants étaient 25 pianistes, âgés de 18 à 53 ans. Les analyses de régression ont révélé l'importance de la formation musicale et de la mémoire de travail dans la lecture à vue et ont montré que la performance sur une tâche musicale était importante pour la prédiction de performance musicale dans certains cas.

Auditory-motor skills such as speaking or playing a musical instrument require skill in processing auditory outcomes and performing actions that produce those outcomes. A growing body of evidence suggests that perception and production components of auditory-motor skill are integrated by reciprocal auditory-to-motor and motor-to-auditory interactions. Much remains unknown about how complex auditory sequences map to complex movement sequences such as those required of speech or music performance. Less still is known about how auditory-motor interactions influence the way skilled performers learn and remember novel auditory-motor sequences. The research described in this thesis examined these questions in the context of music performance. Music performance is a common and complex auditory-motor behavior that presents a useful model for examining human auditory-motor capabilities as it requires precise control of both pitch and temporal sequences of events. Three studies examined how auditory-motor interactions influence the way skilled musicians map pitch and temporal sequences to movements and the way musicians learn and remember music. The first study examined how auditory pitch and temporal sequence structure in music engage motor neural networks in auditory-motor interactions (Chapter 2). This study revealed motor networks that are sensitive to both pitch and temporal structure when musicians listen to and subsequently perform music. This finding suggests that the motor system integrates multiple dimensions of auditory sequence structure when performers map auditory sequences to motor sequences. The second study examined how performers use auditory and motor information to learn auditory sequences (Chapter 3). This study revealed that musicians better recognize auditory sequences that they hadlearned while producing them with auditory feedback than while hearing them only, indicating that motor learning facilitates subsequent auditory memory for skilled performers. The third study examined how individual differences in auditory and motor imagery abilities influence the way musicians learn novel music and subsequently remember that music (Chapter 4). This study revealed that auditory imagery abilities help performers learn novel music by compensating for missing sound and reducing sensitivity to interfering information; auditory imagery abilities also help performers recall music during performance with greater temporal regularity. Overall, these results suggest that auditory imagery abilities aid learning and subsequent recall of music differently. Together, these studies illuminate how auditory-motor integration functions in skilled performance and how it contributes to auditory-motor sequence learning and memory.
Certaines habiletés auditivomotrices, telles que parler ou jouer d'un instrument de musique, requièrent des compétences particulières sur les plans du traitement auditif des sons produits et de la production des actions menant à l'émission de ces sons. À cet égard, un nombre croissant de preuves empiriques suggère que les composantes de perception et de production des habiletés auditivomotrices s'incèrent à l'intérieur d'interactions réciproques entre le système auditif et le système moteur. Plusieurs questions concernant la façon dont des séquences auditives complexes s'alignent avec des séquences complexes de mouvements, telles que retrouvées dans la parole ou les performances musicales, demeurent néanmoins irrésolues. Notamment par rapport à la façon dont les interactions entre les systèmes auditif et moteur influencent l'apprentissage et la rétention de nouvelles séquences auditivomotrices chez des executants compétents. Les recherches décrites dans cette thèse visent à aborder ces questions dans le contexte de performances musicales. En effet, étant donné qu'elles requièrent un contrôle précis de la hauteur du son et de la sequence temporelle des événements, les performances musicales sont des comportements auditivomoteurs communs et complexes représentant un modèle avantageux dans l'examen des capacités auditivomotrices. Trois études sont proposées afin d'examiner l'influence des interactions entre les systèmes auditif et moteur sur la façon dont des musiciens compétents alignent la hauteur sonore et les sequences temporelles avec les mouvements requis lors de performances musicales, de même que sur la façon dont ils apprennent et retiennent une séquence musicale. La première étude examine la manière dont la hauteur sonore et la structuretemporelle d'une séquence musicale engagent certains réseaux neuronaux du système moteur sur le plan des interactions auditivomotrices (Chapitre 2). Cette étude révèle que les réseaux du système moteur sont sensibles à l'intensité sonore et à la structure temporelle lorsque des musiciens écoutent et jouent de la musique. Ces résultats suggèrent que le système moteur intègre de multiples dimensions relatives à la structure de la séquence auditive lorsque ces sequences auditives sont alignées avec des séquences motrices lors de performances musicales. La deuxième étude examine l'utilisation des informations auditives et motrices dans l'apprentissage de séquences auditives (Chapitre 3). Cette etude révèle que les musiciens reconnaissent mieux les séquences auditives qu'ils ont eu à apprendre en les jouant avec rétroaction auditive, par rapport à celles qu'ils ont uniquement eu à écouter. Ces résultats indiquent que l'apprentissage moteur facilite la mémorisation d'information auditive chez les exécutants compétents. La troisième étude examine l'influence des différences individuelles sur le plan des habiletés d'imagerie auditive et motrice, sur l'apprentissage de nouvelles séquences musicales et sur le rappel de ces mêmes séquences (Chapitre 4). Cette étude révèle que les habiletés d'imagerie auditive aident les exécutants à apprendre de nouvelles séquences musicales en compensant pour les sons manquants, de même qu'en réduisant l'interférence liée à l'informations non pertinente; les habiletés d'imagerie auditive améliorent également le rappel de séquences musicales lors de performances comportant une plus grande régularitétemporelle. De manière générale, ces résultats suggèrent que les habiletés d'imagerie auditive aident différemment à l'apprentissage de nouvelles sequences musicales et à leur rappel. Ensemble, ces études illustrent le fonctionnement des intégrations auditivomotrices chez les exécutants compétents, ainsi que leur contribution à l'apprentissage et à la mémorisation de séquences auditivomotrices.

Billboard magazine’s Top 40 songs from one’s youth can impact one’s psyche during midlife and instill the individuation process with depth and meaning, leading toward an enlarged sense of self that can take one on a path toward wholeness. The therapeutic healing nature of music is reviewed, focusing on its influence on adolescence from a Jungian perspective and its innate relationship to shamanism. Utilizing a heuristic research methodology and the ideas of archetypal psychology, this thesis incorporates the author’s personal life experience with popular music and dreams in a brief memoir highlighting each 12-year Jupiter Return cycle, midlife, and the midlife crisis. Combining the language and concepts of depth psychology, a passion for Top 40 music, a series of dreams with pertinent synchronicities, and storytelling pave the way and inform the author’s hero’s journey, a spiritual quest unveiling an initiation of death and resurrection marking the birth of a shaman.

Music is one of the most popular activities while driving. Previous research on music while driving has been mixed, with some researchers finding music to be a distractor and some research finding music to be facilitative to driving performance. The current study was designed to determine if familiarity with the music might explain the difference found between self-selected and experimenter-selected music, and whether the difficulty of the driving conditions affected music’s relationship to driving performance. One hundred and sixty-five University students participated in a driving simulation both with music and without music. Under the “with music” condition, participants were randomly assigned to three music conditions: self-selected music, experimenter-selected familiar music, and experimenter-selected unfamiliar music. In the simulation drive, participants first drove under a simple, low-mental workload condition (car following task in a simulated suburban road) and then drove under a complex, high-mental workload condition (city/urban road). The results showed that whether music was self- or experimenter-selected did not affect driving performance. Whether the music was familiar or unfamiliar did not affect performance either. However, self-selected music appeared to improve driving performance under low-workload conditions, leading to less car-following delay and less standard deviation in steering, but also caused participants to drive faster, leading to faster mean speed and higher car-following modulus, but not more speed limit violations. Self-selected music did not have any significant effect in high-mental workload conditions.

This thesis examines the impact of music on people from a depth-psychological perspective and explores how music can deeply touch and change clients’ lives and allow for healing. In so doing, this thesis will contribute to increased understanding of the need for music therapeutically. Utilizing qualitative methodology and a hermeneutic approach, this thesis considers the significant impact of music on the body, brain, mind, spirituality, and emotions, and examines how music can be used as a healing power. The research question guiding this thesis is: How can music be used in a client’s therapeutic process to allow for the needed healing? The results explain what music therapy is and how it is used therapeutically, and how it promotes healing while bringing a greater understanding and appreciation for music therapy.

This dissertation endeavors to explore and describe the lived experience of music therapists’ relationships with their clients as it develops in individual music therapy sessions. Music therapy literature, reviewed with particular attention to its treatment of the psychodynamic conceptualization of clinical relationship, suggests a shaky marriage between music therapy and psychoanalytic thought, and the experience of the music therapist in this landscape has not been studied. As its data, this study relies on semi-structured interviews with 7 music therapist volunteers who provide individual music therapy, focusing on their experience of emotion, interpersonal connection with their patients, and utility of psychodynamic concepts in that work. Idiographic and nomothetic analysis revealed 4 common themes in music therapists’ experience of clinical relationship, which belie an underlying sense of confusion and anxiety about important aspects of the work. The discussion of findings examines these themes in the context of the powerful impact music can have on the psyche, and makes recommendations regarding the inclusion of psychodynamic concepts in music therapy training. Keywords: music therapy, relationship, psychoanalysis, transference, countertransference, projective identification, boundaries

The purpose of this study was to present a content analysis of seven music therapy journals in the English language in order to provide an objective documentation of the longitudinal growth of the field. The current study examined seven English language music therapy journals including the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy: Journal of the American Association for Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, The Australian Journal of Music Therapy, The Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, The British Journal of Music Therapy, and The New Zealand Society for Music Therapy Journal. A total of 1,922 articles were coded according to author information (name, credentials, institution, geographic location), mode of inquiry, population studied, and subsequent article citation. Results indicated a broad range of research topics with a rapid rise in music and medicine research beginning in the 1980s. Research authors in music therapy comprise a diverse group of authors both from the United States and abroad. This study highlighted transitions in institutional productivity moving from clinical settings to academic settings. Over the course of 50 years, there have been continuous changes in various aspects of the music therapy literature that document the continuing growth of the profession.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of critical thinking instruction on the music listening skills of fifth grade students as measured by written responses to music listening examples. It was hypothesized that music listening instruction including opportunities for critical thinking (Critical Thinking Instruction, CTI) would be more effective than parallel instruction without critical thinking instruction (Activity-Based Instruction, ABI). CTI consisted of four components: musical terms and concepts, repeated music listening examples, responding activities, and opportunities for critical thinking. In contrast, ABI consisted of three components: musical terms and concepts, repeated music listening examples, and responding activities; ABI did not include opportunities for critical thinking. Both CTI and ABI treatments were taught concurrently by the same music teacher at the same school in a series of sixteen (16) forty-five (45) minute lessons. Two intact classes of subjects were randomly assigned to the CTI and the ABI treatment groups (n = 41 and 40, respectively). "Thinking and Listening," a researcher-designed dependent measure, was administered as a pretest and a posttest. Subjects' written responses were classified into three categories (i.e. musical, affective, or associative) and scored by three independent judges. Additionally, the Musical Aptitude Profile (Gordon, 1967/1995) was administered as a covariate. Significant disordinal interaction effects in subjects' responses by test by treatment were found such that CTI subjects demonstrated greater gains in musical term, associative, and total response scores from pretest to posttest than did ABI subjects. Additionally, significant main effect differences between treatment groups were found such that CTI subjects demonstrated higher musical term, affective, associative, and total response scores than did ABI subjects. Significant main effect within group differences were also found such that CTI subjects demonstrated significantly higher musical term, affective, associative, and total response scores on the posttest as compared to the pretest, while no significant main effect differences were found in ABI subjects' response scores. The positive effects of the CTI treatment, however, should be interpreted with caution based on larger than expected standard deviations and departures from normal distributions. Implications include designing music listening instruction to incorporate critical thinking skills.

A study was designed to assess the effect of headphone music on running performance and enjoyment with its implications for increasing exercise compliance. A counterbalanced split-plot design was used with 18 University of the Pacific undergraduates receiving both treatment conditions: running with music and running without music. Measures included: (a) perceived enjoyment questionnaire scores; (b) running time; and (c) heart rate. It was expected that music would increase participants' rated running enjoyment, amount of time spent running, and also running intensity or heart rate, in comparison to running without music. Music significantly increased participants' rated enjoyment scores but not running time or heart rate. A tendency for participants to run longer when they rated the run as more enjoyable was also observed although the obtained Pearson r was not significant at the p = .05 level.

In music production, along with other creative endeavors, there is a recurring phenomenon of loss of motivation during the process of creating. Within the community of music producers, there is no unified picture of what leads to lack of motivation, and little academic research has been done on motivation in music production specifically. However, when it comes to motivation in creativity, there is some research which suggest that intrinsic motivators are the primary regulators of motivation in creativity. Whether extrinsic motivators are detrimental to intrinsic motivation or can be used to facilitate intrinsic motivation, as well as what kind of extrinsic motivators that may facilitate intrinsic motivation, is still debated. This thesis sets out to discover what facilitators and barriers to motivation can be found in the music production process of electronic music producers, and whether this knowledge can be applied to products for music production. To examine facilitators and barriers in music production, a phenomenology-inspired, bottom-up methodology of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis is employed on professional and enthusiast music producers. The results show that while baseline intrinsic motivators such as the will to create are vital for motivation, there are a lot of extrinsic factors at play in sustaining motivation through music production as well. This thesis is presented with product companies that make products for electronic music production in mind, and through the results of this thesis, numerous suggestions on what to think about when designing for motivation in music production are presented.

Musik har en värdefull plats i spelvärlden, strävan efter att skapa något unikt och innovativt präglar varje kompositör. Är det möjligt att subliminalt förmedla och påverka spelarens val i en virtuell värld, genom musik? Den här studien fokuserar på om hur instrumentationsbyte inom spelmusik kan ha en inverkan på spelarens handlingar i spelet Minecraft (2011). För att besvara detta skapades en artefakt som i samband med intervjuer och observationer av informanter fastställde ett resultat. Artefakten uppstod från spelet Minecraft (2011), musikstycket ”Sweden” av C418 (C418 u.å.) samt en nykomponerad version av ”Sweden” som innehåller en ny instrumentering. Undersökningen bestod av 7 informanter som tog del av artefakten i en spelsession på 10 minuter samtidigt som en skärminspelning tog plats. Efter spelsessionen intervjuades informanterna angående deras upplevelse. Resultatet visade att deltagarnas val inte styrdes av musikens instrumentation utan endast av medvetna handlingar. Musiken hade dock en inverkan på informanternas spelsession då den bidrog till inlevelsekänslan. En fortsättning av detta arbete skulle troligtvis präglas av problematiken att mäta reaktionerna hos spelarna enbart baserat på förändringen i musikens instrumentering. Möjlighet till att förändra frågeställningen i samband med en ny och förbättrad artefakt kan medföra en starkare insikt i denna kombinerade värld av psykologi, spel och musik.

Composition has been conceptualized as a method for communicating a way of thinking (i.e., cognition) from composers to performers and audience members. Music notation, or how music is represented in a visual format, becomes the vehicle through which such cognition is communicated. In the past, research on notation has been approached either categorically or as a taxonomy, where it is placed into separate categories based primarily on visual elements, including its symbols, conventions, and practices. The modern application of notation in Western classical music repertoire, however, has shown that the boundaries between these systems are not always clear and sometimes blend together. Viewing music notation from a spectrum-based approach instead provides a better understanding of notation through its cognitive effects. These spectra can then be viewed through multiple dimensions, all addressing different aspects. The first dimension consists of the historical systems of notation, ranging from standard music notation (SMN) to music graphics. Additional kinds of notation, such as proportional, pictorial, and aleatoric, work as the mediary levels between these two. The second dimension focuses on whether notation is processed intuitively, based on either cultural priming or general cognitive principles, or through conscious interpretation. The last dimension views notation as either a visual representation of the sound (descriptive) or a representation of the process performed to create the sound (prescriptive). This thesis conceptualizes a theory for understanding music notation though these multiple dimensions by synthesizing psychological studies about music, music notation research, and pre-existing musical scores.

Originally presented as author's thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2006.
Also available online. Thesis title: "Being touched by music: a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach to understanding transformational musical experience." Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-112) and index.

The time of day effect has been said to be involved with optimal arousal levels during an individual's preferred time of day. In the present study, invigorating background music was used to increase the arousal level of older adults in the afternoon in order to minimize the time of day effect that can be seen in test performance. The results indicated that invigorating background music had no significant effect on scores of a memory recognition task for older or younger adults. However, younger adults performed better than older adults in all testing combinations, older adults had significantly more false alarms than younger adults, and both younger and older adults performed the recognition task at a faster pace when music was present in the background.

Little is known about how the quality of one’s relationships might relate to how important a person thinks music is. By combining three established psychological phenomena - the need to belong, transference of attachment and aesthetic emotions - a novel research field addressing this was deducted and explored. A web-survey with self-report scales on attachment styles, belongingness and valuation of music was distributed both publicly via Facebook and targeted to psychology students at Stockholm University per e-mail. 141 surveys were returned. Good to excellent internal consistencies were obtained for all scales. Ambivalent and disorganized attachment styles correlated positively up to medium strength with measures related to valuation of music. A following ANOVA between attachment style groups supported the results of the correlation analysis. The results provide some tentative support for the deducted explanation.

Average daily listening hours and annual sales figures give testament to the important position that music holds in the personal and social lives of individuals in contemporary cultures (Arnett, 1991; North, Hargreaves, & O’Neill, 2000; Schwartz & Fouts, 2003; Ter Bogt, Raaijmakers, Vollebergh, van Well, & Sikkema, 2003). Youth, especially, dedicate considerable amounts of time and money to music listening (Roberts, Henriksen, & Foehr, 2009). However, it has been suggested that certain music preferences and music subcultures are associated with problem behaviors and/or internalizing distress in youth, particularly females (Miranda & Claes, 2008, 2009; Selfhout, Delsing, Ter Bogt, & Meeus, 2008). Specifically, the emo music subculture has typically been associated with themes of depression, self-injury, and suicide (Porretta, 2007; Sands, 2006; Shafron & Karno, 2013). As a result, this study sought to contribute to the need for research in this area by exploring the role of music in the psychological functioning of adolescents and emerging adult females. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding of the experiences and conceptualizations of music in relationship to emotional processes, identity development, and self-concept among young adult females who listen to music that has been commonly labeled as emo. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 8 women ranging in age from who reported listening to music considered to be emo. Results indicated several themes related to mood, self, and others. With regard to mood, 4 subthemes arose: emotion related coping, music as an emotional trigger, catharsis, and empowerment- hope. In terms of themes related to the self, participants reported being able to feel a personal connection to the music, and most shared that emo music helped them feel accepted and understood. Finally, with regard to themes related to others, results indicated that the participants tended to experience some form of negative attention due to their involvement in this subculture, though they also reported having been able to form social bonds because of their music preferences. Potential contributions include adding to the literature on music preference and its relationship to young adult mood and identity development. In addition, the study provides information relevant to individuals involved in the emo subculture that has potential implications for intervention with this population.

Music is a part of everyday life and has an effect on people in many different ways. Music can be as individual as the person who listens to it, and thus there are many genres for many different tastes. Music has accompanied exercise and sport for quite some time. It has been shown to have varying psychophysical effects including decreasing ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) at a given sub-max intensity, enhancing arousal control, and affective states at high and medium intensities. Also the improved synchronization of sub-maximal exercise with music may result in increased work output. The proposed ability of music to increase aerobic endurance and improve motor performance has received considerable attention in the literature over the last decades. However, few studies have examined the potential influence of listening to most vs. least preferred music type on exercise RPE, heart rate response (HR) and oxygen consumption (VO2). The current study compared HR, VO2 and RPE at preferred intensities (self-selected treadmill velocities) between treadmill exercise sessions in which subjects listened to music they previously identified as "most" and "least preferred." Subjects completed three testing sessions including a maxima! oxygen consumption (VO2 max) trial using a Vacu-med metabolic system followed by two counterbalanced exercise trials listening to music. Subjects chose "least preferred" (LP) and "most, preferred" (MP) music from a predetermined list. During MP and LP, subjects self-selected velocity at a constant 5% treadmill grade and exercised long enough to achieve steady stale I-1R. Once MR achieved steady slate, subjects continued for three to five minutes with RPE estimations being recorded at the end of every minute. Treadmill velocity was recorded, the trial was stopped and subjects responded to a 31-item Allentional Focus Questionnaire (AFQ) to assess association, disassociation and distress. Subjects then resumed treadmill exercise at the selected velocity while VO2 was recorded for 3-5 minutes (adequate to achieve steady state). Values for trials were compared using repeated measures Analyses of Variance (ANOVA). Results indicated no significant differences for V02, FIR, RPE or treadmill velocity, between LP and MP. However, FIR did approach significance (p=0.08) with greater values for Mi'. Tempo of music is thought to dominate preferred intensity selection due to elevated rhythmic beat. Tempo for this study was held at 120-150 beats per minute. Similar tempos between trials may have contributed to the lack of significant differences. Because subjects were "moderately fit" (V02: 48 + 6.6 ml/kg/min) recreational runners they may have self-selected a velocity at which they were accustomed to running or jogging during daily exercise independent of music. While V02, treadmill velocity, FIR and RPE did not reach statistical significance between trials, the trends in data suggest "most preferred" music may have an impact on exercise response. Mean FIR was 5 beat/min lower during LP, however, RPE was slightly lower. This finding is in contrast to the expectation that a higher MR would elicit a greater RPE. From the AFQ, no significant differences were noted between trials for association, dissociation or distress. However, distress approached significance (p= 0.07) with greater values reported during LP. In conclusion, even though no statistically significant differences were found, trends indicate there are potential impacts of music type on exercise responses.

The present research programme had three objectives. First, to develop a conceptual framework through which the psychophysical effects of music could be studied. Second, to design and validate an instrument for assessing the motivational qualities of music: The Brunel Music Inventory (BMRI). Third, to test affective and psychophysical responses to motivational and oudeterous (neutral) music conditions during a running task. The conceptual model to predict psychophysical responses to asynchronous music addressed the relationship between the constituents of music (music factors), the functionality of music (whether it is coordinated with the activity) and the mediating effect of personal factors (sociocultural upbringing and preferences) in predicting mood states, ratings of perceived exertion and arousal levels. The model was used to formulate the initial item pool for the BMRI. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four factor solution accounting for 59.2% of the variance. The factors were labelled, Association, Popular Impact, Musicality, and Rhythm Response. The factor structure was tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and exhibited acceptable fit indices. The factor structure was cross-validated using multisample CFA, demonstrating that the BMRI possessed acceptable psychometric properties. Criterion validity was also demonstrated. Next, 40 pieces of music of similar tempi were selected to represent a broad spectrum of popular music. These selections were rated using the BMRI and the tracks ranking 1-10 for their motivational qualities comprised a motivating music condition while tracks 21-30 comprised an oudeterous (neutral) condition. Thirty-four participants were exposed to each music condition plus a no-music control during submaximal treadmill running. The dependent measures were heart rate, the Profile of Mood States-C (POMS-C: Terry, Keohane, & Lane, 1996) the Feeling Scale (FS: Rejeski, 1985) and Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE: Borg, 1982). Results indicated that the motivational music had the most positive effect (Pillais9,25 = .72, p < .05) in terms of the FS, RPE, and the Vigour component of mood, although as expected, no differences were evidenced for heart rate. 'The differences were evidenced primarily between the motivational and control conditions with no differences between the oudeterous and control conditions. The contribution made by this research programme is that it has demonstrated how carefully selected asynchronous music can improve the exercise experience.

This dissertation explores the surprising phenomenon of listeners' unconsciously breathing in time to music, inspiring and expiring at select moments of specific works. When and how the experience of hearing music might produce stimulus-synchronous respiratory events is studied through Repeated Response Case Studies, gathering participants' respiratory sequences during repeated listenings to recorded music, and through Audience Response Experiments, responses for participants experiencing live music together in a concert hall.

Activity Analysis, a new statistical technique, supported the development and definition of discrete phase components of the breath cycle that come into coordination: the onsets of inspiration and expiration, the intervals of high flow during these two main phases, and the post-expiration pause. Alignment in these components across listenings illuminate when the naturalistic complex stimuli can attract or cue listener respiration events.

Four patterns of respiratory phase alignment are identified through detailed analysis of stimuli and responses. Participants inspired with the inspirations of vocalists and wind performers, suggesting embodied perception and imagined action may exert influence on their quiet breathing. Participants suppressed and delayed inspirations when the music was highly unpredictable, suggesting adaptation in aid of auditory attention. Similar behaviour occurred with sustained sounds of exceptional aesthetic value. Participants inspired with recurring motivic material and similar high salience events, as if marking them in recognition or amplifying their affective impact. And finally, participants occasionally breathed following structural endings, suggesting a sigh-like function of releasing the respiratory system from cortical control.

These instances of music-aligned respiratory phase alignment seemed to be stronger in participants who were typically active with heard music, but the impacts of training and expertise was not a simple condition for this behaviour. Contrasts between case study participants showed highly idiosyncratic patterns of respiratory alignment and differences in susceptibility along side moments of shared effect. In the audience experiments, alignment within phase components was measurable and significant, but rarely involved more than a quarter of participants in any given instance. These levels of concurrent activity in respiration underline the subtlety of this bodily response to music.