•  
  •  
 

Document Type

Research Paper

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to determine how well subjects use both figural and metric systems to represent simple rhythms under two conditions (1) with access to a visual aid and (2) without access to a visual aid. Thirty-one undergraduate students from the UNI Psychology subject pool participated in the study. First, subjects were asked to respond to a short questionnaire containing a series of demographic questions concerning their musical background and education. Based on this information, subjects were divided into two groups: one that read standard music notation regularly and one that did not. Members of each group were then randomly assigned to a control and experimental condition. When subjects had clapped and drawn the first rhythm, they were shown a series of figural and metric drawings of the same rhythm. After a brief explanation of each drawing, they were asked to use each system to represent a series of new rhythms. Both groups had access to the visual aid when representing the second rhythm. While representing the third rhythm, the control group had access to the visual aid, whereas the experimental group did not. Subjects' responses were coded according to whether they were accurate or inaccurate with respect to their use of both systems of representations. Results indicate there is no significant affect in using a visual aid versus not using a visual while learning figural and metric systems of representation.

Publication Date

1999

Journal Title

Conference Proceedings: Undergraduate Social Science Research Conference

Volume

3

Issue

1

First Page

135

Last Page

139

Copyright

©1999 by the University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Publisher

University of Northern Iowa

City

Cedar Falls, IA

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS