The Prevalence and Correlates of Accurate Singing

Journal of Research in Music Education ◽

10.1177/0022429420951630 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 002242942095163

Author(s):

Peter Q. Pfordresher ◽

Steven M. Demorest

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Musical Training ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Musical Ability ◽

Automated Scoring ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Singing Accuracy ◽

Multiple Factors ◽

Standardized Measure ◽

Expert Ratings

The purpose of this study was to analyze a large sample of volunteers from the general population who were tested with an identical online measure of singing accuracy. A sample of 632 participants completed the Seattle Singing Accuracy Protocol (SSAP), a standardized measure of singing accuracy, available online, that includes a test of pitch discrimination and basic demographic questions. Analyses addressed basic questions relating to the distribution of singing accuracy as well as associations of singing accuracy with years of musical training, age, pitch discrimination ability, and musical self-perception. We addressed these issues with respect to the accuracy of pitch imitation, based on automated scoring of vocal fundamental frequency ( f0) in the SSAP, as well as the accuracy of singing a familiar song, based on expert ratings. Results suggest that the distribution of singing accuracy varies widely, but the modal tendency is toward accurate singing. All predictors formed unique and significant associations with singing accuracy, suggesting that multiple factors contribute to this critical musical ability. In particular, age and musical training (including instrumental training) correlate independently with singing accuracy.

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A Preliminary Exploration of Pitch Discrimination, Temporal Sequencing, and Prosodic Awareness Skills of Children Who Participate in Different School-Based Music Curricula

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11080982 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 982

Author(s):

Ashley G. Flagge ◽

Mary Ellen Neeley ◽

Tara M. Davis ◽

Victoria S. Henbest

Keyword(s):

Phonological Processing ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Musical Training ◽

Positive Influence ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

School Based ◽

Temporal Sequencing ◽

School Music ◽

Music Class

Musical training has been shown to have a positive influence on a variety of skills, including auditory-based tasks and nonmusical cognitive and executive functioning tasks; however, because previous investigations have yielded mixed results regarding the relationship between musical training and these skills, the purpose of this study was to examine and compare the auditory processing skills of children who receive focused, daily musical training with those with more limited, generalized musical training. Sixteen typically developing children (second–fourth grade) from two different schools receiving different music curricula were assessed on measures of pitch discrimination, temporal sequencing, and prosodic awareness. The results indicated significantly better scores in pitch discrimination abilities for the children receiving daily, focused musical training (School 1) compared to students attending music class only once per week, utilizing a more generalized elementary school music curriculum (School 2). The findings suggest that more in-depth and frequent musical training may be associated with better pitch discrimination abilities in children. This finding is important given that the ability to discriminate pitch has been linked to improved phonological processing skills, an important skill for developing spoken language and literacy. Future investigations are needed to determine whether the null findings for temporal sequencing and prosodic awareness can be replicated or may be different for various grades and tasks for measuring these abilities.

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Amusia and protolanguage impairments in schizophrenia

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291714000373 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 44 (13) ◽

pp. 2739-2748 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

J. T. Kantrowitz ◽

N. Scaramello ◽

A. Jakubovitz ◽

J. M. Lehrfeld ◽

P. Laukka ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Remediation ◽

Thought Disorder ◽

Musical Ability ◽

Group Status ◽

Treatment Development ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Syndrome Scale ◽

Language And Music ◽

Auditory Tasks ◽

Negative Syndrome

BackgroundBoth language and music are thought to have evolved from a musical protolanguage that communicated social information, including emotion. Individuals with perceptual music disorders (amusia) show deficits in auditory emotion recognition (AER). Although auditory perceptual deficits have been studied in schizophrenia, their relationship with musical/protolinguistic competence has not previously been assessed.MethodMusical ability was assessed in 31 schizophrenia/schizo-affective patients and 44 healthy controls using the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). AER was assessed using a novel battery in which actors provided portrayals of five separate emotions. The Disorganization factor of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used as a proxy for language/thought disorder and the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) was used to assess cognition.ResultsHighly significant deficits were seen between patients and controls across auditory tasks (p < 0.001). Moreover, significant differences were seen in AER between the amusia and intact music-perceiving groups, which remained significant after controlling for group status and education. Correlations with AER were specific to the melody domain, and correlations between protolanguage (melody domain) and language were independent of overall cognition.DiscussionThis is the first study to document a specific relationship between amusia, AER and thought disorder, suggesting a shared linguistic/protolinguistic impairment. Once amusia was considered, other cognitive factors were no longer significant predictors of AER, suggesting that musical ability in general and melodic discrimination ability in particular may be crucial targets for treatment development and cognitive remediation in schizophrenia.

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The Influence of the Psychophysical Assessment Paradigm on Pitch Discrimination for Adults (and a Pilot Sample of Children)

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.1177/00315125211044063 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003151252110440

Author(s):

Ashley G. Flagge ◽

Lucile Puranen ◽

Madhuri S. Mulekar

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Performance ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Adult Women ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Discrimination Accuracy ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Research Paradigms ◽

Pilot Sample ◽

Pattern Of Performance

Pitch discrimination ability has been of research interest due to its potential relationship to language and literacy. However, assessment protocols for pitch discrimination have varied widely. Prior studies with both children and adults have produced conflicting performance findings across different pitch discrimination research paradigms, though they have consistently shown that discrimination accuracy is based on the psychophysical assessment method applied. In the present study, we examined pitch discrimination performance among convenience samples of 19 adult women and ten female children across six different adaptive psychophysical measurement conditions. We found pitch discrimination performance in both groups to be impacted by the measurement paradigm such that, while adults exhibited significantly better discrimination thresholds than did children, the pattern of performance across the six conditions was similar for both the adults and the children.

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The relationship between pitch discrimination and Romanian students’ spelling performance

Psychology of Language and Communication ◽

10.2478/plc-2013-0015 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 233-240

Author(s):

Dacian Dorin Dolean

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Musical Instrument ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Spelling Performance ◽

Foreign Language Acquisition ◽

Spelling Ability ◽

Performance Ability

Abstract Previous studies have shown that music can have a positive impact on phonological awareness and on foreign language acquisition. The present research investigates specifically the role of pitch discrimination ability in native and foreign language spelling performance. Two groups of elementary school children were selected based on their pitch discrimination abilities (high and low). Their spelling performance in their native and a foreign (fictional) language was assessed. The results indicate that pitch discrimination ability can be linked to spelling ability in both the native and a foreign language. They also suggest that studying a musical instrument might predict enhanced spelling performance ability

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Relations of Pitch Matching, Pitch Discrimination, and Otoacoustic Emission Suppression in Individuals Not Formally Trained as Musicians

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.104.3.777-784 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 104 (3) ◽

pp. 777-784

Author(s):

Robert E. Moore ◽

Julie M. Estis ◽

Fawen Zhang ◽

Christopher Watts ◽

Elizabeth Marble

Keyword(s):

Auditory System ◽

Significant Relationship ◽

Musical Training ◽

Otoacoustic Emission ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Analysis ◽

Pitch Matching ◽

Formally Trained ◽

The Relationship

Research has yielded a relationship between pitch matching and pitch discrimination. Good pitch matchers tend to be good pitch discriminators and are often judged to be vocally talented. Otoacoustic emission suppression measures the function of the efferent auditory system which may affect accuracy for pitch matching and pitch discrimination. Formally trained musicians show pitch matching and pitch discrimination superior to those of nonmusicians and have greater efferent otoacoustic emission suppression than nonmusicians. This study investigated the relationship among pitch matching, pitch discrimination, and otoacoustic emission suppression in individuals with no formal musical training and who showed varied pitch matching and pitch discrimination. Analysis suggested a significant relationship between pitch matching and pitch discrimination but not between otoacoustic emission suppression and pitch matching and pitch discrimination. Findings are presented in the context of previous research indicating a significant relationship between otoacoustic emission suppression and musical talent in trained musicians.

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The Assessment of Pitch Discrimination Ability in Young Children

Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders ◽

10.1044/jshd.4202.279 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 279-286 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Moya L. Andrews ◽

Shelley S. Madeira

Keyword(s):

Motor Response ◽

Age Groups ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Training Procedure ◽

Normal Children ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Simple Motor ◽

First Results ◽

Age Range

This study tested the hypothesis that some tasks used in assessing pitch discrimination ability may instead be assessing children’s ability to deal with relational language. Five tasks were given to 36 normal children who were equally divided into three age groups, six to six and one-half years, seven to seven and one-half years, and eight to eight and one-half years of age. Task 1 involved a training procedure to assess the children’s ability to hear the differences in the pitch of two tones, which were an octave apart. A simple motor response was required. Task 2 assessed the children’s ability to label these tones as high or low. Task 3 assessed their ability to compare two tones and label the second as higher or lower than the first. Task 4 examined their ability to label as high or low the position of a man on a ladder. Task 5 examined their ability to compare the positions of two men on two ladders and say whether the second man was higher or lower than the first. Results indicated that children who make pitch discriminations as demonstrated by nearly perfect scores on Task 1 often fail to demonstrate those discriminations on tasks requiring relational language. A comparison of Tasks 2 and 3 to Tasks 4 and 5 suggests that children in the age range studied are less proficient in applying high-low and higher-lower to pitch than to spatial relations.

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Musical training and musical ability: Effects on chord discrimination

Psychology of Music ◽

10.1177/0305735613511504 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 291-301 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Tuire Kuusi

Keyword(s):

Musical Training ◽

Musical Ability

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WPŁYW UMUZYKALNIENIA NA PRZYSWAJANIE PODSYSTEMU FONICZNEGO U UCZĄCYCH SIĘ JĘZYKÓW OBCYCH: WYNIKI BADANIA

Neofilolog ◽

10.14746/n.2014.43.2.3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (43/2) ◽

pp. 168-179

Author(s):

Wioletta Piegzik

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Musical Training ◽

Wilcoxon Test ◽

Musical Ability ◽

Music School ◽

Foreign Language Learners ◽

The Relationship ◽

Positive Effect

This report presents the results of a study into the relationship between musical ability and the development of a phonological system by foreign language learners. Our own experiences both as a foreign language teacher and as a musical group leader have raised a number of questions and lines of enquiry. These challenge previous researchers’ findings concerning the allegedly absolutely positive effect of music on language learning and as a result this study has been undertaken.After a brief theoretical presentation, we describe the research project in which learners abilities to distinguish and produce different phonemes as well as the prosody of the language studying are analyzed. Two groups of learners were compared in this study. One group attended a music school. The second group had no musical experience. The study showed that receptive skills were not significantly different between the two groups. The group of learners with musical training was more articulate but this was the only difference. The statistical approach used in analysis of data was the Wilcoxon test.

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