Recovery from memory failure when recalling a memorized performance: The role of musical structure and performance cues

2021 ◽  
pp. 102986492110254
Author(s):  
Roger Chaffin ◽  
Jane Ginsborg ◽  
James Dixon ◽  
Alexander P. Demos
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Music ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Memory Failure ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Written Recall ◽  
Performance Gains ◽  
Over Time

To perform reliably and confidently from memory, musicians must able to recover from mistakes and memory failures. We describe how an experienced singer (the second author) recovered from mistakes and gaps in recall as she periodically recalled the score of a piece of vocal music that she had memorized for public performance, writing out the music six times over a five-year period following the performance. Five years after the performance, the singer was still able to recall two-thirds of the piece. When she made mistakes, she recovered and went on, leaving gaps in her written recall that lengthened over time. We determined where in the piece gaps started ( losses) and ended ( gains), and compared them with the locations of structural beats (starts of sections and phrases) and performance cues ( PCs) that the singer reported using as mental landmarks to keep track of her progress through the piece during the sung, public performance. Gains occurred on structural beats where there was a PC; losses occurred on structural beats without a PC. As the singer’s memory faded over time, she increasingly forgot phrases that did not start with a PC and recovered at the starts of phrases that did. Our study shows how PCs enable musicians to recover from memory failures.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Kate Dossett
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Federal Theatre Project ◽  
Black Performance ◽  
Black Theatre ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Federal Theatre ◽  
Over Time

The introduction explores the significance of Black theatre manuscripts for histories of the Federal Theatre Project, Black literary heritage and the Radical Black tradition. Black theatre manuscripts developed on the Federal Theatre Project were not always staged or published, but they document Black creativity and theatrical innovation in the 1930s and constitute a crucial if overlooked part of American cultural history. Theatre histories that only include plays staged or published will invariably be histories of what was interesting or acceptable to whites. This book examines what was important and necessary to African Americans. It develops the idea of the Black Performance Community, a temporary community which performance creates among spectators, performers, directors, writers and others whose backstage roles shape manuscripts and performance. It argues that histories of Black theatre need to consider variant manuscripts, the communities of unacknowledged collaborators that shaped them over time, and the role of the archives and anthologies in shaping knowledge production about Black theatre.

Political Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 420-436
Author(s):  
John Uhr
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Leadership Performance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Detailed Evaluation ◽  
Moral Critique ◽  
And Performance

This chapter draws on the fields of politics and performance to analyze the nature of leadership performance in contemporary political societies. It recovers neglected themes about leadership performance originally articulated by two political thinkers deeply interested in the role of public performance by political leaders, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Walter Bagehot, both of whom can help strengthen contemporary appraisals of leadership performance. The two thinkers evaluate leadership performance quite differently, using different performance standards. The eighteenth-century philosopher Rousseau devised a moral critique of modern liberalism, including a detailed evaluation of underdeveloped modes of leadership performance typical of modern liberal political regimes. Rousseau’s alternative leadership morality sketched in The Social Contract remains a powerful source for contemporary analysis of the limits of liberalism and of the options for more egalitarian, republican alternatives.

Testing a dynamic model of the impact of psychological capital on work engagement and job performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Alessandri ◽  
Chiara Consiglio ◽  
Fred Luthans ◽  
Laura Borgogni
Keyword(s):  
Job Performance ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Psychological Capital ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Content Type ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Purpose Psychological Capital (PsyCap), consisting of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, is a positive state associated with attitudes, behaviors and performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a dynamic mediational model posing work engagement as the mediator of the longitudinal relation between PsyCap and job performance. Design/methodology/approach Data came from all white collar employees who responded to this study’s variables (n=420) from a comprehensive data set drawn from a large communications service company over two consecutive years. Job performance was rated at the end of each year by the direct supervisor as part of the organizational appraisal system. Findings Structural equation modeling analysis found that both absolute levels and increases in PsyCap predicted subsequent work engagement increases which in turn predicted job performance increases. Moreover, the mediating role of the changes in work engagement between previous PsyCap and performance change was confirmed over time. Research limitations/implications There is much to gain in conceptualizing the relations among PsyCap, work engagement and job performance as dynamic, rather than static. The results support the conservation of resources theory, in which employees are motivated to acquire, protect and foster their valued (psychological) resources to attain successful performance outcomes, in order to create a gain cycle of resources (Salanova et al., 2010). Moreover, it provide further empirical validation for the idea that processes, like work engagement, are sustained by personal resources, and that these latter exerts mostly an indirect effect on organizational behavior outcomes (Xanthopoulou et al., 2009b). Practical implications These results are important from a practical point of view, because they point to the importance of training interventions aimed at developing and sustaining PsyCap as an important determinant of workers’ motivation and behavior within the organization. Considerable literature offers practical insights and guidelines for developing PsyCap (Luthans et al., 2006, 2015; Luthans and Youssef-Morgan, 2017). Originality/value Despite the demonstrated state-like, dynamic nature of PsyCap, its relationship with performance has mainly been statically analyzed and the role of possible mediating mechanisms largely ignored. This study begins to fill this research gap by investigating the dynamic nature of PsyCap in relation to work engagement and job performance and whether over time engagement mediates the relationship between PsyCap and job performance.

scholarly journals Tasks in action in Vietnamese EFL high school classrooms: The role of rehearsal and performance in teaching and learning through oral tasks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thi Bao Trang Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Problem Solving Task

<p>Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has attracted considerable attention in research on language teaching and learning. Numerous publications have made a case for TBLT and the role of tasks in learning. TBLT has been introduced in language curricula around the world, including English as a foreign language (EFL) curricula in many countries in Asia. Yet research into tasks in action from both teaching and learning perspectives is rare with scant examination of decisions on task design and implementation that teachers make in the classroom and how their pedagogical decisions are linked to student learning and engagement. The present research addresses these gaps.  The research was conducted in two phases in a Vietnamese high school where a series of task-based EFL textbooks have been adopted to promote curriculum innovation. Phase 1 was a descriptive study which investigated how the Vietnamese EFL teachers implemented oral textbook tasks through adapting task design and creating classroom activity and how learners engaged in the tasks. The data were collected over two and a half months through classroom observations, stimulated recalls and in-depth interviews with teachers and students. The results revealed that the teachers displayed a strong tendency to adapt or replace the textbook tasks, with specific preferences for open over closed tasks, input-independent over input-dependent tasks and divergent over convergent tasks. They also opted for tasks that are not just 'real world', but 'real' to students. Teacher task choices were found to be guided by their own task experimentation, by clearly articulated beliefs about teaching and learning and by a strong orientation to learner engagement.  Decision making by all the teachers reflected a general commitment to a final public performance of the task by groups of students. This public performance was preceded by rehearsal for the performance, involving students doing the task in pairs or groups to prepare for the performance of the task in front of the class. The terms rehearsal and performance were used because they captured the teachers' and students' orientation and intent as observed in the lessons and explained in the interviews. Rehearsal and performance constituted two of four identifiable stages of task implementation used by the teachers: pre-task, rehearsal, performance and post-task. Both the teachers and students valued the notion of performance as a driving force for the use of English and as a social classroom event to engage students in task work. The centrality of public performance in these EFL classrooms, and a lack of empirical evidence about its impact in task-based learning motivated Phase 2 of the thesis.  Phase 2 specifically addressed the impact of task design and learner proficiency on the occurrence and resolution of language-related episodes (LREs) (Swain, 1998) in task rehearsal and on the subsequent take-up in the public performance of the language items which were focussed on in LREs. Three proficiency groups (n=8 dyads in each) from six intact classes carried out two tasks: one problem-solving task (a convergent task) and one debate task (a divergent task), with a 15-minute rehearsal for their performance. The first group was composed of dyad members of the same higher proficiency (HH); the second group consisted of mixed proficiency dyads (HL) and the third group was lower proficiency dyads (LL). The total data included 48 rehearsals and 48 corresponding performances collected in normal classroom hours. Students were also interviewed after they had finished all the tasks.  The results showed that task design and proficiency affected not only the occurrence and resolution of LREs in task rehearsal but also uptake in the public performance. Specifically, while the problem-solving task induced more LREs, the debate task was more conducive to uptake because the latter task, from the students' perspective, lent itself to performance in ways that the former did not. Overall lower proficiency dyads produced more LREs in rehearsal than higher proficiency dyads. However, it was how LREs were resolved rather than the frequency of LREs that correlated positively with successful uptake in performance. Proficiency also influenced the problem-solving strategies that the learners adopted to prepare for the public performance.  Taken as a whole, this thesis suggests that teacher thinking plays an essential role in transforming tasks in classrooms, and that building in performance to tasks and rehearsal for that performance may contribute to language learning and development. The research has useful implications for task design and implementation, as well as for theory and research methodology.</p>

scholarly journals Tasks in action in Vietnamese EFL high school classrooms: The role of rehearsal and performance in teaching and learning through oral tasks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thi Bao Trang Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Problem Solving Task

<p>Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has attracted considerable attention in research on language teaching and learning. Numerous publications have made a case for TBLT and the role of tasks in learning. TBLT has been introduced in language curricula around the world, including English as a foreign language (EFL) curricula in many countries in Asia. Yet research into tasks in action from both teaching and learning perspectives is rare with scant examination of decisions on task design and implementation that teachers make in the classroom and how their pedagogical decisions are linked to student learning and engagement. The present research addresses these gaps.  The research was conducted in two phases in a Vietnamese high school where a series of task-based EFL textbooks have been adopted to promote curriculum innovation. Phase 1 was a descriptive study which investigated how the Vietnamese EFL teachers implemented oral textbook tasks through adapting task design and creating classroom activity and how learners engaged in the tasks. The data were collected over two and a half months through classroom observations, stimulated recalls and in-depth interviews with teachers and students. The results revealed that the teachers displayed a strong tendency to adapt or replace the textbook tasks, with specific preferences for open over closed tasks, input-independent over input-dependent tasks and divergent over convergent tasks. They also opted for tasks that are not just 'real world', but 'real' to students. Teacher task choices were found to be guided by their own task experimentation, by clearly articulated beliefs about teaching and learning and by a strong orientation to learner engagement.  Decision making by all the teachers reflected a general commitment to a final public performance of the task by groups of students. This public performance was preceded by rehearsal for the performance, involving students doing the task in pairs or groups to prepare for the performance of the task in front of the class. The terms rehearsal and performance were used because they captured the teachers' and students' orientation and intent as observed in the lessons and explained in the interviews. Rehearsal and performance constituted two of four identifiable stages of task implementation used by the teachers: pre-task, rehearsal, performance and post-task. Both the teachers and students valued the notion of performance as a driving force for the use of English and as a social classroom event to engage students in task work. The centrality of public performance in these EFL classrooms, and a lack of empirical evidence about its impact in task-based learning motivated Phase 2 of the thesis.  Phase 2 specifically addressed the impact of task design and learner proficiency on the occurrence and resolution of language-related episodes (LREs) (Swain, 1998) in task rehearsal and on the subsequent take-up in the public performance of the language items which were focussed on in LREs. Three proficiency groups (n=8 dyads in each) from six intact classes carried out two tasks: one problem-solving task (a convergent task) and one debate task (a divergent task), with a 15-minute rehearsal for their performance. The first group was composed of dyad members of the same higher proficiency (HH); the second group consisted of mixed proficiency dyads (HL) and the third group was lower proficiency dyads (LL). The total data included 48 rehearsals and 48 corresponding performances collected in normal classroom hours. Students were also interviewed after they had finished all the tasks.  The results showed that task design and proficiency affected not only the occurrence and resolution of LREs in task rehearsal but also uptake in the public performance. Specifically, while the problem-solving task induced more LREs, the debate task was more conducive to uptake because the latter task, from the students' perspective, lent itself to performance in ways that the former did not. Overall lower proficiency dyads produced more LREs in rehearsal than higher proficiency dyads. However, it was how LREs were resolved rather than the frequency of LREs that correlated positively with successful uptake in performance. Proficiency also influenced the problem-solving strategies that the learners adopted to prepare for the public performance.  Taken as a whole, this thesis suggests that teacher thinking plays an essential role in transforming tasks in classrooms, and that building in performance to tasks and rehearsal for that performance may contribute to language learning and development. The research has useful implications for task design and implementation, as well as for theory and research methodology.</p>

Stimulus Mapping and Memory Load Effects on the Vigulance Decrement across Multiple Sessions

2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (22) ◽  
pp. 859-862
Author(s):  
Michael D. Musgrove ◽  
J. G. Hollands
Keyword(s):  
Memory Load ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Dual Processing ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Controlled Processing ◽  
Demand Theory ◽  
Load Effects ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Over Time

Performance often degrades over time in a vigilance task where an operator must identify critical signals. An extensive effort has been made to determine the mechanism underlying this vigilance decrement. Sustained demand theory proposes that high attentional demand sustained over the course of the vigil extracts a toll in fatigue, leading to the decrement. However, since an observer typically searches for one consistent target in a vigilance situation, results from dual-processing studies would suggest that automatic processing (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977) should develop over time, and performance should improve rather than degrade. The purpose of this study was to identify the role of automatic and controlled processing within and across vigilance sessions. High memory loads led to an attenuation of the vigilance decrement, a result inconsistent with sustained demand theory. Low memory loads produced results more consistent with a sustained demand interpretation. Implications of these findings for a theoretical account of the vigilance decrement are discussed.

Performing Knowledge

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne Leong
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Audience Response ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Epistemic Objects ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Implicit Identity

This book brings a theorist and performers together to examine the interface of analysis and performance in music of the twentieth century. Nine case studies, of music by Ravel, Schoenberg, Bartók, Schnittke, Milhaud, Messiaen, Babbitt, Carter, and Morris, are co-authored with performers (or composers) of those works. The case studies revolve around musical structure, broadly defined to comprise relations among parts and whole created in the process of making music, whether by composers, performers, listeners, or analysts. Knowledge that is produced in the course of relating analysis and performance is conceived in three dimensions: wissen, können, and kennen. The collaborative process itself is viewed through three constructs that facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration: shared items, shared objectives (activity objects and epistemic objects), and shared agents. The book’s collaborations “thicken” the description of analysis and performance by illuminating key issues around (a) the implicit identity of a work: the role of embodiment, the affordances of a score, the cultural understanding of notation; (b) the use of metaphor in interpretation: here metaphors of memory, of poetry, and of ritual and drama; and (c) the relation of analysis and performance itself: its antagonisms, its fusion, and—rounding out the perspectives of theorist and performer with those of composer and listener—the role of structure in audience response. Along with these broader insights, each collaboration exemplifies processes of analysis and of performance, in grappling with and interpreting particular pieces. Video performances, demonstrations, and interviews; audio recordings; and photographs partner with the book’s written text.

A longitudinal study of the development of expressive timing

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Demos ◽  
Tânia Lisboa ◽  
Kristen T. Begosh ◽  
Topher Logan ◽  
Roger Chaffin
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Motor Processes ◽  
Mixed Effect Models ◽  
Communicative Strategy ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Automatic Product

Tempo arches have often been reported in polished music performances, but their development during the learning of a new piece has not been studied. We examined the development of expressive timing at three levels of musical structure (piece, section, phrase) as an experienced concert soloist (the second author) prepared the Prelude from J. S. Bach’s Suite No. 6 for solo cello for public performance. We used mixed effect models to assess the development of expressive timing and the effects of the performance cues (PCs) that the cellist used as mental landmarks to guide her performance. Tempo arches appeared early in practice at all three levels of musical structure and changed over time in complex ways, first becoming more pronounced and more asymmetrical and then shrinking somewhat in later performances. Arches were also more pronounced in phrases that contained PCs, suggesting that PCs reminded the cellist where to “breathe” between phrases. The early development of tempo arches suggests that they were an automatic product of basic cognitive or motor processes. The complex trajectory of their later development appeared to be the result, at least in part, of a deliberate communicative strategy intended to draw listeners’ attention to some musical boundaries more than others.

Repetition as a methodology: Costumes, archives and choreography

Scene ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
Rachel Fensham
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Dialectical Image ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Natural Movement ◽  
Material Process ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Over Time

This article considers how costumes contribute to choreographic aesthetics through their capacity to be repeated. I develop different conceptions of repetition – replication (copying); representation (appearance within a frame that represents an image); and reproduction (as construction or manufacture) of costume objects and ideas over time. Being interested in the material process of making and wearing costumes, it also investigates how repetition leads to the possibility of invention. Using Walter Benjamin’s concept of the dialectical image to discuss costumes as objects within a dance archive and within live choreography, it examines an early modern dance form called Natural Movement (NM) as well as seminal postmodern works from the 1970s. It elaborates on the iconic functions of costume in contemporary choreography in relation to Roland Barthes’ writings on the ‘fashion system’, and considers how the costume becomes a sign of its own history. Part of this project to understand repetition requires recognition that the movement quality of texture in a garment, actualizes the experience of affective work taking place in choreography. The experience of repetition in the costume-object therefore leads to a more critical response towards the role of costume in dance and performance.

scholarly journals Latino Children’s Math Confidence: The Role of Mothers’ Gender Stereotypes and Involvement Across the Transition to Middle School

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Denner ◽  
Brett Laursen ◽  
Daniel Dickson ◽  
Amy C. Hartl
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Math Ability ◽  
Large Samples ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Over Time

The influence of parental beliefs and behaviors on children’s math confidence and performance is well documented, but few studies examine these associations over time, or in large samples of Latino/a families. This study used longitudinal data from 247 (114 sons and 133 daughters) mother-child dyads to examine whether maternal math gender stereotypes and math involvement predict changes in the mothers’ behavior or changes in the child’s perceived math competence. Maternal math gender stereotypes when children were in fifth grade predicted decreases in mothers’ involvement in their daughter’s math homework from fifth to sixth grade. Greater maternal math involvement in fifth grade predicted increases in sons’ and daughters’ perceptions of math ability from fifth to sixth grades.

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