Improvisation Based on Audience Requests: Pedagogical Possibilities of the Application “Sanka Play” for Performer and Audience Interaction in Elementary School Music Classes

In 2017, I developed a computer application entitled “Sanka Play,” which enables audience members to participate in improvisational performances by making real-time requests to performers. In most cases of free improvisation, the audience atmosphere influences performers. While audience–performer interaction is generally nonverbal, Sanka Play allows timeous written verbal interaction. This study determines the positive pedagogical possibilities of using Sanka Play for elementary school music classes. It was expected that using Sanka Play for group improvisation activities in music classes would encourage various styles of expression among the students. Sanka Play was used in two fifth grade (age 10–11 years) music classes in a Japanese elementary school. Observation of class videos revealed that the application induced students to use various modes of expression, such as music, dance, theatrical acting, and even karate. Furthermore, various requests the students made not only improved performance in general but also helped highlight particular strengths in each student’s performing ability. The observations reveal Sanka Play’s pedagogical usefulness and several factors that teachers should consider when using the application. This research illustrates the possibilities of employing a new teaching approach to encourage students to creatively use their inherent expressive abilities.

Interpersonal Musical Synchronization and Prosocial Behavior in Children: No Effects in a Controlled Field Experiment

Prosocial effects of music have recently attracted increased attention in research and media. An often-cited experiment, carried out by Kirschner and Tomasello in 2010 under laboratory conditions, found that children at the age of four years were more willing to help each other after they had engaged in synchronous musical activities. The aim of the current study was to replicate this research under controlled field conditions in the children's social environment, and to disentangle the musical synchronization effect by introducing a verbal interaction (singing together) and a motor interaction (tapping together) task, contrasted by an asynchronous control condition. In a between-participants design, no effects of musical synchronization nor the children's gender were found. Furthermore, age was not related to prosocial behavior. Explanations are systematically discussed, yet it remains possible that the original effect found in 2010 might be overestimated and less consistently reproducible as previously assumed.

Crisis and Language in Ray Bradbury’s The Last Night of the World

Language use in social crisis situations is usually described as being highly ideological, and it exhibits features of affect involving the use of negative evaluation of the perceived social enemies. The present study aims to explore the characters’ language use in Ray Bradbury’s short story entitled The Last Night of the World from a pragma-stylistic perspective. The fictional dialogue that takes place between the two protagonists creates and reflects the dynamics between them, where the unspeakable is only inferred rather than communicated. The analysis reveals special features of verbal communication in a crisis situation, especially focusing on the lexical and morphosyntactic properties, as well as on the verbal interaction and cooperation between the characters revealing their alignment. The results of the analysis prove that the verbal and non-verbal communication between the protagonists do not show the features described in crisis communication; therefore, the text of the story can be interpreted as subverting the generic language use in a critical situation.

On the forms of manifestation of intergenerational discourse

В статье исследуются формы актуализации межпоколенческого дискурса в речи. Данный дискурс, несмотря на повседневное использование, до недавнего времени оставался малоизученным с точки зрения лингвистики. Представляя собой лингвокультурный феномен, межпоколенческий дискурс подразумевает в широком смысле взаимодействие различных (двух и более) поколений людей, что определенным образом эксплицируется в процессе интеракции. В более узком смысле межпоколенческий дискурс представляет собой взаимодействие представителей различных поколений внутри одной семьи (поколенческая когорта объединена по биологическим признакам). Одним из наименее изученных аспектов является актуализация межпоколенческого дискурса, представленная преимущественно в трех формах: вербальной экспликации со стороны участвующих в интеракции конверсационных партнеров (представителей различных поколенческих когорт), сочетании вербальной и поведенческой внешней (невербальной) реакции, а также проявление только невербальной составляющей. Взаимодействие поколений подразумевает различные сочетания данных проявлений, которые, как правило, обладают определенной эмоциональной окрашенностью, как положительной, так и отрицательной с различной степенью эмоционального накала, что зависит от ориентации дискурса на кооперацию или на конфронтацию («конфликт поколений»). Проявления межпоколенческого взаимодействия, как и содержательная составляющая, детерминируются существующими социально-культурными условиями. The article explores the forms in which intergenerational discourse is revealed in people’s inter-actions. Despite the active daily use of intergenerational discourse this kind of discourse has so far not been studied thoroughly by linguists. Being a linguacultural phenomenon, intergenerational discourse, in a broad sense, presupposes the interaction of two or more different generations. In a narrow sense, intergenerational discourse means communication between the representatives of different generations within one family (a generational cohort is united by biological characteristics). One of the less researched areas is how this kind of discourse is manifested. The forms vary with three dominating patterns made visible in the interaction of the representatives of different generations; more specifically, the discourse can be observed in a pure verbal interaction of the dialogue participants (the representatives of specific generational cohorts), in the combination of the verbal and external behavior (non-verbal) manifestation, or only through non-verbal reactions. Intergenerational discourse aims either at cooperation or at confrontation (the conflict of generations). The forms of revealing intergenerational communication along with the content component are determined by the predominant social and cultural conditions and norms.

How did a Music Therapy Student Work with Patients with Dementia Who Were Anxious and/or Agitated?

<p>This research aimed to uncover the strategies and techniques that I used in my work with patients who have dementia and who were anxious and/or agitated. The objective of this study was to examine and learn from my work in order to improve my own, and potentially others’ practice. Secondary analysis of data collected from my music therapy clinical practice in a hospital was used as methodology of study. The analysis found 21 techniques and strategies in my work with patients with dementia who were anxious and/or agitated. They include the use of: (1) Choice; (2) Culture of race (used Maori songs); (3) Direct Engagement; (4) Exploration; (5) Familiar Song; (6) Favourite Songs; (7) Following the Patient; (8) Identity; (9) Imitation and Matching Patients’ Sound Making; (10) Improvisation; (11) Lyrics; (12) Matching Tempo; (13) Object-Musical Instrument (drum); (14) Observation; (15) Physical Interaction; (16) Safety; (17) Space; (18) Tempo; (19) Verbal Interaction; (20) Voice Only; and (21) Volume. These techniques and strategies were developed as I learnt from different articles, books, own experiences as well as supported by my supervisors. Apart from helping patients to reduce their anxiety and/or agitation, maintaining or increasing socialisation, interaction, and general wellbeing of patients seemed important too. Patients are likely to experience less anxiety and/or agitation if their needs are being supported. Findings will be of interest to music therapists and music therapy students working in hospitals or in dementia units in New Zealand. Future research about music therapy work with patients with dementia who are anxious and/or agitated together with their family members is suggested.</p>

How did a Music Therapy Student Work with Patients with Dementia Who Were Anxious and/or Agitated?

<p>This research aimed to uncover the strategies and techniques that I used in my work with patients who have dementia and who were anxious and/or agitated. The objective of this study was to examine and learn from my work in order to improve my own, and potentially others’ practice. Secondary analysis of data collected from my music therapy clinical practice in a hospital was used as methodology of study. The analysis found 21 techniques and strategies in my work with patients with dementia who were anxious and/or agitated. They include the use of: (1) Choice; (2) Culture of race (used Maori songs); (3) Direct Engagement; (4) Exploration; (5) Familiar Song; (6) Favourite Songs; (7) Following the Patient; (8) Identity; (9) Imitation and Matching Patients’ Sound Making; (10) Improvisation; (11) Lyrics; (12) Matching Tempo; (13) Object-Musical Instrument (drum); (14) Observation; (15) Physical Interaction; (16) Safety; (17) Space; (18) Tempo; (19) Verbal Interaction; (20) Voice Only; and (21) Volume. These techniques and strategies were developed as I learnt from different articles, books, own experiences as well as supported by my supervisors. Apart from helping patients to reduce their anxiety and/or agitation, maintaining or increasing socialisation, interaction, and general wellbeing of patients seemed important too. Patients are likely to experience less anxiety and/or agitation if their needs are being supported. Findings will be of interest to music therapists and music therapy students working in hospitals or in dementia units in New Zealand. Future research about music therapy work with patients with dementia who are anxious and/or agitated together with their family members is suggested.</p>

The Embodied Crossmodal Self Forms Language and Interaction: A Computational Cognitive Review

Human language is inherently embodied and grounded in sensorimotor representations of the self and the world around it. This suggests that the body schema and ideomotor action-effect associations play an important role in language understanding, language generation, and verbal/physical interaction with others. There are computational models that focus purely on non-verbal interaction between humans and robots, and there are computational models for dialog systems that focus only on verbal interaction. However, there is a lack of research that integrates these approaches. We hypothesize that the development of computational models of the self is very appropriate for considering joint verbal and physical interaction. Therefore, they provide the substantial potential to foster the psychological and cognitive understanding of language grounding, and they have significant potential to improve human-robot interaction methods and applications. This review is a first step toward developing models of the self that integrate verbal and non-verbal communication. To this end, we first analyze the relevant findings and mechanisms for language grounding in the psychological and cognitive literature on ideomotor theory. Second, we identify the existing computational methods that implement physical decision-making and verbal interaction. As a result, we outline how the current computational methods can be used to create advanced computational interaction models that integrate language grounding with body schemas and self-representations.

The Embodied Crossmodal Self Forms Language and Interaction: A Computational Cognitive Review

Human language is inherently embodied and grounded in sensorimotor representations of the self and the world around it. This suggests that the body schema and ideomotor action-effect associations play an important role in language understanding, language generation, and verbal/physical interaction with others. There are computational models that focus purely on non-verbal interaction between humans and robots, and there are computational models for dialog systems that focus only on verbal interaction. However, there is a lack of research that integrates these approaches. We hypothesize that the development of computational models of the self is very appropriate for considering joint verbal and physical interaction. Therefore, they provide the substantial potential to foster the psychological and cognitive understanding of language grounding, and they have significant potential to improve human-robot interaction methods and applications. This review is a first step toward developing models of the self that integrate verbal and non-verbal communication. To this end, we first analyze the relevant findings and mechanisms for language grounding in the psychological and cognitive literature on ideomotor theory. Second, we identify the existing computational methods that implement physical decision-making and verbal interaction. As a result, we outline how the current computational methods can be used to create advanced computational interaction models that integrate language grounding with body schemas and self-representations.

Voice-enabled Intelligent Virtual Agents for People with Amnesia: A Systematic Review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Older adults often have increasing memory problems, and worldwide about 50 million people have dementia. This syndrome gradually affects a patient over a period of 10-20 years. Intelligent virtual agents may support people suffering from memory problems. OBJECTIVE To identify the state of the art of experimental studies with virtual agents on a screen capable of verbal dialogues with older adults with memory problems. METHODS Conduct a systematic search into selected databases PubMed, SCOPUS, Microsoft Academic, Google Scholar, Web of Science and CrossRef on Virtual Agent and Memory Problems on papers that describe such experiments. Search criteria were (“Virtual Agent” OR “Virtual Assistant” OR “Virtual Human” OR “Conversational Agent” OR “Virtual Coach” OR Chatbot) AND (Dementia OR Alzheimer OR Amnesia OR “Mild Cognitive Impairment”). Risk of bias has been evaluated using the QualSyst tool that scores 14 study quality items. Eligible studies are reported in a table including country, study design type, target sample size, controls, study aims, experiment population, intervention details, results and an image of the agent. RESULTS Nine studies were included. The average number of participants in the studies was 18 (SD=12). The verbal interactions were generally short. The human utterance consisted in 8 out of 9 studies out of short words or phrases that were predefined in the agent’s speech recognition algorithm. The average study quality score was .68 (SD=.08) on a scale 0-1.The number of experimental studies on talking virtual agents that support people with memory problems is still small. The details on the verbal interaction are limited, which make it difficult to assess the quality of that interaction and the possible effect of confounding parameters. Further research is needed with extended and prolonged dialogues. CONCLUSIONS The number of experimental studies on talking virtual agents that support people with memory problems is still small. The details on the verbal interaction are limited, which make it difficult to assess the quality of that interaction and the possible effect of confounding parameters. Further research is needed with extended and prolonged dialogues.