Towards an Integrative Information Society: Studies on Individuality in Speech and Sign

The flow of information within modern information society has increased rapidly over the last decade. The major part of this information flow relies on the individual’s abilities to handle text or speech input. For the majority of us it presents no problems, but there are some individuals who would benefit from other means of conveying information, e.g. signed information flow. During the last decades the new results from various disciplines have all suggested towards the common background and processing for sign and speech and this was one of the key issues that I wanted to investigate further in this thesis. The basis of this thesis is firmly within speech research and that is why I wanted to design analogous test batteries for widely used speech perception tests for signers – to find out whether the results for signers would be the same as in speakers’ perception tests. One of the key findings within biology – and more precisely its effects on speech and communication research – is the mirror neuron system. That finding has enabled us to form new theories about evolution of communication, and it all seems to converge on the hypothesis that all communication has a common core within humans. In this thesis speech and sign are discussed as equal and analogical counterparts of communication and all research methods used in speech are modified for sign. Both speech and sign are thus investigated using similar test batteries. Furthermore, both production and perception of speech and sign are studied separately. An additional framework for studying production is given by gesture research using cry sounds. Results of cry sound research are then compared to results from children acquiring sign language. These results show that individuality manifests itself from very early on in human development. Articulation in adults, both in speech and sign, is studied from two perspectives: normal production and re-learning production when the apparatus has been changed. Normal production is studied both in speech and sign and the effects of changed articulation are studied with regards to speech. Both these studies are done by using carrier sentences. Furthermore, sign production is studied giving the informants possibility for spontaneous speech. The production data from the signing informants is also used as the basis for input in the sign synthesis stimuli used in sign perception test battery. Speech and sign perception were studied using the informants’ answers to questions using forced choice in identification and discrimination tasks. These answers were then compared across language modalities. Three different informant groups participated in the sign perception tests: native signers, sign language interpreters and Finnish adults with no knowledge of any signed language. This gave a chance to investigate which of the characteristics found in the results were due to the language per se and which were due to the changes in modality itself. As the analogous test batteries yielded similar results over different informant groups, some common threads of results could be observed. Starting from very early on in acquiring speech and sign the results were highly individual. However, the results were the same within one individual when the same test was repeated. This individuality of results represented along same patterns across different language modalities and - in some occasions - across language groups. As both modalities yield similar answers to analogous study questions, this has lead us to providing methods for basic input for sign language applications, i.e. signing avatars. This has also given us answers to questions on precision of the animation and intelligibility for the users – what are the parameters that govern intelligibility of synthesised speech or sign and how precise must the animation or synthetic speech be in order for it to be intelligible. The results also give additional support to the well-known fact that intelligibility in fact is not the same as naturalness. In some cases, as shown within the sign perception test battery design, naturalness decreases intelligibility. This also has to be taken into consideration when designing applications. All in all, results from each of the test batteries, be they for signers or speakers, yield strikingly similar patterns, which would indicate yet further support for the common core for all human communication. Thus, we can modify and deepen the phonetic framework models for human communication based on the knowledge obtained from the results of the test batteries within this thesis.Siirretty Doriast

“When do we get into the cultural rhythm?” A study on the effects of music-cultural perceptual narrowing

openRhythmic abilities are a fundamental aspect of daily life. Rhythm offers a predictable sequence of time intervals and accents that individuals can synchronize their actions to, enabling one to learn a language, communicate with others, move from one place to another, and synchronize movements to music. Syncing body movements with music, whether through dance or merely an individual response to music, is a common human behavior (Patel et al., 2005). But synchronization, though seemingly effortless, requires the complex integration of perceptual and sensorimotor skills. In moving to music, a beat must first be extracted and then a rhythmic motor response is integrated into that metrical framework (Ilari, 2014). But all over the world, metrical and rhythmic structures differ (Kalender et al., 2013). Hence, an individual’s perception and processing of rhythm are shaped by the unique rhythmic characteristics of the musical culture in which they are deeply ingrained. Studies have shown that individuals of various ages and cultural backgrounds experience a phenomenon known as music-cultural perceptual narrowing (e.g., Lynch et al., 1990; Lynch & Eilers, 1992; Hannon & Trehub, 2005a,b; Hannon & Trainor, 2007). Individuals initially exhibit sensitivity to a diverse range of perceptual structures that narrow down through exposure to the specific characteristics of their musical culture, thus leading to reduced sensitivity to less conventional structures. This study explores the effect of this phenomenon on movement-to-music synchronization, putting to question whether (i) culture-specific perceptual narrowing influences how infants spontaneously move in response to music samples with meters that are either present in their day-to-day experiences with music or absent from it, and whether these responses are (ii) modulated by daily exposure to, i.e. training with, a specific rhythmic pattern, which was either native to the infants’ culture or non-native. Italian infants aged 6 to 24 months and their parents, who were mainly exposed to music with isochronous simple meters, were presented with songs of both simple (4/4) and complex (7/8) meters and their motor behavior as a response to these songs were analyzed. Subsequently, they were invited to participate in a month-long musical training to either a song of 4/4 or 7/8 meter. They were then asked to return to the same experimental setting and tasked to do the same thing as the first experimental session. Preliminary analysis of infants’ motor behavior during auditory stimuli exposure suggests individual differences in motor responses, potential changes in correlations between arm and leg movements, and consistent high levels of synchronization. This thesis will first review existing literature on musicality, music processing, music-cultural perceptual narrowing, and sensorimotor synchronization (Chapter 1), then detail the research methods and materials (Chapter 2). Preliminary results will be presented (Chapter 3), and the theoretical and educational implications of these findings for our understanding of music-motor synchrony and future research directions will be detailed (Chapter 4).Rhythmic abilities are a fundamental aspect of daily life. Rhythm offers a predictable sequence of time intervals and accents that individuals can synchronize their actions to, enabling one to learn a language, communicate with others, move from one place to another, and synchronize movements to music. Syncing body movements with music, whether through dance or merely an individual response to music, is a common human behavior (Patel et al., 2005). But synchronization, though seemingly effortless, requires the complex integration of perceptual and sensorimotor skills. In moving to music, a beat must first be extracted and then a rhythmic motor response is integrated into that metrical framework (Ilari, 2014). But all over the world, metrical and rhythmic structures differ (Kalender et al., 2013). Hence, an individual’s perception and processing of rhythm are shaped by the unique rhythmic characteristics of the musical culture in which they are deeply ingrained. Studies have shown that individuals of various ages and cultural backgrounds experience a phenomenon known as music-cultural perceptual narrowing (e.g., Lynch et al., 1990; Lynch & Eilers, 1992; Hannon & Trehub, 2005a,b; Hannon & Trainor, 2007). Individuals initially exhibit sensitivity to a diverse range of perceptual structures that narrow down through exposure to the specific characteristics of their musical culture, thus leading to reduced sensitivity to less conventional structures. This study explores the effect of this phenomenon on movement-to-music synchronization, putting to question whether (i) culture-specific perceptual narrowing influences how infants spontaneously move in response to music samples with meters that are either present in their day-to-day experiences with music or absent from it, and whether these responses are (ii) modulated by daily exposure to, i.e. training with, a specific rhythmic pattern, which was either native to the infants’ culture or non-native. Italian infants aged 6 to 24 months and their parents, who were mainly exposed to music with isochronous simple meters, were presented with songs of both simple (4/4) and complex (7/8) meters and their motor behavior as a response to these songs were analyzed. Subsequently, they were invited to participate in a month-long musical training to either a song of 4/4 or 7/8 meter. They were then asked to return to the same experimental setting and tasked to do the same thing as the first experimental session. Preliminary analysis of infants’ motor behavior during auditory stimuli exposure suggests individual differences in motor responses, potential changes in correlations between arm and leg movements, and consistent high levels of synchronization. This thesis will first review existing literature on musicality, music processing, music-cultural perceptual narrowing, and sensorimotor synchronization (Chapter 1), then detail the research methods and materials (Chapter 2). Preliminary results will be presented (Chapter 3), and the theoretical and educational implications of these findings for our understanding of music-motor synchrony and future research directions will be detailed (Chapter 4)

"Integrated Arts" Pedagogy and Philosophy

This dissertation proposes and discusses the pedagogy and philosophy behind an original method titled IAM (Integrated Arts Method), which is an alternate experiential, integrated, conducive, and student-centered music and arts pedagogical method that can facilitate effective teaching for effective learning. Three key philosophical principles and a number of general techniques and attitudes are suggested as contributing factors to observed success of IAM. These generalized contributing factors, the IAM pedagogy and philosophy, are comparable with existing related pedagogical methods, which offer indirect explanation and support for the success of IAM. In turn, these pedagogical principles and attitudes allow generalization of IAMs advantages to other subject areas. IAM pedagogy contributes to the field of education generally, and arts education specifically, with original music and interdisciplinary programs, materials, compositions, and procedures, which represent practical and effective tools for both educators and students success. The three key principles of IAM pedagogy suggest that learning can be effective if it is: 1) physical experience based, 2) with synthesis of related subjects, and 3) taught in a positive and stimulating atmosphere. Accurate facilitation of these key principles involves techniques, aspects, and pedagogical attitudes which this dissertation specifies and explains. IAM pedagogy is embodied through a set of general principles, specific attitudes, and practical tools for achieving required emotional, mental, physiological, and psychological functioning of both learner and teacher for their mutual effectiveness. Results of real world IAM programs in subject areas of music and arts suggest that the pedagogy of IAM contributes to effective, enjoyable, and memorable education. Explanation and support of this contribution stem from scientific, educational, sociological, philosophical, neuroscience, cognition, and music and arts literature. Hence the research conducted in this dissertation has been from real world practice toward grounded theory. IAM programs have been conducted 7 times with success (in 2007-2009 public school based extracurricular settings), with the aid of original pedagogical programs and materials developed for these programs. These specific programs and their parameters and materials will be offered in the dissertation as concrete sample pedagogical solutions to practical application of the proposed principles in music and integrated arts education

A study on the impact of a music looping technology intervention upon pre-service generalist teachers’ self-efficacy to teach music in primary schools

In Australia, in the current climate of economic rationalism in which there has been an increasing emphasis on literacy and numeracy, funding for specialised subjects like music has been reducing. As a result, generalist classroom teachers are being given more responsibility for delivering effective music education in primary schools. However, the time dedicated to training pre-service teachers in music education in tertiary institutions has diminished. Further, time constraints involved in building pre-service knowledge and skills in teaching music may impact many pre-service teachers’ beliefs about their ability to teach music. Within these constraints, digital technology may provide a key to improving pre-service teacher training in music education in universities, resulting in better quality delivery of music in schools. This study investigates the potential of digital looping technology to build generalist pre-service teachers’ knowledge of and efficacy for teaching music in primary schools. The study involved three stages of investigation: Stage One: an experimental and control intervention involving measuring the self-efficacy of pre-service teachers before and after they completed one unit of study incorporating looping technology; Stage Two: video analysis in a practicum setting; and Stage three: participant self-reflections following the practicum to investigate the transferability of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy from university-based learning to classroom practice. Based upon the study, this thesis makes a number of recommendations for future practice in terms of generalist pre-service teacher training, as well as recommendations for future research

Towards a framework for socially interactive robots

250 p.En las últimas décadas, la investigación en el campo de la robótica social ha crecido considerablemente. El desarrollo de diferentes tipos de robots y sus roles dentro de la sociedad se están expandiendo poco a poco. Los robots dotados de habilidades sociales pretenden ser utilizados para diferentes aplicaciones; por ejemplo, como profesores interactivos y asistentes educativos, para apoyar el manejo de la diabetes en niños, para ayudar a personas mayores con necesidades especiales, como actores interactivos en el teatro o incluso como asistentes en hoteles y centros comerciales.El equipo de investigación RSAIT ha estado trabajando en varias áreas de la robótica, en particular,en arquitecturas de control, exploración y navegación de robots, aprendizaje automático y visión por computador. El trabajo presentado en este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo añadir una nueva capa al desarrollo anterior, la capa de interacción humano-robot que se centra en las capacidades sociales que un robot debe mostrar al interactuar con personas, como expresar y percibir emociones, mostrar un alto nivel de diálogo, aprender modelos de otros agentes, establecer y mantener relaciones sociales, usar medios naturales de comunicación (mirada, gestos, etc.),mostrar personalidad y carácter distintivos y aprender competencias sociales.En esta tesis doctoral, tratamos de aportar nuestro grano de arena a las preguntas básicas que surgen cuando pensamos en robots sociales: (1) ¿Cómo nos comunicamos (u operamos) los humanos con los robots sociales?; y (2) ¿Cómo actúan los robots sociales con nosotros? En esa línea, el trabajo se ha desarrollado en dos fases: en la primera, nos hemos centrado en explorar desde un punto de vista práctico varias formas que los humanos utilizan para comunicarse con los robots de una maneranatural. En la segunda además, hemos investigado cómo los robots sociales deben actuar con el usuario.Con respecto a la primera fase, hemos desarrollado tres interfaces de usuario naturales que pretenden hacer que la interacción con los robots sociales sea más natural. Para probar tales interfaces se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones de diferente uso: robots guía y un sistema de controlde robot humanoides con fines de entretenimiento. Trabajar en esas aplicaciones nos ha permitido dotar a nuestros robots con algunas habilidades básicas, como la navegación, la comunicación entre robots y el reconocimiento de voz y las capacidades de comprensión.Por otro lado, en la segunda fase nos hemos centrado en la identificación y el desarrollo de los módulos básicos de comportamiento que este tipo de robots necesitan para ser socialmente creíbles y confiables mientras actúan como agentes sociales. Se ha desarrollado una arquitectura(framework) para robots socialmente interactivos que permite a los robots expresar diferentes tipos de emociones y mostrar un lenguaje corporal natural similar al humano según la tarea a realizar y lascondiciones ambientales.La validación de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de nuestros robots sociales se ha realizado mediante representaciones públicas. La exposición de nuestros robots al público en esas actuaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta esencial para medir cualitativamente la aceptación social de los prototipos que estamos desarrollando. De la misma manera que los robots necesitan un cuerpo físico para interactuar con el entorno y convertirse en inteligentes, los robots sociales necesitan participar socialmente en tareas reales para las que han sido desarrollados, para así poder mejorar su sociabilida

Music and the Child

By Natalie Sarrazin, associate professor at The College at Brockport Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts? This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1428/thumbnail.jp

Music and the Child

Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts? This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/oer-ost/1005/thumbnail.jp

The status of indigenous music in the South African school curriculum with special reference to IsiZulu

Text in EnglishThe research raises concern for the practical and theoretical problems confronting pre-primary to secondary schools regarding the implementation of indigenous African music in the present curriculum. This research investigates the status of indigenous African music in the South African school’s curriculum for the purposes of its inclusion with special reference to isiZulu. The study utilised qualitative interview, observation method and existing documents for the collection of data. Participants were asked to highlight the importance of including indigenous African music in the present curriculum as a core subject, and secondly, what can be done to promote indigenous African music to South African communities? This study records the importance of isiZulu belief systems, customs and performance tradition. It looks at indigenous isiZulu music both past and present, what it offers to the community of South Africans. The research reveals that isiZulu music can be used to recall enjoyable commemorations, express peace, and happiness and motivates team spirit as it can organise activities geared towards community development if included in the school curriculum. It also nurtures social integration, which can enhance understanding in learning. Some songs are composed to instil socio-cultural values in establishing social relationships amongst the individuals and societies, also consolidate social bonds and create patriotic feelings. Music also contributes to the child’s development and psychological abilities. The study further revealed that the battle for the soul of African Languages is not yet over. Rather than the languages becoming increasingly appreciated and embraced by the owners, there is evidently a decline (Salawu, 2001). This worrisome decline is marked by the advancement of technology and craves modernity; they see everything (culture, indigenous African music and language) as primitive. It is apparent that the originality and excellence in African culture and languages are quickly vanishing, as there remains only a small indication of that genuine tradition. The study therefore, helps Black South Africans generally to relate to their folk-lore and to maintain their cultural principles, values and rebuild their sense of national identity and will also work to broaden the curriculum in schools from Foundation Phase to the FET Phase.Linguistics and Modern LanguagesPh. D. (Languages, Linguistics and Literature

Developing the pre-school child's musical intelligence by means of a comprehensive music programme focused on age-controlled auditive development

Because music is sound, the development of the young child's musical intelligence is integrally linked to his/her auditive development. By neglecting to develop the child's musical intelligence, and in particular by neglecting the age-controlled auditive development of the young child, essential learning stages may be missed. It is therefore encouraging that the government has stated its intention to introduce a compulsory reseption year (Grade 0) for five to six year old children. There is, however, at present no comprehensive pre-school music education programme available which specifically focuses on the auditive development of the child in the process of developing his/her musical intelligence. In this study, a comprehensive music education programme based on the praxial philosophy of music education has been compiled. It promotes procedural knowledge (making music), without negating propositional knowledge (knowing about music). It is hoped that the study will assist the class teacher as well as the music specialist as they strive to develop the musical intelligences of South Africa's pre-school children.Thesis (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2004.Musicunrestricte