Practicing phonomimetic (conducting-like) gestures facilitates vocal performance of typically developing children and children with autism: an experimental study

Every music teacher is likely to teach one or more children with autism, given that an average of one in 54 persons in the United States receives a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD persons often show tremendous interest in music, and some even become masterful performers; however, the combination of deficits and abilities associated with ASD can pose unique challenges for music teachers. This experimental study shows that phonomimetic (conducting-like) gestures can be used to teach the expressive qualities of music. Children were asked to watch video recordings of conducting-like gestures and produce vocal sounds to match the gestures. The empirical findings indicate that motor training can strengthen the visual to vocomotor couplings in both populations, suggesting that phonomimetic gesture may be a suitable approach for teaching musical expression in inclusive classrooms

Ways of Guided Listening: Embodied approaches to the design of interactive sonifications

This thesis presents three use cases for interactive feedback. In each case users interact with a system and receive feedback: the primary source of feedback is visual, while a second source of feedback is offered as sonification. The first use case comprised an interactive sonification system for use by pathologists in the triage stage of cancer diagnostics. Image features derived from computational homology are mapped to a soundscape with integrated auditory glance indicating potential regions of interests. The resulting prototype did not meet the requirements of a domain expert. In the second case this thesis presents an interactive sonification plug-in developed for a software package for interactive visualisation of macromolecular complexes. A framework for building different sonification methods in Python and an OSC-controlled sound producing software was established along with sonification methods and a general sonification plugin. It received generally positive feedback, but the mapping was deemed not very transparent. From these cases and ideas in sonification design literature, the Subject-Position-Based Sonification Design Framework (SPBDF) was developed. It explores an alternative conception of design: that working from a frame of reference encompassing a non-expert audience will lead towards sonifications that are more easily understood. A method for the analysis of sonifications according to its criteria is outlined and put into practice to evaluate a range of sonifications. This framework was evaluated in the third use case, a system for sonified feedback for an exercise device designed for back pain rehabilitation. Two different sonifications, one using SPBDF as basis of their design, were evaluated, indicating that interactive sonification can provide valuable feedback and improve task performance (decrease the mean speed) when the soundscape employed invokes an appropriate emotional response in the user

A PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIMETIC LEARNING AND MULTIMODAL COGNITION: INTEGRATING EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE INTO PROGRAMS IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION, AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

My dissertation emphasizes a cognitive account of multimodality that explicitly integrates experiential knowledge work into the rhetorical pedagogy that informs so many composition and technical communication programs. In these disciplines, multimodality is widely conceived in terms of what Gunther Kress calls “socialsemiotic” modes of communication shaped primarily by culture. In the cognitive and neurolinguistic theories of Vittorio Gallese and George Lakoff, however, multimodality is described as a key characteristic of our bodies’ sensory-motor systems which link perception to action and action to meaning, grounding all communicative acts in knowledge shaped through body-engaged experience. I argue that this “situated” account of cognition – which closely approximates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, a major framework for my study – has pedagogical precedence in the mimetic pedagogy that informed ancient Sophistic rhetorical training, and I reveal that training’s multimodal dimensions through a phenomenological exegesis of the concept mimesis. Plato’s denigration of the mimetic tradition and his elevation of conceptual contemplation through reason, out of which developed the classic Cartesian separation of mind from body, resulted in a general degradation of experiential knowledge in Western education. But with the recent introduction into college classrooms of digital technologies and multimedia communication tools, renewed emphasis is being placed on the “hands-on” nature of inventive and productive praxis, necessitating a revision of methods of instruction and assessment that have traditionally privileged the acquisition of conceptual over experiential knowledge. The model of multimodality I construct from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, ancient Sophistic rhetorical pedagogy, and current neuroscientific accounts of situated cognition insists on recognizing the significant role knowledges we acquire experientially play in our reading and writing, speaking and listening, discerning and designing practices

An analysis of the condition of bilingualism: false myths, advantages and a case study in kindergarten

openThe following work aims to examine bilingualism: debunking false myths, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages and presenting a case study in kindergarten. Previous research results are contradictory; various scientists believe that being bilingual in childhood can cause various disorders, including language and social problems, others believe in its benefits. After analyzing the benefits and false myths of bilingualism, the researcher affirms that raising a bilingual child could pose challenges for family and school, but could also bring enormous benefits.The following work aims to examine bilingualism: debunking false myths, analyzing the advantages and disadvantages and presenting a case study in kindergarten. Previous research results are contradictory; various scientists believe that being bilingual in childhood can cause various disorders, including language and social problems, others believe in its benefits. After analyzing the benefits and false myths of bilingualism, the researcher affirms that raising a bilingual child could pose challenges for family and school, but could also bring enormous benefits

Cynosure: A theoretical grounding for pictorial language that grasps attention

This thesis proposes theoretical grounding for pictorial language that grasps attention in the field of homiletics. The research consists of two parts: theoretical and analytical. The theoretical framework integrates rhetorical, homiletical, and neuroscience theory to explain why pictorial language wins attention during oration. By beginning with rhetorical and homiletical theory this thesis suggests that a speaker may achieve attention by creating presence through the use of lively and active words. This suggestion is then validated and constrained by theory in neuroscience to state that presence, created through oration, may appear to the brain as a sensory impression if the presence is made to be pictorial. Furthermore, according to theory in neuroscience on attention, sensory impressions have a higher probability of winning the brain’s attention than do other kinds of impressions that words can cause in the brain. These findings result in an original homiletical theory called “cynosure,” which concludes: language that generates pictorial presence has a higher probability of winning the ongoing competition for the brain’s attention than do other kinds of language because pictorial presence impacts the brain as a sensory impression. The analytical portion of this thesis involves identifying, analyzing, and testing the efficacy of pictorial presence to win attention. The identification and analysis focus on the creation of pictorial presence in the Bible and sermons, which suggest positive correlation between the proposed theory of cynosure and Christian oration. Furthermore, the creation of pictorial presence in the Bible and sermons presents potential strategies for grasping attention in homiletics. The testing gathered data using a sermon and questionnaire to investigate whether or not some of these strategies win attention. Quantitative analysis of the data indicates that ion than other kinds of language that do not create pictorial presence

KEER2022

Avanttítol: KEER2022. DiversitiesDescripció del recurs: 25 juliol 202

Moving Ourselves, Moving Others

The close relationship between motion (bodily movement) and emotion (feelings) is not an etymological coincidence. While moving ourselves, we move others; in observing others move – we are moved ourselves. The fundamentally interpersonal nature of mind and language has recently received due attention, but the key role of (e)motion in this context has remained something of a blind spot. The present book rectifies this gap by gathering contributions from leading philosophers, psychologists and linguists working in the area. Framed by an introducing prologue and a summarizing epilogue the volume elaborates a dynamical, active view of emotion, along with an affect-laden view of motion – and explores their significance for consciousness, intersubjectivity, and language. As such, it contributes to the emerging interdisciplinary field of mind science, transcending hitherto dominant computationalist and cognitivist approaches

The Music–Writing Connection: Exploring a Rhythm-Based Framework in the Primary Writing Classroom

The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for the teaching of writing in the primary English classroom with a rhythm–grammar focus based on musical and rhythmic processes featured in Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály music pedagogies. The framework uses five key principles: listening, interpreting, rehearsing, improvising, and composing (LIRIC). These principles also express concepts shared across the Australian Curriculum: Music and English. This multisite, design-based intervention was used to develop and refine a music-pedagogy-informed LIRIC framework for the teaching of writing, with attention given to a rhythm–grammar connection. The framework was refined through three iterations. It was first explored in a pilot study in my own classroom in two school contexts and was then further refined in another school setting where a music teacher and three generalist teachers used the framework to plan and deliver a series of writing lessons with a Year 1 cohort over a school term. Beginning with demonstration lessons and training with the researcher, the teachers took on the framework over a 6-week period. Through three iterative phases, the researcher collected teacher and student interviews, writing samples, teacher planning documents and filmed lessons. The LIRIC rhythmic pedagogy model was employed with an emphasis on student collaboration—through musical rhythm, movement, sound, and speech. It featured oral language activities and short writing experiments and demonstrated several key findings from an analysis of both teacher and student data: (a) the viability of a music–writing framework for teachers using a LIRIC model; (b) the critical place of improvisatory and experimental strategies for writing; and (c) that an aesthetic appreciation for musical rhythm, through sound and gesture, could be used to lift metalinguistic creativity and awareness. Overall, students demonstrated a more expressive personal writing style through their metalinguistic creativity. This was evident through enhanced and experimental sentence structure, punctuation, and literary features