Siu-Lan Tan, Peter Pfordresher, & Rom Harré, Psychology of music: From sound to significance. Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-84169-868-7 (hardcover)

Siu-Lan Tan, Peter Pfordresher, & Rom Harré, Psychology of music: From sound to significance. Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-84169-868-7 (hardcover

The effect of dopaminergic medication on beat-based auditory timing in Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) adversely affects timing abilities. Beat-based timing is a mechanism that times events relative to a regular interval, such as the ‘beat’ in musical rhythm, and is impaired in PD. It is unknown if dopaminergic medication influences beat-based timing in PD. Here we tested beat-based timing over two sessions in participants with PD (OFF then ON dopaminergic medication), and unmedicated control participants. People with PD and control participants completed two tasks. The first was a discrimination task in which participants compared two rhythms and determined whether they were the same or different. Rhythms either had a beat structure (metric simple rhythms), or did not (metric complex rhythms), as in previous studies. Discrimination accuracy was analyzed to test for the effects of beat structure, as well as differences between participants with PD and controls, and effects of medication (PD group only). The second task was the Beat Alignment Test (BAT), in which participants listened to music with regular tones superimposed, and responded as to whether the tones were ‘on’ or ‘off’ the beat of the music. Accuracy was analyzed to test for differences between participants with PD and controls, and for an effect of medication in patients.Both patients and controls discriminated metric simple rhythms better than metric complex rhythms. Controls also improved at the discrimination task in the second vs. first session, whereas people with PD did not. For participants with PD, the difference in performance between metric simple and metric complex rhythms was greater (sensitivity to changes in simple rhythms increased and sensitivity to changes in complex rhythms decreased) when ON vs. OFF medication. Performance also worsened with disease severity. For the Beat Alignment Test, no group differences or effects of medication were found. Overall, these findings suggest that timing is impaired in PD, and that dopaminergic medication influences beat-based and non-beat-based timing differently. Judging the beat in music does not appear to be affected by PD or by dopaminergic medication

Simple random-interval generation reveals the irresistibly periodic structure of perceived time

Whole-integer ratios in musical rhythm are culturally universal. The reliable periodicity of rhythm inspired us to determine whether time perception, which is foundational to and inherently less structured than rhythm, is subject to similar biases. We created a random-interval generation task that exploits the nonrandom tendencies in perception and action in order to uncover the structural biases underlying temporal duration perception. Participants listened to and watched an audiovisual suprasecond temporal cue and were asked to subdivide it as randomly as possible in a prescribed number of responses. The results showed that the subdivision probability distributions were distinctly nonrandom, and closely resembled multimodal distributions with a number of equally spaced, symmetrical peaks equal to the number of subdivisions required. These patterns were thus highly periodic and isochronous, despite explicit instructions to act as randomly as possible. We interpreted this bias as an organizing heuristic that divides perceived time into smaller, equal-duration chunks in order to facilitate representation

Senior Teacher Induction: an Alternative Apprenticeship Model for Pre Service Teacher

This paper reports on a case study on the role of Senior Teacher Induction (STI) in promoting pre service teachers\u27 pedagogical competence at STKIP Al Hikmah Surabaya. This study is an attempt to promote an alternative apprenticeship model for pre service teachers. Students in STKIP Al Hikmah have been permitted to enter host schools since the first semester. STKIP Al Hikmah incorporated blended learning approach within the curriculum. Activities in campus and at host schools were fully integrated. Students spent half of their time at host schools. They sat in classes taught by senior teachers. They had to observe activities done by the senior teacher such as how the teacher opened the class, how the teacher explained the materials, how the teacher interacted with his students, how the teacher managed the class, how the teacher assessed the students\u27 performance and so on. The students had to discuss with senior teachers after class for further information dealing with the class observation. Then, the students were asked to search any relevant references to support their findings. They had to note the result of the observation. Then, consult it to his supervising lecturer for comments and feedbacks. In addition, the students were challenged to design and modify their own teaching version. Eventually, they had to present their report in general stadium. The result of the research showed that 1) Senior Teacher Induction (STI) enabled to raise students\u27 pedagogical interest and involved them in class interaction in advance; 2) STI enabled the students to observe teaching skills they have to achieve as being future teacher

Music as a scaffold for listening to speech: Better neural phase-locking to song than speech

© 2020 The Authors Neural activity synchronizes with the rhythmic input of many environmental signals, but the capacity of neural activity to entrain to the slow rhythms of speech is particularly important for successful communication. Compared to speech, song has greater rhythmic regularity, a more stable fundamental frequency, discrete pitch movements, and a metrical structure, this may provide a temporal framework that helps listeners neurally track information better than the rhythmically irregular rhythms of speech. The current study used EEG to examine whether entrainment to the syllable rate of linguistic utterances, as indexed by cerebro-acoustic phase coherence, was greater when listeners heard sung than spoken sentences. We assessed listeners phase-locking in both easy (no time compression) and hard (50% time-compression) utterance conditions. Adults phase-locked equally well to speech and song in the easy listening condition. However, in the time-compressed condition, phase-locking was greater for sung than spoken utterances in the theta band (3.67–5 Hz). Thus, the musical temporal and spectral characteristics of song related to better phase-locking to the slow phrasal and syllable information (4–7 Hz) in the speech stream. These results highlight the possibility of using song as a tool for improving speech processing in individuals with language processing deficits, such as dyslexia

Familiarity modulates neural tracking of sung and spoken utterances

Music is often described in the laboratory and in the classroom as a beneficial tool for memory encoding and retention, with a particularly strong effect when words are sung to familiar compared to unfamiliar melodies. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this memory benefit, especially for benefits related to familiar music are not well understood. The current study examined whether neural tracking of the slow syllable rhythms of speech and song is modulated by melody familiarity. Participants became familiar with twelve novel melodies over four days prior to MEG testing. Neural tracking of the same utterances spoken and sung revealed greater cerebro-acoustic phase coherence for sung compared to spoken utterances, but did not show an effect of familiar melody when stimuli were grouped by their assigned (trained) familiarity. However, when participant\u27s subjective ratings of perceived familiarity were used to group stimuli, a large effect of familiarity was observed. This effect was not specific to song, as it was observed in both sung and spoken utterances. Exploratory analyses revealed some in-session learning of unfamiliar and spoken utterances, with increased neural tracking for untrained stimuli by the end of the MEG testing session. Our results indicate that top-down factors like familiarity are strong modulators of neural tracking for music and language. Participants’ neural tracking was related to their perception of familiarity, which was likely driven by a combination of effects from repeated listening, stimulus-specific melodic simplicity, and individual differences. Beyond simply the acoustic features of music, top-down factors built into the music listening experience, like repetition and familiarity, play a large role in the way we attend to and encode information presented in a musical context

Gait parameters and characteristics associated with increased risk of falls in people with dementia: a systematic review

Background: People with dementia fall twice as often and have more serious fall-related injuries than healthy older adults. While gait impairment as a generic term is understood as a fall risk factor in this population, a clear elaboration of the specific components of gait that are associated with falls risk is needed for knowledge translation to clinical practice and the development of fall prevention strategies for people with dementia. Objective: To review gait parameters and characteristics associated with falls in people with dementia. Methods: Electronic databases CINAHL, EMBASE, MedLine, PsycINFO, and PubMed were searched (from inception to April 2017) to identify prospective cohort studies evaluating the association between gait and falls in people with dementia. Results: Increased double support time variability, use of mobility aids, walking outdoors, higher scores on the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, and lower average walking bouts were associated with elevated risk of any fall. Increased double support time and step length variability were associated with recurrent falls. The reviewed articles do not support using the Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment and the Timed Up-and-Go tests to predict any fall in this population. There is limited research on the use of dual-task gait assessments for predicting falls in people with dementia. Conclusion: This systematic review shows the specific spatiotemporal gait parameters and features that are associated with falls in people with dementia. Future research is recommended to focus on developing specialized treatment methods for these specific gait impairments in this patient population

At-risk elementary school children with one year of classroom music instruction are better at keeping a beat

Temporal processing underlies both music and language skills. There is increasing evidence that rhythm abilities track with reading performance and that language disorders such as dyslexia are associated with poor rhythm abilities. However, little is known about how basic time-keeping skills can be shaped by musical training, particularly during critical literacy development years. This study was carried out in collaboration with Harmony Project, a non-profit organization providing free music education to children in the gang reduction zones of Los Angeles. Our findings reveal that elementary school children with just one year of classroom music instruction perform more accurately in a basic finger-tapping task than their untrained peers, providing important evidence that fundamental time-keeping skills may be strengthened by short-term music training. This sets the stage for further examination of how music programs may be used to support the development of basic skills underlying learning and literacy, particularly in at-risk populations which may benefit the most