Changes in motivation as expertise develops: Relationships with musical aspirations

Recent models of musical motivation have recognised the complex interactions which occur between environmental (cultural, institutional, familial, educational) and internal factors (cognition and affect) in enhancing or reducing motivation. Much previous research has been small scale and not taken account of long term musical aspirations. This article aims to address these issues exploring changes in motivation as expertise develops with a large sample of learners. A total of 3,325 young musicians, aged 6–19 playing a wide range of instruments participated. They represented nine levels of expertise ranging from beginner to higher education conservatoire entry level. Level of expertise was established in terms of the most recent graded independent instrumental examination taken. They were asked to respond to a series of statements on a 7-point Likert scale. The statements focused on well-established elements of motivation including: self-beliefs; enjoyment of musical activities; enjoyment of performance; level of support received from parents, friends and teachers; attitudes towards playing an instrument and perceptions of its value; and beliefs about the importance of musical ability. Participants were also asked to respond to statements about their long term musical aspirations. An exploratory factor analysis provided the basis for the development of a motivational scale which included five sub-scales: social support and affirmation; social life and the value of playing an instrument; enjoyment of performing; self-belief in musical ability; and enjoyment of instrumental musical activities. There were linear trends for each of the five sub-scales in relation to level of expertise with the exception of social support and affirmation. The five sub-scales collectively predicted a composite score relating to aspirations with a multiple R of .64

Are there gender differences in instrumental music practice?

This research aimed to consider whether there were gender differences in the amount of practice undertaken by boys and girls, the practice strategies adopted and motivation to practise. A sample of 2027 girls and 1225 boys aged 6-19 years, ranging in level of expertise from beginner through to conservatory entrance level, playing instruments representative of the classical and popular instruments played in the UK completed a self-report Likert scale questionnaire. There were no statistically significant gender differences in weekly practice time or motivation to practise. Factor analysis of statements relating to practice revealed seven factors. There were statistically significant gender differences in relation to the adoption of systematic practice strategies (girls were more systematic), concentration (boys perceived they had higher levels of concentration) and immediate correction of errors (girls reported more immediate correction). There were no statistically significant gender differences in relation to the organisation of practice, the use of recordings and a metronome, the use of analytic strategies, and the adoption of ineffective practice strategies although for this factor there was a statistically significant interaction between gender and level of expertise

Oscillatory behaviour in a lattice prey-predator system

Using Monte Carlo simulations we study a lattice model of a prey-predator system. We show that in the three-dimensional model populations of preys and predators exhibit coherent periodic oscillations but such a behaviour is absent in lower-dimensional models. Finite-size analysis indicate that amplitude of these oscillations is finite even in the thermodynamic limit. In our opinion, this is the first example of a microscopic model with stochastic dynamics which exhibits oscillatory behaviour without any external driving force. We suggest that oscillations in our model are induced by some kind of stochastic resonance.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, Phys.Rev.E (Nov. 1999

Broad-band polarization conversion from a finite periodic structure in the microwave regime

Copyright © 2004 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 84 (2004) and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/84/849/1A reflection grating demonstrating extraordinarily broad-band polarization conversion in a nondiffractive regime has been studied at microwave frequencies. This single-element structure has been fabricated by electrolessly plating a metallic layer onto a stereo-lithographically produced resin profile. Angle-dependent microwave reflectivity data collected from the grating indicates polarization conversion of greater than 80% over a spectral bandwidth equivalent to the entire visible regime (factor of 2 in frequency). This supports an earlier publication in which it was predicted that a broad-band polarization converter could be created from a suitably profiled diffraction grating

A robot trace maker: modeling the fossil evidence of early invertebrate behavior.

The study of trace fossils, the fossilized remains of animal behavior, reveals interesting parallels with recent research in behavior-based robotics. This article reports robot simulations of the meandering foraging trails left by early invertebrates that demonstrate that such trails can be generated by mechanisms similar to those used for robot wall-following. We conclude with the suggestion that the capacity for intelligent behavior shown by many behavior-based robots is similar to that of animals of the late Precambrian and early Cambrian periods approximately 530 to 565 million years ago