Implicit Memory for Music in Alzheimer's Disease

Short, unfamiliar melodies were presented to young and older adults and to Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients in an implicit and an explicit memory task. The explicit task was yes–no recognition, and the implicit task was pleasantness ratings, in which memory was shown by higher ratings for old versus new melodies (the mere exposure effect). Young adults showed retention of the melodies in both tasks. Older adults showed little explicit memory but did show the mere exposure effect. The AD patients showed neither. The authors considered and rejected several artifactual reasons for this null effect in the context of the many studies that have shown implicit memory among AD patients. As the previous studies have almost always used the visual modality for presentation, they speculate that auditory presentation, especially of nonverbal material, may be compromised in AD because of neural degeneration in auditory areas in the temporal lobes.

Pedagogical techniques and student outcomes in applied instrumental lessons taught by experienced and pre-service American music teachers.

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of teacher experience on student progress and performance quality in an introductory applied lesson. Nine experienced teachers and 15 pre-service teachers taught an adult beginner to play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ on a wind instrument. The lessons were videotaped for subsequent analysis of teaching behaviors and performance achievement. Following instruction, a random sample of teachers was interviewed about their perceptions of the lesson. A panel of adjudicators rated final pupil performances. No significant difference was found between pupils taught by experienced and pre-service teachers in the quality of their final performance. Systematic observation of the videotaped lessons showed that participant teachers provided relatively frequent and highly positive reinforcement during the lessons. Pupils of experienced teachers talked significantly more during the lessons than did pupils of pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers modeled significantly more on their instruments than did experienced teachers.

Influences on career choice in music education audition candidates: Pilot study

The purpose of this pilot study was to survey prospective undergraduate music education majors to learn what motivated them to aspire to a career in music education. Respondents were candidates auditioning, but not yet accepted, for music teacher preparation programs at four institutions (N = 228). Findings corroborate prior research that suggests that school music teachers and/or private lesson teachers are highly influential. This study sought to quantify the types of experiences participants had in teaching roles at the time of their college audition, supporting other research suggesting that such experiences may increase interest in a music teaching career. Recommendations include engaging music educators at all PreK–12 levels in actively recruiting and encouraging future teachers, providing private instructors and performance majors with teacher recruitment information, emphasizing earlier identification and preparation of prospective educators, and refining and continuing the work begun in this pilot study.

A summary of the 2004 Ohio Music Education Association research forum presented by Dr. Patricia J. Flowers.

Each year, the Research Committee of the Ohio Music Education Association sponsors a half-day Research Forum prior to the beginning of the state music education association conference. In 2004, Dr. Patricia J. Flowers, Professor of Music at the Ohio State University was the guest speaker. This article summarizes her talk on the process of becoming a music education researcher

More than Tunes in Your Head: Dynamic Aspects of Auditory Imagery for Music

Auditory imagery is more than just mental “replaying” of tunes in one’s head. I will review several studies that capture characteristics of complex and active imagery tasks, using both behavioral and neuroscience approaches. I use behavioral methods to capture people’s ability to make emotion judgments about both heard and imagined music in real time. My neuroimaging studies look at the neural correlates of encoding an imagined melody, anticipating an upcoming tune, and also imagining tunes backwards. Several studies show voxel-by-voxel correlates of neural activity with self-report of imagery vividness. These studies speak to the ways in which musical imagery allows us not just to remember music, but also how we use those memories to judge temporally changing aspects of the musical experience.

Career Influences of Music Education Audition Candidates

In this descriptive study, we examined the influences and experiences motivating students to enter college-level music schools as reported by a population of precollegiate students auditioning (but not yet accepted) to music education degree programs. As a follow-up to a published pilot study, this research was designed to quantify the various experiences respondents had as part of their precollege school and community programs that related to teaching and music. Results indicate a strong connection between respondents’ primary musical background and future teaching interest. The top three influential experiences were related to high school ensemble membership (band, choir, orchestra), and the most influential group of individuals in the decision to become a music educator were high school ensemble directors. Respondents from all four primary background groups (band, choir, orchestra, and general or other) rated private lesson teaching as their second strongest future teaching interest, just behind teaching at the high school level in their primary background. Respondents rated parents as moderately influential on their desire to become a music teacher.

Rwandan youth in the development of music industry

In this days for ever, the Rwandan youth are more active in the development of music industry, the recording studio are created every day, and the number of musician is increasing from one day to another day, it is too early to get the statistic; some of the youth are dropped out their studies to develop their career of music; the question was how many of them are developing their career to become the Professional? WHY IN THESE DAYS, RWANDAN YOUTH ARE WORKING HARDLY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSIC INDUSTRY?” it was not easy for me to get the accurate answers; some questions remains in my mind like -Are they working for money-music as a job (professional)? -Are they willing to become célèbre-stars? -Is it for the entertainment/Relaxing? -Is it because they love music? -Are they escaping the problems-Music as an escape domain? -Are they exploring their free time? -Are they using the music as the way of expressing their views? Those questions require analysing each question deeply, and getting the answers from the singers and listeners of music or DJ, in order to confirm the causes of being more active in music industry for the Rwandan youth. I am not interesting to make a deep research but to analyze and I hope this article will help the students and many researchers to develop and find out the exact causes. As my aim is to open the door for the researchers, briefly let us analyze all those above questions one to one based on the main causes as the motivation of forcing the Rwandan youth to be in the industry music.