Subjects heard a musical interval defined by a sequence of two notes and then attempted to sing it. Those who had previously received consistent practice on another single interval performed better than those who had earlier received variable practice on a number of different intervals. This difference was as evident when the practice involved just listening as it was when the practice involved singing. The learning that took place during practice occurred without provision of knowledge of results from an experimenter. The relevance of these effects to the pedagogy of singing is considered and they are discussed in relation to various psychological models of the cognitive processes underlying development of the skill.
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