The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate possible effects of visual information on nonmusic students' affective and cognitive responses to music. Excerpts were selected from compositions by Bach (abstract example) and Dukas (programmatic example) used in the movie Fantasia. One group of university nonmusic students viewed the video while hearing the music excerpts; a second group was presented the music only. All students (N = 103) completed cognitive listening tests based upon the excerpts, rated the music on Likert-type affective scales, and responded to two openended affective questions. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between presentations on the more abstract (Bach) excerpt. On the programmatic (Dukas) excerpt, mean scores of the music-plus-video group were higher than the music-only group on both cognitive and affective measures. However, effect sizes were not robust, and differences in cognitive scores were not independent of presentation order. Significantly more subjects in the music-only group used analytical descriptions of music elements for both pieces of music than did the video-group subjects.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Beagles-Roos, J., & Gat, I. (1983). The specific impact of radio and television on children's story comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 128–137.
2.
Blanchard-Fields, F., Coon, R. C., & Mathews, R. C. (1986). Inferencing and television: A developmental study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 15, 453–459.
3.
Brown, A. (1978). Effects of televised instruction on student music selection, music skills, and attitude. Journal of Research in Music Education, 26, 445–455.
4.
Bula, K. (1987). The participation of the verbal factor in perception of musical compositions. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 91, 15–18.
5.
Cassidy, J. W. (1994, April). Children's written descriptions of music. Paper presented at the National Biennial In-Service Conference of the Music Educators National Conference, Cincinnati, OH.
6.
Cassidy, J. W., & Sims, W. L. (1991). Effects of special education labels on peers' and adults' evaluations of a handicapped youth choir. Journal of Research in Music Education, 39, 23–34.
7.
Deutsch, D. (1973). Octave generalization of specific interference effects in memory for tonal pitch. Perception and Psychophysics, 13, 271–275.
8.
Ellis, M. C., & McCoy, C. W. (1990). Field dependence/independence in college nonmusic majors and their ability to discern form in music. Journal of Research in Music Education, 38, 302–310.
9.
Field, D., & Anderson, D. (1985). Instruction and modality effects on children's television attention and comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 91–100.
10.
Gibbons, J., Anderson, D. R., Smith, R., Field, D. E., & Fischer, C. (1986). Young children's recall and reconstruction of audio and audiovisual narratives. Child Development, 57, 1014–1023.
11.
Gillespie, R. (1994, April). A comparison of audio and audiovisual ratings of upper string instrument vibrato performance. Paper presented at the National Biennial In-Service Conference of the Music Educators National Conference, Cincinnati, OH.
12.
Grimes, T. (1990). Audio-video correspondence and its role in attention and memory. Education, Technology, Research and Development, 38, 15–25.
13.
Haack, P. A. (1980). The behavior of music listeners. In D. A. Hodges (Ed.), Handbook of music psychology (pp. 141–182). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
14.
Haack, P. A. (1992). The acquisition of music listening skills. In R. Colwell (Ed.), Handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 451–471). New York: Schirmer.
15.
Hargreaves, D. J. (1984). The effect of repetition on liking for music. Journal of Research in Music Education, 32, 35–47.
16.
Hayes, D., & Birnbaum, D. (1980). Preschoolers' retention of televised events: Is a picture worth a thousand words?Developmental Psychology, 16, 410–416.
17.
Hayes, D., Chemelski, B., & Birnbaum, D. (1981). Young children's incidental and intentional retention of televised events. Developmental Psychology, 17, 230–232.
18.
Hedden, S. K. (1980). Development of music listening skills. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 64, 12–22.
19.
Hedden, S. K. (1981). Music listening skills and music listening preferences. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 65, 16–26.
20.
Johnson, C. M. (1991). Use of the continuous response digital interface in evaluation of auditory versus auditory and visual aspects of musical performance. Southeastern Journal of Music Education, 3, 97–108.
21.
Katz, E., Adoni, H., & Parness, P. (1977). Remembering the news: What the picture adds to recall. Journalism Quarterly, 54, 231–239.
22.
Lewis, B. E. (1989). The research literature in movement-based instruction with children: Implications for music teaching and learning. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 7 (2), 13–17.
23.
Madsen, C. K, & Staum, M. J. (1983). Discrimination and interference in the recall of melodic stimuli. Journal of Research in Music Education, 31, 15–31.
24.
Pezdek, K., & Stevens, E. (1984). Children's memory for auditory and visual information on television. Developmental Psychology, 20, 212–218.
25.
Pratt, M., & Mackenzie-Keating, S. (1985). Organizing stories: Effects of development and task difficulty on referential cohesion in narrative. Developmental Psychology, 21, 350–356.
26.
Prince, W. F. (1974). Effects of guided listening on musical enjoyment of junior high school students. Journal of Research in Music Education, 22, 45–51.
27.
Schmidt, C. P. (1984). The relationship among aspects of cognitive style and language-bound/language-optional perception to musicians' performance in aural discrimination tasks. Journal of Research in Music Education, 32, 159–168.
28.
Sims, W. L. (1986). The effect of high versus low teacher affect and passive versus active student activity during music listening on preschool children's attention, piece preference, time spent listening, and piece recognition. Journal of Research in Music Education, 34, 173–191.
29.
Smith, R., & Anderson, B. (1985, April). Modality differences in children's comprehension of television. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Toronto, Canada.
30.
Stine, E. A. L., Wingfield, A., & Myers, S. D. (1990). Age differences in processing information from television news: The effects of bisensory augmentation. Journal of Gerontology, 45, 1–8.
31.
Yarbrough, C., & Hendel, C. (1993). The effect of sequential patterns on rehearsal evaluations of high school and elementary students. Journal of Research in Music Education, 41, 246–257.
32.
Yarbrough, C., & Price, H. E. (1987). The effect of instruction and repeated listening on behavioral preference, behavioral intent, verbal opinion, and ratings of familiarity and complexity. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 5(2), 6–9.
33.
Zalanowski, A. H. (1986). The effects of listening instructions and cognitive style on music appreciation. Journal of Research in Music Education, 33, 43–53.
