Post on 02-Jun-2018
8/10/2019 Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf
1/10
http://jrm.sagepub.com/Education
Journal of Research in Music
http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.2307/33447891978 26: 48Journal of Research in Music Education
Elda Franklin and Roger BaumgarteNonmusicians
Auditory Laterality Effects for Melodic Stimuli Among Musicians and
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
On behalf of:
National Association for Music Education
can be found at:Journal of Research in Music EducationAdditional services and information for
http://jrm.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts:
http://jrm.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:
http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48.refs.htmlCitations:
What is This?
- Jan 1, 1978Version of Record>>
by Iustina Groza on October 29, 2014jrm.sagepub.comDownloaded from by Iustina Groza on October 29, 2014jrm.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48http://www.sagepublications.com/http://www.nafme.org/http://jrm.sagepub.com/cgi/alertshttp://jrm.sagepub.com/cgi/alertshttp://jrm.sagepub.com/subscriptionshttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48.refs.htmlhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48.refs.htmlhttp://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtmlhttp://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtmlhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48.full.pdfhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://online.sagepub.com/site/sphelp/vorhelp.xhtmlhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48.full.pdfhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48.refs.htmlhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navhttp://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navhttp://jrm.sagepub.com/subscriptionshttp://jrm.sagepub.com/cgi/alertshttp://www.nafme.org/http://www.sagepublications.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/26/1/48http://jrm.sagepub.com/8/10/2019 Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf
2/10
48/JRME
U D I T O R Y
L T E R L I T Y
E F F E T S
O R
M E L O D I
S T I M U L I
M O N G
M U S I C I N S
N D
NONMUSICI NS
Elda Franklin
Roger Baumgarte
A
dichotic
melody recognition
task
was
employed
to determine
cerebral
lat-
eralization of
melodic stimuli
among
musicians
and
nonmusicians.
The
non-
musicians revealed a
significant
left
ear
(right
hemisphere) strength
for the
recognition of test melodies. The left ear effect
among
musicians was found
to be related
to the
subject's
area of
music
specialization.
Singers
demon-
strated a
significant
left
ear
superiority
for
melody recognition,
whereas
ear
differences were
not
significant
for
instrumentalists. Overall
performance
(combined
ear
scores)
on the
melodies task was
positively
related to
right
ear
scores.
Subjects
who
performed
well on
the
melody recognition
task were more
likely
to show
a
right
ear
(left
hemisphere)
superiority
than those who
per-
formed
poorly.
Key
Words:audiovisual
ability,
aural
discrimination,
aural
stimulus,
memory,
musical
excerpt,
sensory
acuity,
tests,
theory.
In recent years there has been a growing interest among researchers
in
psychology
and
the
neurological
sciences
concerning
the
specialized
functions of
the
two
hemispheres
of
the brain
relative to the
perception
of man's
environment and
control of his
behavior.
Researchers
n
the
psychology
of music and
music
educators who
seek further under-
standing
of
the
means
by
which musical
sound
is
perceived
are curious
about which
hemisphere
of
the
brain
processes
specific
kinds of
auditory
stimuli.
RelatedResearch
Early
research
reports
of
the cerebral
processing
of
music stimuli
(Milner,
1962;
Kimura,
1964,
1967)
implied
that the
right
cerebral
hemisphere
n
most
individuals is
specialized
for
mediation
of
nonverbal
input,
including
music,
with
the left
hemisphere
being
specialized
for
verbal functions.
Subsequent
research
findings
have indicated that
the
by Iustina Groza on October 29, 2014jrm.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/8/10/2019 Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf
3/10
8/10/2019 Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf
4/10
50/JRME
lateralization
of
melodic
perception
of
musicians
and
apparently
found
little
in
their data
to
suggest
that musicians
process
melodies
differently
than
nonmusicians.
The
extent
of music
training
was an
uncontrolled
variable
in
the Gordon
study,
and
subjects
employed
by
Cook
were
freshman music
majors
who
may
have lacked the musical
sophistication
of
the
subjects
n
the
Bever-Chiarello
study.
Reexamination
of
previously
obtained
musicians' scores
(Gordon,
1970),
indicates
a
significant
correlation between
right
ear scores
and
overall
per-
formance
on
a dichotic
melody recognition
tack. Gordon
suggests
that
melo-
dies
can be
processed
by
either the holistic
approach
of the
right
hemisphere
or
by
the
sequential
method
of
the left
hemisphere.
Although
Bever
and
Chiarello argue that right ear superiority and greater overall performance
are the
results
of
music
training,
Gordon
offers
the
alternative
explanation
that
good
performance
alone,
independent
of music
training,
is a
measure
of left
hemisphere
involvement
in
melody
recognition.
Gordon
(1975)
suggests
that
different
researchers
found
varying
results because
musical
sophistication
was
reflected
in
combined ear
scores.
His
conclusion
was
that
there
are
some
individuals,
regardless
of
training,
who are
more
capable
than
others
of
using
the
left
hemisphere
and
perform
well
on
time-ordering,
sequential
analysis
tasks.
This
study
tested the
following
research
hypotheses: (1)
under
dichotic
listening
conditions
employing
melodic
stimuli,
musicians
will
demonstrate
a
right
ear
superiority
n
the
recognition
of
test
melodies,
whereas
nonmusicians
will show
a
left
ear
superiority;
(2)
right
ear scores
for
melody recognition
will be
significantly
correlated
to
overall
performance
or both
musicians
and
nonmusicians.
In addition
to
testing
the
above
hypothesis,
analyses
were
made on the
musicians'
data
according
to instrumental
or
vocal
specialization.
Procedure
Twenty
musicians
and
20 nonmusicians were recruited
from
among
college faculty, graduate,
and
undergraduate
student volunteers
for
the
study.
All
subjects
were determined
to be
right-handed
by
means
of
a
questionnaire
that
required
a
statement
of
hand
preference
for
a
series
of
10
motor
tasks.
Only
those
subjects
who
reported
a
right-hand
preference
on at
least
nine
of
the ten tasks were selected
to
participate
in
the
study.
Six
volunteers
were
rejected
on the
basis of the handedness
criterion.
In
addition,
three
subjects
(nonmusicians)
were
replaced
because
their
scores
on
the
melodies task
were
below the
level
of chance.
The musicians
were
required
to
have
had
a
minimum of 10 years formal music training (private or class lessons on an
instrument
or
voice)
and be
currently
active
as
music
performers.
The
ages
of
the
musicians
ranged
from
21
to
44,
with
a
mean
of
27
years.
Among
the
group
were
13
instrumentalists
and
7
singers.
The
mean
number
of
years
of
music
experience, including
formal
study,
was
18,
with
a
range
of 10 to
35
years.
The nonmusicians
represented
areas
of
study
other
than
music,
including
by Iustina Groza on October 29, 2014jrm.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/8/10/2019 Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf
5/10
Franklin-Baumgarte/51
psychology,
philosophy,
and
education.
Nonmusicians
were selected on
the
basis of having had little or no formal music training and a stated inability to
read music
or
play
a
musical
instrument. Two of
the
nonmusicians
reported
an
average
of 1.5
years
of
piano
lessons
during
their
elementary
school
years.
The
remaining
18
nonmusicians
reported
no
previous
music
training.
The
ages
of the
nonmusicians
ranged
from 22
to 42
years,
with a
mean
of
28
years.
All
subjects
in both
groups reported
no
history
of
hearing
difficulties.
A
test
consisting
of dichotic
melodies was
recorded
on
magnetic
tape
using
a
Sony
TC-252D dual-channel
tape
recorder and
administered to
subjects
individually through
(Koss)
Pro-l
stereo
headphones.
The
test
employed
original
melodic
fragments
of
four to nine
notes
each,
composed
within
a
range of C' to D . Dichotic melodic
fragments
were matched for meter and
pitch
range
in
each
of
the
30
test
trials
and six
practice
trials. Each
test trial
consisted
of
(1)
an
identification number
presented
binaurally,
(2)
a
dichotic
presentation
of
two 2-second
melodic
fragments
played
on a
soprano
recorder,
and
(3)
four melodic
fragments
presented
in
sequence
binaurally,
two of
which
were
identical
to the
dichotic
fragments
(see
Figure
1).
This
paradigm
was
selected for its
similarity
to that
used
by
Gordon
(1970)
in
his
dichotic
melodies
test.
The
subject's
task
was to
identify
the
two dichotic melodic
fragments
from
among the four choices, and indicate their serial positions in the sequence by
marking
two
corresponding spaces
on an
answer sheet. Over
the
36
trials,
the left
and
right
dichotic melodies
were chosen as
correct
responses
in
each
of
the
four
serial
positions
an
equal
number of
times. To control
tape
asymmetries,
the
headphones
were reversed
for half of
the
subjects
in
each
test
group.
The
headphones
were also
reversed
at
midpoint
in
the test for
all
subjects.
Right
Ear:
Both
Ears: Number
f
JrlHLLr
F< jrl
Ear:
Left Ear:
-7u
Figure
1.
Melodies
Test
Paradigm
by Iustina Groza on October 29, 2014jrm.sagepub.comDownloaded from
http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/http://jrm.sagepub.com/8/10/2019 Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf
6/10
52/JRME
Results
This
experiment
was scored
by
determining
the
number of
correct
identifications
of dichotic
melodic
fragments
over the
30
test
trials. Inde-
pendent
scores
were
computed
for each
individual
subject
and
for
each
ear.
The data
was also summarized
across
trials consistent with
suggestions
outlined
by
Clark
(1973).
The mean
left and
right
ear
melody
recognition
scores for
both
musicians
and nonmusicians are
presented
in
Table
1.
Both
groups
show a
left ear
superiority, although
this
ear
difference
was
statistically
reliable for
the
nonmusicians
alone. The musicians' data
was also
analyzed
according
to
area
of music specialization and included the scores of 12 instrumentalistsand
6
singers.
Two
musicians
(a percussionist
and a
singer-musicologist)
were
deleted
from
this data for reasons
that are
presented
in
the
discussion
section
of
this
report.
Both
the
instrumentalists
and
singers
showed a
left
ear
superiority
on this
task,
with
the ear
difference
being
statistically significant
only
for the
singers.
Table
1
MeanMelodyRecognitionScoresandTests of Significance
Group
Left
Right
Tests
of
Significance*
Nonmusicians
N
=
20)
20.05 17.05
t
=
2.56
(2.99)
p
< .02
Musicians
N
=
20)
21.90 20.75
t
=
.85
(1.40)
n.s.
Instrumentalists
N
=
12)
22.00 21.08
t
=
.47
( .88)
n.s.
Singers
(N
=
6)
23.33 19.50
t
=
2.84
(2.16)
p