Journal of Research in Music Education-1978-Franklin-48-56.pdf

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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

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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

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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



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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



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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

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