Open Access

JSON Export

{"created":"2022-01-31T13:04:14.187390+00:00","id":"lit28763","links":{},"metadata":{"alternative":"Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory","contributors":[{"name":"Gilbert, J.A.","role":"author"}],"detailsRefDisplay":"Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory 1: 80-87","fulltext":[{"file":"p0080.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"EXPERIMENTS ON THE MUSICAL SENSITIVENESS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN\nBY\nJ. A. Gilbert.\nBodily measurements of children have been repeatedly made; their laws of bodily growth have been empirically determined; most important deductions for the equipment and management of schools have been made from them. The senses and intellect of school children have received less attention; most of the work has been confined to investigating the sharpness of vision, the acuteness of hearing (deafness) and the memory powers. The musical sensitiveness has never, I believe, been tested.\nBy musical sensitiveness is meant the least noticeable difference in the pitch of a tone. Those who can detect a small difference in pitch between two successive tones are more sensitive than those who can detect only larger differences.\nApparatus and methods.\nSince the object of the present investigation was not to determine the least perceptible difference in relation to tones of various pitches but was to compare children with one another, a single tone was used throughout the experiments, namely, the tone \u00e4=435 of international pitch. The method was that of minimum gradation. Each experiment was composed of two tones and a judgment as to their likeness. The tone \u00e0 was first sounded, then a tone ^ of a lone higher; the child answered \u201csame\u201d or \u201cdifferent;\u201d \u00e4 was again sounded, then a tone ^ higher; and so on, the second tone being raised ^ each time, until the child had several times declared the tones to he different. Thereupon the second tone was started at the same pitch as the first and in like manner successively lowered. The number of thirty-seconds of difference that were just perceived was noted in the two cases; the average gave the result for a single experiment. Ten experiments were made on each child. The child","page":80},{"file":"p0081.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Musical sensitiveness of school children.\n8]\nwas left entirely ignorant of the method of performing the experiment, so as to avoid suggestion of any kind.\nThe instrument used in making the experiments was composed of an adjustable pitchpipe with an index-arm moving over a large scale.\nFig. 28.\nThe instrument, which may for brevity he called the tone-tester, is shown in figure 28. The fan-shaped plate A is supported by a handle beneath it. The pipe B, fastened to A, contains a vibrating reed whose length is regulated by a tightly sliding clamp, the projecting rod of which is shown at C. This clamp is moved by a lever whose long arm D, with the handle E, extends out over the plate. It is readily seen that, for each different position of the point of the long arm, the vibrating reed will have a different length and the tone produced will be different in pitch. It is also evident that a small difference in pitch corresponds to a large movement of the point of the long arm.\nThe points on the index for each tone and half-tone were determined by direct comparison with a carefully tuned piano of a piano-dealer. These larger divisions were then divided proportionately into sixteenths. As the large divisions were into half-tones, these divisions corresponded to thirty-seconds of a tone.\n6","page":81},{"file":"p0082.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"82\tMusical sensitiveness of school children.\nThe accuracy of the results depended on the accuracy of the instrument and the accuracy of the method. The possible errors of the instrument were as follows : error of tuning, error of graduation, and two errors of change in pitch.\nThe readings of the instrument must be accurate to 1 unit of the scale (-31\u00e4 of a tone). The largest allowable error in the instrument is thus \\ a unit of the scale.\nAs the tuning was performed by observing the freedom from beats, the error from this source could not be above a tenth of a beat per second. The half-tone \u00e4 to corresponds to nearly 26 vibrations per second ; half a space of the scale would indicate about f of a vibration. The error is thus less than \u00a3 of a space.\nThe intermediate graduation was done by eye, and was unquestionably accurate within \u00a3 of a space.\nThe first error of change in pitch is the error that might be introduced by back-lash in the joint between the levers. To avoid this the lever was always started beyond \u00e4 and moved up to it in the direction in each experiment. With this precaution the error is same practically zero.\nThe change of pitch due to changing intensity of the blast was mainly eliminated by practice in blowing the pipe. The residual could not be determined, but it was probably negligible in comparison with the others.\nAll the residuals are much less than the required amount. Their sum was unquestionably within the limit set, and the requirements of precision in the instrument can be said to have been satisfied.\nThe sources of variation due to mental influences were as follows : influence of the judgment of pitch by changes in intensity, influence of suggestion.\nJudgments of pitch, are generally made quite without regard to intensity. Measurements of the influence of changes of intensity on the judgments of pitch have never been made ; but as great care was taken in blowing the apparatus and as the adult experimenter could regulate the .sound with an ear so much finer than that of the children, the variation was probably negligible. Otherwise it enters as one of the factors into the mean variation given in the table.\nAll chances of suggestion had to be avoided. Children are inclined to follow, almost unconsciously, the slightest indication in making their decisions. Those of the ages nine and upwards were dealt with in groups, each making upon a paper an equality-sign when the two tones seemed the same to him and a cross when they","page":82},{"file":"p0083.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Musical sensitiveness of school children.\n83\nseemed different. Children of six, seven and eight years of age had to be dealt with individually for fear that they would be influenced by their companions and would not be reliable in their marking. All results were very satisfactory with the exception perhaps of three children aged six whose data were somewhat uncertain on account of lack of attention, independence and decision, or perhaps from the excitement, fear and novelty of the undertaking. These influences of suggestion and distraction are probably the main factors ip the mean variations.\nExpekiments.\nFive boys and five girls of each age except 18 and 19 were experimented upon. For the ages 18 and 19 it was possible to obtain only girls. In computing the results the average of all the experiments for a given age was first obtained. The mean variation from this result was noted. Then the children of that age were considered separately, the mean variation from the result for each child being computed. Finally the average of these mean variations was taken. This can be illustrated as follows. Let\nK K\nJa On............7io\nbe the results for ten children of a given age. The total average\nwill be (a, + aa +---+ <*,\u201e +\t^ +-----+ ^,0 +---+\u00c4 +\u00c2--------+i,\u201e)\n-4-100; this is the result given in column D of the table, the first decimal place of the average being retained. The mean variation of the separate measurements obtained in the usual way is given in the column headed MV. This mean variation can be used as an index of the accuracy of the result. The results for each child were obtained by taking the averages (\u00ab,+ \u00ab\u201e+... + al0) -4- 10 \u2014 a,\n(\u00a3i + 5a+. \u25a0 \u2022 +&!\u201e)-*-10=\u00ae,.........- \u2022 Ui + J,+ - \u25a0 \u2022 +.Ao)_f'1()\u2014J-\nThe average of these averages is, of course, the same as the total average. The mean variations for a, b, . . . ., j are then calculated; these mean variations will indicate how much the child\u2019s judgments fluctuated owing to the conditions of attention, suggestion, etc. To get at the average effect for the given age the average of these","page":83},{"file":"p0084.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"84\nMusical sensitiveness of school children.\nmean variations was taken; this is given in the table in the column MY'. The last column in the table gives the number of experiments for each age.\nTABLE.\nAge\tD\tMV\tMV'\tn\n6\t12.3\t1.38\t1.76\t100\n7\t9.1\t.89\t3.60\t100\n8\t6.8\t.90\t1.29\t100\n9\t4.8\t1.09\t1.14\t100\n10\t6.2\t.68\t.77\t100\n11\t4.8\t1.09\t.89\t100\n12\t4.1\t.99\t.45\t100\n13\t3.7\t1.26\t.46\t100\n14\t3.5\t.97\t.94\t100\n15\t5.\tL03\t1.11\t90\n16\t4.\t.91\t.68\t50\n18\t2.6\t.74\t.93\t60\n19\t2.4\t.84\t.62\t140\nD, least perceptible difference in 32nd8 of a tone.\nMY, mean variation for total result.\nMV', average of mean variations for separate children. n, number of experiments.\nThe relation of the size of the least perceptible difference to the age is shown in the accompanying curve, fig. 29, in which the figures","page":84},{"file":"p0085.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Musicc\u00e4 sensitiveness of school children.\t85\non the horizontal axis indicate the ages, those on the vertical axis the least perceptible differences.\nConclusions.\n1. The primary aim in taking up this problem was to discover if there were any who could not distinguish to a half-tone, and if so, to determine the proportion to the total number. The question was of practical importance. Any such children could not, of course, receive the same instruction in music ; if the proportion below a certain age were large, musical intelligence could not he expected in the earlier ages.\nThe results show that the children are fully capable of the task expected of them. The least sensitiveness occurs with children of six years where the average least perceptible difference is 12 thirty-seconds or f of a tone. Of all the children examined there were only three individuals whose average exceeded half a tone.\n7","page":85},{"file":"p0086.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"86\nMusical sensitiveness of school children.\n2.\tIt is at once seen that the least perceptible difference decreases with increasing age, i. e. the sensitiveness increases. The sensitiveness increases at first rapidly, hut finally becomes almost stationary.\nIt is a pedagogical principle that the child develops more rapidly during the first ten years of its life than at any other time. Tone discrimination offers no exception to the rule ; in the three years from 6 to 9 the child gains in discriminative sensibility more than twice as much as in the whole of the ten years thereafter up to the age of 19. The contrast increases as the number of years taken into consideration is greater, for the child gains more in the three years from 6 to 9 than it can possibly gain during the rest of its life-time.\n3.\tJudging from the way in which mind and body develop under education it would naturally be inferred that the discriminative ability of the child would increase regularly with advance in age. At the ages ten and fifteen, however, occur very abrupt changes. In order to verify the data for those points I repeated the trials on the years nine, ten and fifteen with increased numbers in each age but the second average result varied only 0.3 of a thirty-second from the first average, showing that the curve was true to the facts so far as could be detected.\nA similar change in the curve apparently occurred at the age of twenty, but as I only had three subjects of that age I did not feel justified in adding the result to the table, yet this seemingly similar jump at twenty\u2014a leap in the curve from 2.4 up again to 3.2\u2014adds credence to the supposition that there is some periodic change causing it. After twenty years the curve seems to drop again as it did after 10 and 15, but here also the number of persons was insufiicient to justify establishing a point on the curve.\nIt will be noticed that the sudden changes divide the curve into uniform portions from 6 to 9, from 10 to 14 and from 15 to 19.\nAn explanation for this loss of sensitiveness at certain ages seems difficult.\nThe change at fifteen is more easily explained, perhaps, than the one at ten, as that is the age at which puberty shows its effects on \u25a0the system. Although these influences cannot be placed at one certain year, the average lies at 14 years and five months.1\nPossibly the second teething which occurs at 9 to 12 years of age may have such an influence on mental life as to cause a loss of sensitiveness.\n1 Eighth Annual Kept. Mass. State Board of Health, 1877, p. 284, Table No. 16.","page":86},{"file":"p0087.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Musical sensitiveness of school children.\n87\nSimilar decreases in ability are to be seen in the results obtained by Bryan.2 There is a marked difference between the data of the two periods 9-10 and 14-15 from the data of the other ages. Also in the charts at the close of his article there is an almost invariable change in his curves at the ages 10 and 14, showing that his subjects labored under some set-back or disadvantage at those ages.\n\u00e4 Bryan, On voluntary motor ability, Am. Jour. Psych. 1892 Y 160, Table VII.","page":87}],"identifier":"lit28763","issued":"1892-1893","language":"en","pages":"80-87","startpages":"80","title":"Experiments on the musical sensitiveness of school children","type":"Journal Article","volume":"1"},"revision":0,"updated":"2022-01-31T13:04:14.187395+00:00"}