Children's Singing Accuracy as a Function of Grade Level, Gender, and Individual versus Unison Singing

Cooper, Nancy

doi:10.2307/3345637

Cited by 30 publications

(49 citation statements)

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“…Elementary-aged students have been shown to perform better in groups than alone (Green, 1990). However, no difference between students singing alone or along with a researcher has been demonstrated (Cooper, 1995). Thus, previous research with children has been inconclusive regarding the impact of echo versus doubled singing.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Melodic patterns using three or more notes have also been used exclusively to inform singing accuracy performance (Cooper, 1995;Phillips & Aitchison, 1997;1999;Phillips, Aitchison, & Nompula, 2002;Rutkowski, 1990;Rutkowski, 1996) or as a part of a larger assessment (Flowers & Dunn-Sousa, 1990;Guerrini, 2006;Welch et al, 1997). To measure singing voice development, a separate construct from singing accuracy that primarily includes vocal features like voice range, researchers have used one-measure song fragments (Levinowitz et al, 1998;Rutkowski, 1983;Rutkowski, 1990;Rutkowski, 1996;Rutkowski & Miller, 2003).…”

Section: Singing Tasks Used In Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Joyner found each student to sing in-tune once they sang alone. Further, Cooper (1995) and Smith (1973) found no difference in accuracy performance when students sang alone or along with the researcher. Others have found individual performance to be higher than "unison" singing (Goetze, 1985;Smale, 1987).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have compared students singing alone to singing along with a prerecorded child model (Cooper, 1995), the researcher (Smale, 1987), with other students and the researcher (Goetze, 1985;Goetze & Horii, 1989), and in small groups of students (Green, 1994;Smith, 1973). The current study used a pre-recorded adult female voice and it is possible that the specific singing task used in previous studies may have influenced their results.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One study used a four-beat pattern on "loo" (Cooper, 1995). Some were scored by judges, and one study weighted equally two scores of accurate pitches and accurate intervals (regardless of starting pitch).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Task-Based Variability in Children’s Singing Accuracy

Nichols

2016

Journal of Research in Music Education

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Task-based Variability in Children's Singing Accuracy Bryan E. Nichols Chair of the Supervisory Committee:Professor Steven M. Demorest School of MusicThe purpose of this study was to explore task-based variability in children's singing accuracy performance. The research questions were:1. Does children's singing accuracy vary based on the nature of the singing assessment employed?2. Is there a hierarchy of difficulty and discrimination ability among singing assessment tasks?3. What is the interrelationship among different tasks and how few tasks might be employed in a comprehensive measure of accurate singing?A 2 X 4 factorial design was used to examine the performance of 4 th grade children (n = 120) in both solo and doubled response conditions. Every child sang four task types:solo pitch, interval, pattern, and the song Jingle Bells. To account for the effect of tonal memory, test items in all tasks were presented in four total pitches by an adult female vocal model. Each task type contained five items, and the fifth item replicated the first to provide a measure of stability. Scoring was done by the researcher and one other judge with high reliability. Pitch matching was scored dichotomously and song singing was scored using an eight-point scale. Data were transformed to a 0-1 scale to express difficulty and discrimination indices. !The results indicated that there was significant task-based variability in children's singing accuracy. Difficulty levels varied by task type, with patterns and songs indicating lower performance than single pitches and intervals. Performance was significantly higher for all tasks in the doubled condition than in the solo condition, and a significant interaction indicated task-based performance varied by response mode.Students who indicated a history of private lessons (n = 54) evidenced significantly higher performance than those without. !An exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that all tasks load onto one factor.Internal reliability was satisfactory, and the results suggest that a minimum of three items can be included in each task in future research for a reliability coefficient of .75, or a minimum of four items for a coefficient greater than .80. These singing tasks were significantly inter-correlated, and the easiest item was also lowest in range. Vocal scooping and its implications for singing accuracy assessment were discussed. !The three main findings were that doubled singing was more accurate than solo singing, summative assessment should include as many task types as is feasible, and within-and between-student performance should be compared using the same task type. Future research should explore variables affecting differing variability between lower-and higher-performing singers. Additionally, there is a relationship between history of private lessons and singing accuracy, and motivation and general musical experience should be explored as mediating or moderating variables so that teachers can best encourage student development. Last, it remains possible ...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Singing Tasks Used In Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Task-Based Variability in Children’s Singing Accuracy

Nichols

2016

Journal of Research in Music Education

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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are impaired in absolute but not relative pitch and duration matching in speech and song imitation

et al. 2021

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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit atypical imitation. However, few studies have identified clear quantitative characteristics of vocal imitation in ASD. This study investigated imitation of speech and song in English‐speaking individuals with and without ASD and its modulation by age. Participants consisted of 25 autistic children and 19 autistic adults, who were compared to 25 children and 19 adults with typical development matched on age, gender, musical training, and cognitive abilities. The task required participants to imitate speech and song stimuli with varying pitch and duration patterns. Acoustic analyses of the imitation performance suggested that individuals with ASD were worse than controls on absolute pitch and duration matching for both speech and song imitation, although they performed as well as controls on relative pitch and duration matching. Furthermore, the two groups produced similar numbers of pitch contour, pitch interval‐, and time errors. Across both groups, sung pitch was imitated more accurately than spoken pitch, whereas spoken duration was imitated more accurately than sung duration. Children imitated spoken pitch more accurately than adults when it came to speech stimuli, whereas age showed no significant relationship to song imitation. These results reveal a vocal imitation deficit across speech and music domains in ASD that is specific to absolute pitch and duration matching. This finding provides evidence for shared mechanisms between speech and song imitation, which involves independent implementation of relative versus absolute features. Lay Summary Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit atypical imitation of actions and gestures. Characteristics of vocal imitation in ASD remain unclear. By comparing speech and song imitation, this study shows that individuals with ASD have a vocal imitative deficit that is specific to absolute pitch and duration matching, while performing as well as controls on relative pitch and duration matching, across speech and music domains.

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Understanding Intonation Trajectories and Patterns of Vocal Notes

Dai

Dixon

2018

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Children's Singing Accuracy as a Function of Grade Level, Gender, and Individual versus Unison Singing

Cited by 30 publications

References 9 publications

Task-Based Variability in Children’s Singing Accuracy

Task-Based Variability in Children’s Singing Accuracy

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are impaired in absolute but not relative pitch and duration matching in speech and song imitation

Understanding Intonation Trajectories and Patterns of Vocal Notes

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