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Musical Parameters
and Children’s Images of motion
• ABSTRACT
Eitan & Granot (2006) investigated, using a visuokinetic imagery task, how adult
listeners associate changes in musical parameters with bodily motion in physical
space. Their results indicate that musical parameters significantly affect several
dimensions of motion imagery. For instance, pitch contour affected imagined
motion along all three spatial axes (not only verticality), as well as velocity and
“energy.” In addition, surprising directional asymmetries were found, as a musical
change in one direction often evoked a significantly stronger spatial analogy than
its opposite (e.g., the association of pitch direction and verticality applies mostly to
pitch falls, rather than rises).
This study examines whether Eitan & Granot’s findings also apply to children,
replicating their experiment with sixty 6 and 11 years old participants. As in the
earlier study, participants were asked to associate melodic stimuli with imagined
motions of a human character, and to specify the type, directions, energy level and
pace change of these motions. The musical stimuli, selected from those in Eitan and
Granot, consisted of pairs of brief musical figures, one member of a pair presenting
an “intensification” in a specific musical parameter, the other an “abatement”
(e.g., crescendo vs. diminuendo, accelerando vs. ritardando). Musical parameters
manipulated included dynamics (loudness), pitch contour, and attack rate (IOI).
Comparison of results with those of non-musician adults in Eitan and Granot
suggests that several music-motion associations (expectedly, dynamics and
distance, pitch and verticality, IOI and speed) were shared by adults and children.
In addition, some of the asymmetries reported for adults were also found for
children. However, unlike adults, children of both age groups relate sound and
motion primarily through changes in loudness. Loudness is associated not only with
distance, but with verticality, speed, and energy. In contrast, pitch contour and IOI
evoke fewer and weaker spatio-kinetic associations in children, as compared to
adults.
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BACKGROUND
The association of music with movement is ubiquitous and universal (Clarke 2001,
2005; Eitan & Granot, 2006; Shove & Repp, 1995). Music is usually produced by
movement, and often evokes movement, either spontaneously (as in moving or
tapping in entrainment to a musical beat) or in accord with socially-sanctioned
patterns (e.g., dances, ritual movements, military marches). Correspondingly, music-
related language is steeped with terms related to physical motion, such as pitch “rise”
and “fall,” andante, or cadence (from the Latin cadere, falling).
A systematic empirical investigation of music-motion relationships should,
among other things, examine whether changes in basic musical (and auditory)
parameters, such as pitch rise and fall, crescendo and diminuendo, or accelerando
and ritardando, are consistently related to aspects of bodily motion, such as
movement directions (up or down, forward or backward, right or left) or speed. For
instance, do listeners actually associate “rise” and “fall” in pitch with spatial rise and
fall? Are changes in pitch height associated with other spatio-kinetic dimensions,
which (unlike the height dimension) are not codified by language and musical
notation? Is spatial height associated with auditory dimensions other than pitch
“height”, like loudness or tempo?
Eitan and Granot (2006) survey perceptual and cognitive research and theory
pertaining to interactions of musical and spatio-kinetic dimensions, and proceed to
examine these interactions systematically, using a music-induced imagery paradigm.
In two experiments, they asked participants (musically trained and untrained adults)
to associate melodic stimuli with imagined motions of a human character, and to
specify, in a forced-choice questionnaire, the type, direction, energy level and pace-
change of these motions, as well as the forces affecting them. Pairs of brief melodic
figures were used as stimuli, one member of each pair presenting an “intensification”
in a musical parameter, the other – an “abatement” (e.g., rise vs. fall in pitch,
crescendo vs. diminuendo, accelerando vs. ritardando). The musical parameters
manipulated included dynamics, pitch contour, pitch intervals (increasing or
decreasing in size), attack rate, and articulation (staccato-legato).
Eitan and Granot’s results suggest a picture of music-motion mappings that is
more complex than hitherto assumed. They present one-to-many and many-to-one
relationships between auditory and spatio-kinetic dimensions, such that most
musical parameters are significantly related to several dimensions of motion imagery,
while each motion imagery dimension is associated with several musical parameters.
For instance, pitch contour associated with motion along all three spatial axes (not
only verticality), as well as speed change and the energy level ascribed to the imagined
character. Likewise, speed changes attributed to the imagined movement were related
not only to tempo changes, as expected, but also to changes in loudness and pitch
direction, such that equidurational ascending melodic pattern, and equidurational
repeated tone in crescendo, both elicited “speeding” responses. Another surprising
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ZOHAR EITAN & NURIT TUBUL
finding of Eitan and Granot’s study is that musical-spatial analogies are often
asymmetrical, as a musical change in one direction evokes a significantly stronger
spatial analogy than its opposite. Such asymmetries include even the entrenched
association of pitch change and spatial verticality, which applies mostly to pitch falls,
but only weakly to rises.
DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES
The present study replicates parts of Eitan and Granot’s (2006) experiments,
performed with adult participants, with two groups of children, aged 6 and 11. It
compares children’s and adults’ mappings of musical and spatio-kinetic dimensions,
aiming to track developmental aspects of the cognitive mappings of music and
motion.
The three age groups compared – 6- and 11-year-old children and adults – differ
in aspects of their cognitive, kinesthetic, and musical development that may
significantly bear upon their music-motion mappings. These differences concern
how the relevant musical dimensions (pitch height, tempo and loudness) are
perceived at different stages of development, and how cross-modal perception and
conceptualization concerning these dimensions (for instance, the propensity to
associate, verbally or nonverbally, pitch height with vertical position in space)
develops.
Though changes in loudness (Fassbender, 1996), tempo (Papousek, 1996; Pouthas,
1996) and pitch contour (Trehub et al., 1984, 1997) are well discriminated already in
infancy, these dimensions are not equally salient for children. Loudness seems to be the
most conspicuous, readily available aspect of music for preschool children (Andrews &
Deihl, 1970; Schwarzer, 1997). Overall tempo (slow vs. fast) also serves centrally in
preschoolers’ music conceptualization (Young, 1982). In contrast, pitch contour is
referred to infrequently in children’s descriptions of music. Moreover, studies involving
children as old as 12 reveal difficulties in discriminating pitch direction (Hair, 1977,
1987a, 1987b; Scott, 1979; VanZee, 1976), seemingly at odds with research suggesting
that the perception of pitch contour develops already in infancy. Importantly, results
were particularly poor in verbal tasks (even when children could choose their own
verbal tags to pitch direction, rather than use established terms such as “rise” and “fall”;
Webster & Schlentrich, 1982), suggesting that it is the verbal mode of response, rather
than lack of perceptual discrimination, that hinders children’s performance. Nevertheless,
children as young as 5 years old were able to discriminate pitch direction beyond
chance level, even when verbal response was required, given appropriate tasks,
including proper pre-test demonstrations, training, feedback, and ecologically valid
stimuli (Stalinski et al., 2008).
Children express music-motion analogies through movement well before their
verbal metaphors mapping music and motion are established. Children as young as
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three reveal an understanding of musical tempo and dynamics, as expressed in their
locomotive movements such as running and walking (Moog, 1976; Sims, 1988;
McDonald & Simons, 1989; Metz, 1988). Energetic movements are a response to
loud sounds, while movements showing low energy levels are typically a response to
softer sounds (Gorali-Turel, 1997; Gluschankof, 2005). 4th grade subjects in a study
by Andrews & Deihl (1967) evidenced changes in their overt movements in response
to short musical excerpts which contained a change in tempo or loudness. Note,
however, that changes in pitch were not reflected in the children’s physical movement
responses.
A recent study conducted by our group (Kohn & Eitan, 2009) suggests that
when asked to react to changes in musical parameters through bodily movement,
children indeed reveal consistent musical-motional mappings. In the study, children
aged 5 and 8 heard short musical stimuli involving bi-directional changes in pitch,
loudness and tempo, and were asked to move to each excerpt in an “appropriate
way.” Results indicate that different musical parameters tend to activate different
motion dimensions: pitch changes are mainly associated with vertical motion,
loudness change with both muscular energy and vertical motion, and tempo change
with speed and muscular energy. The direction of change in each musical parameter
was significantly associated with the direction of change in motion dimensions, e.g.,
increase in loudness is associated with increasing speed, increase in muscular energy,
and spatial rise. Notably, while there was no age effect on the choices of movement
dimensions, age did affect the choice of directions within these dimensions,
particularly regarding the movement in vertical plane: though 5-year-old children,
just like older children, tended to react to pitch changes through motion in the
vertical plane, the direction (up or down) of their vertical motion was not correlated
with pitch contour.
Verbal mappings of musical dimensions onto movement dimensions seem,
particularly at pre-school ages, less secure and consistent than movement responses.
Both kindergarten children (Van Zee, 1976) and fourth graders (Andrews & Deihl,
1970) tended to use terms such as high/low, large/small fast/slow and loud/soft
interchangeably for different musical dimensions. This “confusion” may reflect
sensitivity to amodal features such as intensity, that associate states of higher (high
pitch, loud volume, fast pace) and lower intensity in different musical dimensions
(Eitan, 2007; Eitan & Granot, 2007).
Young children find it particularly confusing to apply height terms (high/low,
rise/fall) to pitch and pitch change. Pre-school children, though able to discriminate
pitch registers, rarely use the terms “high” and “low” to describe pitch (Hair, 1981).
Moreover, the cross-domain connotations of the terms “high” or “low” seem to
impair Englishspeaking children’s ability to describe pitch verbally, as compared to
children who speak French and Spanish, where the terms describing pitch register
(“aigu” and “grave” in French; “agudo” and “grave” in Spanish) are not derived from
the verticality domain (Abril, 2001; Costa-Giomi & Descombes, 1996; Flowers &
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METHOD
Participants. 60 elementary school children from central Israel took part in the
experiment: 30 1st grade (aged 6-6.8; 14 males, 16 females) and 30 6th grade students
(aged 11-11.7; 18 males, 12 females). Children were mostly from a lower middle
class socio-economic background. All children but one (who nevertheless had an
early exposure to Hebrew) were native speakers of Hebrew, though some were bi-
lingual. The 1st grade children had no formal music training. The 6th grade children
have participated in music appreciation classes at school. Half of them (15) played a
musical instrument at a rudimentary level (<3 years of playing).
Musical materials. The musical stimuli consisted of four pairs of brief melodic
figures. One member of each pair presented an “increase” (intensification) in a
specific musical parameter, while the other presented a “decrease” (abatement) — for
instance, crescendo versus diminuendo, or accelerando versus ritardando. Other
parameters were held constant for each pair. Parameters investigated were dynamics,
pitch contour (ascending vs. descending), and inter-onset intervals (IOI or attack
rate). To minimize the effects of tonal implications, all stimuli were tonally
ambiguous.
Figure 1 presents the stimuli used (BPM = 160). Six of the stimuli were selected
from Eitan & Granot (2006, Experiment 1). Stimuli 1 and 2 are a crescendo and
diminuendo over a repeated pitch. Stimuli 3 and 4 present ascending and descending
chromatic melodic sequences (in the musical sense of the term). Stimuli 5 and 6
present an accelerando and a ritardando over a repeated note. In Stimuli 7 & 8
(selected from Eitan & Granot, 2009) a chromatic melodic sequence exhibits
noncongruent pitch & loudness: pitch fall, increasing in loudness (Stimulus 7), and
pitch rise, decreasing in loudness (Stimulus 8).
Stimuli were created through Sibelius 1.2 music software, using the software’s
Grand Piano sound, with the software’s “expression” and rubato features turned off.
They were recorded onto an audio CD using two identical tracks (i.e., a monophonic
recording).
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Figure 1.
Musical stimuli used in the experiment.
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RESULTS
Since (rather surprisingly) results in the two age groups were mostly similar (see pp.
14-15 below), we compiled the data for all participants to examine the relationships
between musical parameters and motion imagery features. Results are presented in
Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 is based on Wilcoxon tests, comparing responses to each
forced-choice question in contrasting pairs of motives. Thus, the table indicates
which musical and motional parameters are significantly associated. Table 2 presents
results of chi-square tests, indicating differences between opposing answers (e.g.,
right vs. left) for each motive separately. The information in Tables 1 and 2 is
complementary. For instance, while Table 1 generally indicates that pitch contour
significantly affects the vertical direction of the imagined motion, corresponding
chi-square results (Table 2) show that it is only fall, rather than rise, that is
significantly associated with verticality.
As Table 1 and 2 indicate, the effects of dynamics on motion features is strong
and wide-ranging, while those of pitch contour and tempo change are weaker and
more limited. Change in dynamics affects most of the movement parameters
examined: crescendo is associated with spatial rise, getting closer, and speeding up,
Table 1.
Comparing ratings in contrasting stimuli (all participants), Means (-1 to +1;
energy 1 to 3), (s.d.), and p-values (Wilcoxon: *p<.05 **p<.01 ***p<.001)
Table 2.
Motion features associated with musical parameters (Chi-square), Comparing
frequency of + and - ratings for each stimulus. * p<.05 ** p<.01 *** p<.001
97
while diminuendo is associated with their opposites. Crescendo is also associated
with a higher level of energy, as compared to diminuendo (Table 1) and (unlike
diminuendo) with the action of an external force.
Pitch contour is associated with spatial verticality, as expected (Table 1). However
(as noted), it is only pitch “fall” that associates significantly with spatial fall, while
pitch “rise” is not associated with spatial rise. Pitch rise, as compared to pitch fall,
also suggests a higher energy level (Table 1). While pitch rise is associated with
increase in speed as well (Table 2), pitch fall is not associated with speed decrease,
and there is no significant different concerning speed between pitch rise and fall
(Table 1). Pitch contour, unlike dynamics, does not affect the dimension of
distance.
Results concerning stimuli involving non-congruence of dynamics and pitch
contour (stimuli 7 and 8) further suggest that the effects of dynamics prevail over
those of pitch. A crescendo descending in pitch suggests getting closer and moving
faster (similarly to the effects of dynamic increase with no pitch change, as in
stimulus 1), while a diminuendo ascending in pitch suggests moving away and
slower (like a diminuendo with no pitch change, stimulus 2). Note that pitch rise
and fall do not even associate with spatial rise and fall – their culturally-sanctioned
connotation – when accompanied by noncongruent changes in dynamics.
Tempo was associated, expectedly, with speed. It was also related to energy, such
that accelerando conveyed a higher energy level, as compared to ritardando. In
addition, accelerando was associated with spatial fall (Table 2), and ritardando
conveyed interference by an external force.
Asymmetries. Binomial tests (followed by an FDR multiple tests correction)
examined the null hypothesis that participants supply opposite answers to opposite
motives (e.g., crescendo/rise → diminuendo/fall). Results reveal several asymmetries
concerning contrasting motives (p< .05). Notably, all asymmetries are related to
changes in speed or tempo, either in an independent dimension (musical tempo) or
in a dependent dimension (speed change of the imagined character):
• In crescendi, motion speeds up, while in diminuendi motion does not slow
down.
• When pitch rises, motion speeds up, while when pitch falls, motion does not slow
down.
• Motion descends in musical ritardandi, but also in accelerandi.
Mann-Whitney tests, comparing responses of the two age groups (6-7 and 11-12),
suggest that the older children exhibit stronger tendencies to associate some musical
and spatio-kinetic dimensions (Table 3). These differences, however, are limited to
few dimensions, and apply particularly to spatio-kinetic associations of loudness. In
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Table 3.
Younger (6-7) vs. older children (Mann-Whitney+FDR correction)
Means (range +1 to -1), (s.d.), (*) p<.1, *p<.05
As noted, design and stimuli of the present study are based on those used in previous
studies with adult population (Eitan & Granot, 2006, 2009). Using Mann-Whitney
tests, we compared (for stimuli used for both children and adults) responses of each
of the children’s age groups with those of non-musician adults in the above studies.
Tables 4 and 5 present the comparisons of adults with older (11—12) and younger
(6-7) children, respectively.
Surprisingly, differences between older children (11-12) and adults are larger and
more numerous than differences between adults and the younger group (6-7). Most
of the differences concern the motion correlates of loudness. The older children
strongly associate a crescendo with spatial rise, while adults do not (p<.001 after
FDR correction). Unlike adults, they also associate a crescendo with a higher level of
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Table 4.
Adults (non-musicians) vs. older children (11-12) (Mann-Whitney+FDR correction).
Means, (s.d.), (*) p<.1, * p<.05, ** p<.01 , *** p<.001
energy (p<.05), and relate change in loudness to changes in speed of the imagined
character (p<.05); in particular, diminuendi are associated with decrease in speed.
Further differences are revealed by comparing the responses of older children to non-
congruent pitch and loudness changes with those of adults. While adults strongly
associate a descending pitch increasing in loudness with spatial descent, thus
Table 5.
Adults (non-musicians) vs. younger children (6-7) (Mann-
Whitney+FDR correction), Means, (s.d.), (*) p<.1, * p<.05, ** p<.01 , *** p<.001
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suggesting preference for pitch over loudness as a basis for this auditory-motional
mapping, children present no such association (p<.05). Comparably, rising pitch in
diminuendo is associated by adults with accelerating speed, while children associate
it with deceleration (p<.05). These differences add up to suggest a stronger reliance
of the older children group, as compared to adults, on loudness change as a basis for
analogy between sound and motion.
In contrast to results concerning the older children, few significant differences
between adults and younger (6-7 years old) children were found (Table 5). Young
children associated rise in pitch with motion toward them, while adults associated
rise in pitch with moving away (p<.05), and assigned accelerandi higher energy levels
than adults. Like the older children, they associated descending pitch increasing in
loudness with spatial rise, following the course of loudness change, in contrast to
adults, which correlated this non-congruent pattern with spatial fall, in accord with
the connotations of pitch direction (p<.001).
A complementary comparison of children and adults’ mapping of auditory
dimensions into spatial motion is featured in Table 6, which compares the results of
Wilcoxon tests for all children with those of adults. As the table indicates, in adults
pitch direction was significantly associated with multiple motion features, including
motion in the three spatial axes, speed and energy. In contrast, only one such
association – that of pitch direction and vertical motion -- is featured among
children. Furthermore, when pitch direction and loudness change conflict (rightmost
columns), they even out for adults, showing no significant tendencies either way. In
contrast, for children loudness prevails in two motion dimensions, distance and
speed (see also Table 1).
Table 6.
Spatio-kinetic features associated with musical parameters in adult subjects
(Eitan & Granot, 2006, 2009) and children (present experiment):
comparisons of contrasting stimuli (Wilcoxon signed ranks test)
● p<.05 ●● p<.01 ●●● p<.001 (adults) * p<.05 ** p<.01 *** p<.001 (children)
101
CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks are due to the pupils and teachers of Ha’Maapilim elementary school
in Yahud, Israel, who participated in the experiments. We also thank David Steinberg
and Ilana Galenter for assistance in statistical analysis. Research was supported by an
Israel-USA Binational Science Foundation (BSF) Grant no. 2005-524 to the 1st
author and Lawrence E. Marks. Results were first presented at the 8th Conference of
the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), Montreal, Canada, August
2007, and reported in the 2nd author’s MA thesis (Tubul, 2007).
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• Parámetros Musicales en las Imágenes de Movimiento Infantiles
Eitan & Granot (2006) hanno studiato, usando un compito di immaginario visivo-
cinetica, come ascoltatori adulti associano i cambiamenti nei parametri musicali con
il movimento corporeo nello spazio fisico. I loro risultati indicano che i parametri
musicali influenzano significativamente diverse dimensioni dell’immaginario
motorio. Ad esempio, il contorno dell’altezza tonale influenzava il movimento
immaginato in tutti i tre assi spaziali (non solo verticalmente), cosí come la velocità
e l’”energia”. Inoltre, sono state riscontrate sorprendenti asimmetrie direzionali, in
quanto un cambiamento musicale in una direzione spesso evocava un’analogia
spaziale significativamente piú incisiva rispetto al suo opposto (ossia l’associazione
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Eitan & Granot (2006) ont étudié, par le biais de tâches d’imagerie visuo-cinétique,
comment des auditeurs adultes associent des changements de paramètres musicaux
à des mouvements corporels dans l’espace physique. Leurs résultats indiquent que
les paramètres musicaux affectent de manière significative plusieurs dimensions de
l’imagination du mouvement. Par exemple, la contour de hauteur affecte le
mouvement imaginé sur les trois axes de l’espace (et non seulement la simple
verticalité), ainsi que les notions de vélocité et d’« énergie ». En outre, de
surprenantes asymétries directionnelles ont été mises en évidence : un changement
musical dans certaines directions évoquent une analogie spatiale de manière plus
forte que dans la direction opposée (par exemple, l’association de la direction de
hauteur et de la verticalité s’applique davantage aux chutes de hauteurs qu’aux
phases de montée).
L’étude présente examine l’applicabilité de ces résultats aux enfants, par
l’intermédiaire d’une réplication sur des participants âgés de 6 et 11 ans. Fidèle à
l’étude antérieure, il a été demandé aux participants d’associer les stimuli
mélodiques à des mouvements imaginaires de personnages humains, et d’en
spécifier leurs types, directions, niveaux d’énergie et changements de rythme. Le
stimulus musical, sélectionné parmi ceux de Eitan et Granot, consistent en des
paires de figures musicales brèves, l’une présentant une « intensification » d’un
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paramètre musical spécifique alors que l’autre présente au contraire une « réduction »
(par exemple, crescendo et diminuendo, accelerando et ritardando). Les paramètres
musicaux manipulés incluent la dynamique (nuances, volume sonore), le contour
de hauteur et le type d’attaque (considéré ici du point de vue des intervalles
temporels entre notes successives).
Une comparaison de ces résultats avec ceux des adultes non-musiciens dans l’étude
de Eitan et Granot suggère que plusieurs associations musique / mouvement
(comme prévu, dynamique et distance, hauteur et verticalité, intervalle temporel et
vitesse) sont partagées par les adultes et les enfants. En outre, une part des
asymétries détectées chez les adultes a été retrouvée chez les enfants. Toutefois, à
la différence des adultes, les enfants des deux groupes d’âge associent son et
mouvement en premier lieu à travers le changement de dynamique, de nuance. Le
volume sonore est associé non seulement avec la distance, mais aussi avec la
verticalité, la vitesse et l’énergie. À l’opposé, les contours de hauteur ainsi que les
intervalles temporels évoquent une part moindre, aussi bien en nombre qu’en
intensité, d’associations spatio-cinétiques chez les enfants, en comparaison avec les
adultes.
Eitan & Granot (2006) untersuchten mittels einer visuell-kinetischen Aufgabe, wie
erwachsene Hörer Änderungen von musikalischen Parametern mit bestimmten
Körperbewegungen im Raum verbinden. Die Ergebnisse der Autoren zeigten, dass
musikalische Parameter verschiedene Dimensionen der Bewegungsvorstellung
maßgeblich beeinflussen. Zum Beispiel beeinflusste die Tonhöhenkontur vorgestellte
Bewegungen auf allen räumlichen Achsen (nicht nur auf der vertikalen), ebenso
wie dies auch die Parameter Geschwindigkeit und subjektiv erlebte „Energie“
taten. Darüber hinaus wurden überraschende Richtungs-Asymmetrien gefunden,
wenn zum Beispiel ein musikalischer Wechsel in einer Richtung eine signifikant
stärkere räumliche Analogie hervorrief als der entgegengesetzte Richtungswechsel
(d. h. bei fallender Tonhöhe ist die Assoziation von Tonhöhenwechsel mit
empfundener Vertikalität häufiger als bei steigender Tonhöhe). Um zu untersuchen,
ob Eitan & Granots Ergebnisse auch bei Kindern gelten, wurde deren Studie mit
sechs- und elfjährigen Probanden repliziert. Wie in der früheren Studie wurden die
Teilnehmer gebeten, Melodie-Stimuli mit vorgestellten Bewegungen eines
Menschen zu assoziieren und die Art, die Richtung, das Energieniveau sowie die
Geschwindigkeitsänderung dieser Bewegungen anzugeben. Die Stimuli, die von
Eitan & Granot übernommen wurden, bestanden aus Paaren kurzer musikalischer
Figuren, bei denen jeweils die eine eine „Intensivierung“ und die andere eine
„Abschwächung“ des musikalischen Parameters erfuhr (z. B. crescendo vs.
diminuendo, accelerando vs. ritardando). Die veränderten musikalischen Parameter
umfassten auch die Dynamik (Lautstärkeänderung), Tonhöhe und Anschlagshäufigkeit
(IOI). Der Vergleich der vorliegenden Ergebnisse von Kindern mit denjenigen
erwachsener Nichtmusiker führt zu der Annahme, dass einige Assoziationen
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Musical Parametersand Children’s Images of motion
ZOHAR EITAN & NURIT TUBUL
zwischen Musik und Bewegung bei Kindern und Erwachsenen vorkommen (so
zwischen Dynamik und Entfernung, Tonhöhe und Vertikalität sowie zwischen
Anschlagshäufigkeit und Geschwindigkeitseindruck). Einige der Asymmetrien, die
bei Erwachsenen vorkommen, können auch bei Kindern beobachtet werden.
Anders jedoch als Erwachsene verbinden Kinder Klang mit Bewegung in erster Linie
durch eine Änderung der Lautstärke. Lautstärke wird nicht nur mit Entfernung,
sondern auch mit Vertikalität sowie mit Geschwindigkeit und Energie in Verbindung
gebracht. Demgegenüber erzeugen Tonhöhenverläufe und Anschlagshäufigkeiten
bei Kindern im Vergleich zu Erwachsenen weniger und schwächere Raum-
Bewegungs-Assoziationen.
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