Rhythmische Fähigkeiten 7-Jähriger: Instruktion und Motorik als Prädiktoren der Rhythmusreproduktion
Published in Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, 2022
Recommended citation: Schlichting, J. (2022). Rhythmische Fähigkeiten 7-Jähriger: Instruktion und Motorik als Prädiktoren der Rhythmusreproduktion (Unpublished bachelor’s thesis). Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
Abstract
In children’s everyday life, music most commonly occurs in a social context. In contrast, studies on the development of rhythmic skills usually test children in an individual setting. According to the theory of proximal development (Vygotski, 1935/1978), social instruction allows children to demonstrate a potential level of development that they can’t attain individually. Therefore, individual and instructed testing should lead to differing performances. The expansion of capabilities under social instruction could be explained by sensory motor processes of demonstration and imitation. Further, independently of social instruction, motor abilities appear relevant to the motor execution of rhythms.
Consequently, this study investigates how rhythmic skills are associated with motor abilities and social instruction. 29 7-year-old children were asked to drum back rhythms in two conditions. The rhythms were played through a speaker (acoustic condition) and by the experimenter (social condition). The distance between presented and reproduced rhythm was quantified with the help of dynamic time warping. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) Among motor abilities, ball skills were expected to be the strongest predictor of rhythmic skills, (2) social instruction was expected to predict better rhythmic skills and (3) motor abilities were expected to interact with the instruction condition.
As expected, the social condition predicted higher accuracy in rhythm reproduction (β = −.22, p < .001). This means that at 7 years, social instruction enables children to demonstrate potential rhythmic skills that go beyond their actual rhythmic skills. Surprisingly, ball skills did not significantly predict rhythm reproduction accuracy and neither did the interaction of motor abilities and instruction condition. Accordingly, no association between motor development and rhythm reproduction at the drum was found for 7-year-old children. Moreover, it remains unclear which processes lead to improved performance under social instruction. Rhythm reproduction proves to be a useful instrument which measures rhythmic skills holistically and allows for an objective and differentiated analysis.
Language: German.