A clinically-focused music appreciation training program (MATP) was developed for use by recipients of cochlear implants (CI) and wearers of hearing aids (HA). It aimed to enhance listeners’ music appreciation abilities, with a specific focus on timbre and musical style. The MATP was pilot-tested on 17 adult postlingually deafened CI recipients (8 female, 9 male, mean age = 60.2 years) and 13 adult HA users (7 female, 4 male, mean age = 63.9 years), with each device group divided into a control and a training group. The training groups were asked to use the MATP for 30 minutes per day four times a week for 10 weeks. The control groups were asked to continue with their normal listening habits for the same time period. Both the training and control groups were assessed on tests of instrument, ensemble and style identification as well as pleasantness ratings of musical excerpts, before and after the 10-week period. Participants in the training groups also completed a program evaluation questionnaire at the end of the training period. The results showed that the training program significantly improved the quality ratings of CI recipients for ensemble stimuli (p = .034). There were, however, no significant improvements for CI users on the timbre discrimination tasks or quality ratings for single instruments, nor were there any significant improvements for the HA users on any of the discrimination tasks or in their quality ratings. The findings suggest that CI recipients’ quality appraisal can be improved through training, independent of perceptual accuracy. On evaluating the program, the majority of CI and HA trainees reported that the MATP was enjoyable and beneficial in terms of music appreciation. Future directions for continued development of the MATP and testing of its efficacy are discussed.

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / School of Music

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of constructivist methods on student learning in an undergraduate art appreciation class. Three constructivist learning activities were designed and implemented in an undergraduate art appreciation course for non-art majors at Mississippi College. Through these constructivist learning activities, students were involved in their learning throughout the semester in realistic art roles in which they worked as curators, Web page designers, and artists. Six subjects were selected to participate in this case study. Subject data was collected through three methods: interviews with subjects at three points during the semester, student documents produced during the three activities, and a field journal of observations made during the activities. The multiple data sources were triangulated to reveal nine patterns of learning. The data evidence that constructivism results in a deeper understanding of art and art processes than in a typical art appreciation course in which learners are merely passive recipients of knowledge. This was not only indicated by the nine patterns of learning which emerged from the data, but also in the students' awareness and regulating of their cognitive processes. Although the research provided an in-depth understanding of this case and should not represent or be generalized to the entire population of art appreciation students, the results of this study suggest that art appreciation instructors have an opportunity to facilitate high levels of student thinking and encourage metacognitive skills through constructivist methods such as the ones used in this study.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of two methods of music instruction on two factors in the musical listening experience, identified as music description and music identification, and musical preference of fourth- and fifth-grade students. The listening experiences consisted of one which utilized descriptive writing in the music lesson and one which utilized participatory listening activities such as maps for guided listening, worksheets, and call charts. Also examined were the interactions of gender, grade level, and degree of writing presence in the regular classroom. Seven-hundred and eleven students from thirty-six intact classes in six elementary schools of three school districts were chosen for the study. The intact classes were randomly assigned to one of the two methods of instruction for a seven week experiment. The study utilized a pretest/posttest two group experimental design to answer 10 research questions. Repeated measures MANOVAS, t-test of independent samples, and two-variable correlation tests were conducted to measure mean differences, interactions, and possible relationships in the data. Results of the study indicated significant differences between method of instruction and the variables of music description and music identification. Method of instruction did not influence musical preference. Also significantly different were students' scores for music description, music identification, and musical preference between the participating 23 classroom teachers. Method of instruction, grade level, degree of writing presence, and gender did not significantly interact collectively with music description, identification, or musical preference although some areas interacted with these variables individually. Significant interactions were found between music teacher and method with regard to students' scores on tests of music description, music identification, and musical preference. Two correlational tests resulted in values that indicated no relationship between the variables of musical preference and description and musical preference and identification. However, the non-relationship of music description and musical preference was non-significant while music identification and musical preference were significantly non-related.

In our Post-Modern milieu there has been a renewed attempt in art to communicate with the viewer. My hypothesis is that particular images provoke empathic responses in the viewer. Iconographical and formal characteristics in images which provoke empathy are discussed and Lipps' ( 1905) and Worringer's (1908) theories of empathy are examined. The psychological profile of a viewer is considered in the light of Freud's familial model of the human psyche with its emphasis on sexual instincts. The theoretical framework within which my hypothesis operates is based upon Bryson, Holly and Moxey's ( 1991) interventionist response to visual interpretation. They foreground the viewer's historicity in the viewing of an image and their approach is contrasted with that of the perceptualists (Wollheim, Gombrich and others) who maintain that the historicity of the viewer is unimportant. Finally it is argued that art can have a transforming potential if the artist provokes empathy in the viewer. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Fine Arts)

This thesis looks at Tibetan material culture in Scottish museums, collected between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines how collectors used Tibetan objects to construct both Tibet in the western imagination and to further personal, organisational and imperial desires and expectations. Through an analysis of the highly provenanced material available in Scottish museums, collectors will be grouped in three categories: missionaries, military personnel and colonial collectors. These are not only divided by occupation, but also by ideological frames of reference. The historical moments in which these different collector groups encountered Tibetan material culture will provide a framework for an examination of the ways that collectors accessed, collected, interpreted, used and displayed objects. Within the framework of post-colonial theory, this thesis seeks new ways of understanding assumptive concepts and terminology that has become embedded in western analysis of Tibetan material culture. These include Tibetan Buddhism as a 'religion', 'Tibetan art', 'Tibetan Buddhist art' and the position of Tibetan 'art' versus 'ethnography' in western hierarchies of value. These theoretical concerns are scrutinised through an anthropological methodology, based on the concept of 'object biography', to create an interdisciplinary model for examining objects and texts. Using this model, I will demonstrate that collectors, whilst giving Tibetan material culture a variety of social roles, invested these categories with a range of values. Yet despite this heterogeneity, the mosaic of knowledge produced about Tibet by these varying encounters, established and then cemented British understandings of Tibetan material culture in specific ways, constructed to assist in the British imperial domination of British-Tibetan relations. I will argue that on entering the museum, these richly textured object biographies were 'flattened out', and the information embedded within them that gave traction to interpretations of British-Tibetan encounters was hidden from view, requiring this study to make visible once more the heterogeneity, richness and significance of Tibetan material culture in Scottish museums.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to examine individuals’ perceptions of classicness in film experiences. To this end, the paper begins by providing general anecdotal and professional definitions of classicness, and by pointing out the limited explication found in previous academic literature in entertainment. I discuss distinctions between enjoyment and appreciation from previous literature in media psychology. Following this, a study is presented by applying a measure of enjoyment and appreciation adapted from Oliver and Bartsch’s scale (2010) to an online questionnaire in order to understand individuals’ film experiences with both popular (high grossing) and classic (high rating) films. Results indicate that perceptions of classicness are highly associated with appreciation, but unrelated to enjoyment. Additionally, results also provide a negative relation between appreciation and the release-year as well as budget. Discussion focuses on the study’s empirical definition of classicness, as well as the study’s extension of previous research examining the relationship between film popularity, budget, and audience perceptions (Grizzard, Lewis, Lee, & Eden, 2011). / text

This dissertation contributes to the literature on resiliency and character strengths. College students (N = 223) were administered questionnaires to determine the hassles they experienced in the last month, as well as their levels of life satisfaction, resiliency, and the four character strengths of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Humility/Modesty, and Love. Reponses to the Ego Resiliency Scale were used to divide students into the following three groups: resilient, moderate-resilient, and low-resilient. Self-reported levels of life satisfaction, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Humility/Modesty, and Love were compared across the three groups to determine whether they were significantly related to resiliency. The results indicate that Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, and Humility/Modesty had a significant relationship with resiliency, but that Love did not. Resilient students' levels of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence as well as Gratitude were significantly higher than those of low-resilient students. However, resilient students' levels of Humility/Modesty were significantly lower than those of low-resilient students. Although Love was not significantly related to resiliency, the levels of Love for resilient students were relatively higher than those of low-resilient students. Life satisfaction also was significantly related to resiliency. Resilient students' levels of life satisfaction were significantly higher than those of low-resilient students. Gratitude and Love predicted students' levels of life satisfaction. Therefore, Gratitude seems to be the essential character strength related to both resiliency and life satisfaction among college students.