The present study examined 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders' ability to hear two simultaneous melodies. Two familiar ("Frere Jacques" and "The Barney song") and one unfamiliar melody were used as the stimuli. The pairs of simultaneous melodies were presented in different registers and timbre combinations. The children were asked to press specially labeled keys on a computer keyboard to indicate which song(s) they heard. Responses were recorded by a computer. The older children identified two simultaneous melodies faster (df = 2, F = 12.803, p $<$.01) and more accurately (df = 2, F = 13.098, p $<$.01) than the younger ones. While 70% of the 1st graders reported hearing two melodies and identified them with 75% accuracy, over 95% of the 5th graders reported hearing two melodies and identified them with 97% accuracy. Children who were able to correctly identify two simultaneous melodies did not tend to identify the melody in the upper or the lower register in any particular order when the timbre was the same in both registers. When the melodies were played with contrasting timbres (trumpet and piano) they tended to identify the trumpet melody before they identified the piano melody. However, in terms of response-speed they identified the upper melody faster than the lower melody. Children who were only able to identify one melody tended to focus on the upper melody when the timbre was the same in both registers but when the melodies were played with contrasting timbres they would attend to the trumpet melody regardless of register.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26735 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Gudmundsdottir, Helga Rut. |
| Contributors | Costa-Giomi, Eugenia (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Music.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001555986, proquestno: MQ29545, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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