Abstract
Auditory-guided vocal learning is a mechanism that operates both in humans and other animal species making us capable to imitate arbitrary sounds. Both auditory memories and auditory feedback interact to guide vocal learning. This may explain why it is easier for humans to imitate the pitch of a human voice than the pitch of a synthesized sound. In this study, we compared the effects of two different feedback modalities in learning pitch-matching abilities using a synthesized pure tone in 47 participants with no prior music experience. Participants were divided into three groups: a feedback group (N = 15) receiving real-time visual feedback of their pitch as well as knowledge of results; an equal-timbre group (N = 17) receiving additional auditory feedback of the target note with a similar timbre to the instrument being used (i.e., violin or human voice); and a control group (N = 15) practicing without any feedback or knowledge of results. An additional fourth group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes (N = 15). All groups were posteriorly evaluated in a transfer phase. Both experimental groups (i.e., the feedback and equal-timbre groups) improved their intonation abilities with the synthesized sound after receiving feedback. Participants from the equal-timber group seemed as capable as the feedback group of producing the required pitch with the voice after listening to the human voice, but not with the violin (although they also showed improvement). In addition, only participants receiving real-time visual feedback learned and retained in the transfer phase the mapping between the synthesized pitch and its correspondence with the produced vocal or violin pitch. It is suggested that both the effect of an objective external reward, together with the experience of exploring the pitch space with their instrument in an explicit manner, helped participants to understand how to control their pitch production, strengthening their schemas, and favoring retention.
Highlights
The use of technology is widely used for a large number of different purposes related to music education (Zhukov, 2015)
We investigate the results of different types of feedback on intonation learning in singing and violin playing
We evaluated for possible differences between groups in their performance across blocks with one mixed-design 3 × 4 with Group (CG, Equal-Timbre Group (ETG), Feedback Group (FG)) as between-subject factor, and Condition (Baseline, Acquisition pre-Aid, Acquisition postAid, and Transfer) as within-subject factor
Summary
The use of technology (e.g., mobile phones, computers, the internet) is widely used for a large number of different purposes related to music education (Zhukov, 2015). Back to the beginning of the twentieth century, researchers from the University of Iowa developed a system to measure the pitch performed by participants and displayed it on a screen in realtime, allowing the participants to correct their performance instantaneously. They named their system Tonoscope (Seashore, 1902). Some experiments attempted to show how training the ear with the visual feedback using the Tonoscope could result in a rapid improvement in pitch intonation and a transfer effect to new tones with different pitches (Seashore and Jenner, 1910; Knock, 1922; Brennan, 1926). Despite some methodological deficiencies (e.g., lack of control groups), these studies represent one of the first attempts to answer questions still relevant today regarding the use of feedback in music learning
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