PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF AUDIO-VISUAL SYNAESTHESIA IN THE TEACHING OF INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 1182 DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.169 PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF AUDIO-VISUAL SYNAESTHESIA IN THE TEACHING OF INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE Yanjie Li Abstract Instrumental performance is a basic course for music students. The teaching effect of this course can be improved by utilizing the audio-visual synaesthesia. This paper probes into the psychological mechanism of audio-visual synaesthesia in the teaching of instrumental performance. First, the basic theories of music and synaesthesia were introduced in details. Next, 30 first-year music students were selected for a synaesthesia experiment of instrumental performance, with piano as the main instrument. The experimental data were discussed to reveal the effects of synaesthesia on visual height, visual shape, light and shade, and sense of movement. The research shows that the psychological mechanism of synaesthesia and the synesthetic psychological response both vary from person to person; rhythm had the most significant influence on sense of movement, the pitch exerted a very prominent influence on visual height, while pitch and intensity greatly affected light and shade, as well as visual shape. The research results provide reference for improving the teaching practice of instrumental performance. Key words: Audio-Visual Synaesthesia, Psychology, Instrumental Performance, Teaching. Received: 15-02-19 | Accepted: 11-08-19 INTRODUCTION 1986). The occurrence process of this mechanism has also aroused the interest of The instrumental performance is a very important course in the study of music majors. many scholars. Some scholars believe that synaesthesia is a memory that originated in The psychological mechanism of synaesthesia human childhood, as a manifestation of self- triggered by instrumental performance is a general phenomenon. It plays a certain role in imagination; other believe that synaesthesia, improving the quality of instrumental originated from human fantasy, is a spontaneous response of the human brain that occurs performance teaching to conduct a more in- unconsciously, or a reaction triggered in a depth study on the connection between the psychological mechanism of synaesthesia and particular situation. For this mechanism, there still exist many controversies about whether it’s the instrumental performance and also its innate or acquired (Rentfrow, 2012; Van application. Campen, 1999; Packer & Ballantyne, 2011). The The development of cognitive science has promoted the study on the psychological existing research is insufficient to explain the existence of the synaesthesia psychological mechanism of synaesthesia to a certain extent mechanisms among different individuals. At (Hargreaves, 1986; Krumhansl, 1995; Deutsch, present, it is commonly believed that the synesthetic response results from an Mudanjiang Normal College, Mudanjiang 157001, China. E-Mail: yyxlyj99@163.com abnormality in the brain region in charge of emotions (Mcadams, 1996; Bore, 1929). Some people in the crowd are aware of this response, REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
1183 YANJIE LI while others have no way of realizing this (Evans, Mcpherson, & Davidson, 2013; Appleton, Influence of pitch Christenson, Kim et al., 2006). Pitch is the vibration frequency of the sound, This paper analyses the psychological factors and the level of the vibration is that of the pitch. for the psychological mechanism of synaesthesia Music with lower pitch gives a feeling of lowness, in instrumental performance and also gives reliability, heaviness and roughness; music with suggestions for its application. The research a higher pitch brings a clear, bright, high and findings can provide some opinions and passionate feeling. The vibration frequency of suggestions for instrumental performance the sound has a completely different effect on its teaching. psychology. In the psychological mechanism of synaesthesia, the influence of pitch is mainly reflected in the visual sense. The concert with THE BASIC THEORY OF MUSIC AND higher pitch is reminiscent of the brighter SYNAESTHESIA picture, while the music with lower pitch is just the opposite. Therefore, the combination of high The relationship between music and and low pitch is usually used to describe the psychological mechanism of synaesthesia opposition between light and darkness. Music is a very expressive art form that not only provides an auditory enjoyment, but also Visually, changes in pitch will also change the appreciator's association with height. The higher indirectly offers an aesthetic experience of sight, the pitch, the higher the height of the space in smell and taste through vision. This phenomenon of triggering other sensory the appreciator 's association; the lower the pitch, the lower the height of the space that the responses from a single sensation is called viewer associates. "synaesthesia", i.e., the concomitant sensation. In addition, the pitch also has a certain In fact, audio sense can trigger visual, olfactory, and gustatory response, while the visual, impact on the inner mood of the appreciator. Music with a higher pitch can stimulate the lister olfactory, and auditory senses can also in turn in better spirit, and low music usually makes the trigger an auditory response. viewer feel sad and restrained. Music is one of the best art forms to cultivate human sentiments and aesthetics. The concert Influence of sound intensity has a certain influence on the psychological and The sound intensity mainly refers to the cognitive behaviours of human beings. The psychological mechanism of synaesthesia will intensity and loudness of the music, i.e., the amplitude of the vibration. The influence of bring high-level and rich aesthetic enjoyment, sound intensity on the listener's synaesthesia is making the multiple senses of human beings also mainly reflected in the visual sense. The simultaneously edified. Unlike pure sound stimulation, the synesthetic response brought by sound intensity of different intensity can be used to describe the shape, volume, position and music deepens the connection between the brightness of the imaginary objects. With the senses more closely. Therefore, the concert gives people a feeling different from the simple higher sound intensity in the music, the sound. The non-auditory feeling and inner imaginary object shall be larger for the appreciator, and on the contrary, it shall be experience brought by music is rich and complex, smaller; a music with a higher intensity is used with a certain subjective colour. In the actual music playback, humans do not necessarily to describe the bulky object, and that with a lower music is used to describe a light object; a resonate with the whole song, but are often music with a weaker sound intensity describes a inspired by certain segments and elements, and farther object, and a music with a stronger sound different changes will bring about different synesthetic changes. intensity describes a closer object. In music appreciation, human physiological This paper mainly studies the psychological indicators, such as heart rate and EEG, will mechanism of audio-visual synaesthesia. change with the sound intensity, which will lead The influence of musical elements on to the changes of positive emotion, negative emotion and positive and negative emotion. synaesthesia Pitch, intensity, rhythm and beats are the basic constitutive elements of music. REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF AUDIO-VISUAL SYNAESTHESIA IN THE TEACHING OF INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE 1184 Influence of rhythm specific experimental scheme is as follows: The rhythm of music mainly refers to various combination of the messy beats into different The effect of synaesthesia on visual height forms and then the integration of paragraphs In terms of the effect of synaesthesia on with different lengths but certain repeatability, visual height, the pitch factor was mainly as the basis of one piece of music. The rhythm of considered in this study. Before the experiment, music determines the changes in the music, the teacher guided the students to observe the which will have an impact on human’s sense of differences between the left and right sides movement. The rhythm exists in everything of graphics in Figure 1. It can be seen from Figure nature, and the movement of everything has its 1, the left and right were very simple graphics, own melody and rhythm. The rhythm is regular, and the main difference between the two was and the use of rhythm in music can be that the height of the yellow bar was different: reminiscent of the movement of things. A music the bar in the left was higher than that the right. with slow rhythm will be reminiscent of a still After the students fully understood the thing, and a music with fast rhythm will be graphics, the teacher played two pitches on the reminiscent of moving things. piano. After the performance ended, the In terms of emotions, the rhythm composed students need to select the graphics that match of long sounds makes people feel sad and quiet, the different pitches. while the rhythm composed of short sounds causes people to be excited and happy. Figure 1. The effect of synesthesia on height Influence of beats The beat is to realize the different speeds of music playback. The influence of beat on synaesthesia is also mainly reflected in the sense of movement. Faster music beats make people think of faster things, and slower music beats are reminiscent of slower things. In terms of emotions, the fast-beat music stimulates people's high spirit, the medium-beat music makes people feel warm and comfortable, and the slow-beat music leads to a sad and peaceful feeling. The relationship between synaesthesia and music has brought a lot of inspiration to music teaching. If the inner feelings caused by the synesthetic psychological mechanism and the It’s assumed that: common feelings of human beings can be fully If the student matches the left graphic with applied in music teaching, then music teaching the treble, it’s recorded as T1; will get twice the result with half the effort. If the student matches the right graphic with the treble, it’s recorded as F1; If the student matches the left graphic with EXPERIMENTS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL the bass, it’s recorded as F2; MECHANISM OF SYNAESTHESIA IN If the student matches the right graphic with INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE TEACHING the bass, it’s recorded as T2. Experimental design The specific matching types are shown in With a wide range of sounds, the piano is Table 1. capable of playing a variety of music. It has a high popularity. Thus, this paper chooses the piano as Table 1. Height experiment results matching the main instrument in the synaesthesia table experiment of instrumental performance. 30 freshmen were selected from the Left side Right side Conservatory of Music as experimental subjects, Treble T1 F1 of which the ratio of boys to girls was 16:14. The Bass F2 T2 REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
1185 YANJIE LI right sides in Figure 1. It can be seen from Figure The effect of synaesthesia on visual shape 1, the left and right were both rectangles. The In terms of the effect of synaesthesia on main difference between the two was that the visual height, this paper mainly considers the colours of the two were different: the left influence of sound intensity. Before the graphic was white and the right was black. White experiment, the teacher guided the students to is a bright colour that brings a bright feeling, observe the differences between the left and while black is a dim colour that gives a deep right sides in Figure 2. It can be seen from Figure feeling. 2 that the left was a yellow rectangle with a black border; the right was a yellow triangle with a Figure 3. The effect of synaesthesia on light black border. The main difference between the and shade two was that the shape of the rectangle gives a heavy, reliable feeling, and the triangle gives a light feeling. After the students fully understood the graphics, the teacher played the same piano piece with different sound volumes. When the playback ended, the student needed to select the graphic that matches the two playbacks. Figure 2. The effect of synaesthesia on shape When the experimental results are statistically analysed, the classification method of the test results was still similar to that in Table 1. The effect of synaesthesia on sense of movement In terms of the effect of synaesthesia on sense of movement, this paper mainly considers the rhythm factor. Before the experiment, the teacher guided the students to observe the When statistically analysing the experimental difference between the upper side and the lower results, the classification method of the test side graphic in Figure 4. It can be seen that the results was similar to that for the effect of upper graph showed water in a stationary state, synaesthesia on the visual height, as shown in and the lower graph indicated water in a flowing Table 2. state. Table 2. Height experiment results matching Figure 4. The effect of synaesthesia on the table sense of movement Left side Right side High intensity T1 F1 Low intensity F2 T2 The effect of synaesthesia on light and shade In terms of the effect of synaesthesia on visual light and shade, this paper mainly considers the pitch factor. Before the experiment, the teacher guided the students to observe the differences between the left and REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF AUDIO-VISUAL SYNAESTHESIA IN THE TEACHING OF INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE 1186 When the experimental results are statistically analysed, the classification method According to statistics, in the experiment of the test results was still similar to that above, about the effect of synaesthesia on visual light as shown in Table 3. and shade, there were 23 students belonging to T1, 24 belonging to T2, 7 belonging to F1, and 6 Table 3. Height experiment results matching belonging to F2. table Figure 7. Results of the visual light and Upper side Lower side shade experiment Slow-paced T1 F1 Fast-paced F2 T2 Analysis and application of experimental results The experimental results of the four experiments were analysed statistically according to Tables 1-3, as shown in Figures 5-8. According to statistics, in the experiment about the effect of synaesthesia on visual height, there were 28 students belonging to T1, 22 belonging to T2, 2 belonging to F1, and 8 belonging to F2. According to statistics, in the experiment on the effect of synaesthesia on sense of Figure 5. Results of the visual height movement, there were 25 students belonging to experiment T1, 27 belonging to T2, 5 belonging to F1, and 3 belonging to F2. Figure 8. Results of the sense of movement According to statistics, in the experiment about the effect of synaesthesia on visual shape, there were 21 students belonging to T1, 25 belonging to T2, 9 belonging to F1, and 5 It can be seen from Figures 5-8 that factors belonging to F2. such as pitch, intensity and rhythm have different effects on students' visual height, Figure 6. Results of the visual shape shape, visual light and shade, and sense of experiment movement. The sum of T1 and T2 can indicate the difference in the degree of influence of different factors on students' visual height, shape, visual light and shade, and sense of movement. The results are shown in Figure 9. Figure 9 shows that the influence of rhythm on the sense of movement was the most significant, followed by the influence of the pitch on the visual height, and the influence of the sound intensity on the shape and the influence REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
1187 YANJIE LI of the pitch on the light and shade may be invalid (1) The psychological mechanism of for some students. synaesthesia is a psychological reaction that triggers other sensory associations by a single Figure 9. Comparison of experimental sensory stimulus. Some people's psychological results mechanisms are sensitive, while some are relatively insensitive; (2) In the experiment of the synaesthesia psychological reaction triggered by the instrumental performance, the pitch had a significant influence on the visual height, i.e., the higher the pitch, the higher the visual position that the appreciator can imagine, and the brighter the imaginary colour. In the experiment about the effect of pitch on visual height, 83.3% of the students showed the above characteristics, which proved that the psychological mechanism of synaesthesia had a significant influence on the visual height; in the experiment about the effect of pitch on visual In the teaching of instrumental performance, light and shade, 78.3% students showed the it plays a certain role in the improvement of above characteristics, proving that the effect of teaching quality by fulling using the synesthetic psychological mechanism on visual psychological mechanism of synaesthesia. Based light and shade is slightly worse than that on on the above research results, the following visual height; application recommendations are proposed: (3) In the experiment of the synaesthesia (1) To mobilize students' visual imagination psychological reaction triggered by the and change different visual positions or visual instrumental performance, the sound intensity shading, the teachers need to alternately use had a significant influence on the visual shape; different pitches for performance; the higher the sound intensity, the thicker the (2) To mobilize students' visual imagination visual shape that the appreciator can imagine. In and transform different visual shapes, the the experiment about the effect of sound teachers need to alternately use different sound intensity on visual shape, 76.7% of the students intensity; showed the above characteristics, which proved (3) To mobilize the students' imagination in that the psychological mechanism of sense of movement, the teachers need to synaesthesia had a significant influence on the alternately use different rhythms for visual shape; performance. (4) In the experiment of the synaesthesia Teachers should make full use of the psychological reaction triggered by the influence of pitch, intensity and rhythm on vision instrumental performance, the rhythm had a and dynamic vision, and make rich changes significant influence on the sense of movement, through different sound intensity, rhythm and and the faster the rhythm, the stronger the pitch, so as to deepen the impression of students athleticism that the appreciator can feel. In the in teaching. experiment about the effect of rhythm on sense of movement, 86.7% showed the above characteristics, which proved that the CONCLUSIONS psychological mechanism of synaesthesia had a significant impact on sense of movement. This paper summarizes the basic theory of synaesthesia psychological mechanism. Then, it designs and implements experiments on the Acknowledgement effects of synaesthesia on visual height, shape, light and shade, and sense of movement. Finally, 2018 Basic Scientific Research Project of through analysis for the experimental data, the Heilongjiang Provincial advanced institution “A following conclusions have been drawn: Study on the Musical Instrument Playing Techniques of Transplantation and Adaptation Works on the REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF AUDIO-VISUAL SYNAESTHESIA IN THE TEACHING OF INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE 1188 Perspective of Integration of Chinese and Western psychology of music. British Journal of Cultures” Topic No. 1353ZD024. Educational Studies, 35(3), 499–550. Krumhansl, C. L. (1995). Music psychology and music theory: problems and prospects. Music Theory REFERENCES Spectrum, 17(1), 53-80. Mcadams, S. (1996). Psychological constraints on Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L., Kim, D., & Reschly, A. L. (2006). Measuring cognitive and form-bearing dimensions in music. Contemporary Music Review, volume 4(4), 181- psychological engagement: validation of the 198. student engagement instrument. Journal of School Psychology, 44(5), 427-445. Packer, J., & Ballantyne, J. (2011). The impact of Bore, N. H. (1929). A modern approach to music- music festival attendance on young people’s psychological and social well-being. Psychology teaching: v. rhythm: its historical and of Music, 39(2), 164-181. psychological aspects. Musical Times, 70(1036), 527-528+533. Rentfrow, P. J. (2012). The role of music in everyday life: current directions in the social psychology of Deutsch, E. B. D. (1986). The psychology of music. music. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, Science, 231(4735), 279-279. 6(5), 402-416. Evans, P., Mcpherson, G. E., & Davidson, J. W. (2013). The role of psychological needs in ceasing music Van Campen, C. (1999). Artistic and psychological experiments with synesthesia. Leonardo, 32(32), and music learning activities. Psychology of 9-14. Music, 41(5), 600-619. Hargreaves, D. J. (1986). The developmental REVISTA ARGENTINA 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1182-1188 DE CLÍNICA PSICOLÓGICA
You can also read