Psychology of Music Learning

1
Psychology of Music Learning

• Miksza Spring 09
• WEEK FOUR
• Cognitivism Part I
• Foundational Theories, Developmental Perspectives

2
Foundational cognitive theories

• Tolman
• Gestalt Psychologists
• Piaget
• Bruner
• Assumptions of contemporary cognitivism

3
Edward Tolman

• Transition figure
• Objectivity/Measurable events
• Equipotentiality
• The study of behavior should not be
  oversimplified
• Reinforcement not always necessary for learning
  to occur
• Latent learning
• Intervening/organismic variable must be
  considered
• Links between behaviors and results begin to set
  up expectancies
• Learning is not a set of independent events - but
  results in a body of organized information, or
  cognitive maps

4
Gestalt Psychology

• Theoretical Elements
• Gestalt - structured whole
• the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• Against studying experiences in isolation of
  eachother
• Perception is different than reality
• Max Wertheimer - Phi Phenomenon - Kit from
  Night Rider
• Muller-Lyer illusion
• Ponzo illusion
• Law of Pragnanz
• Preciseness, terseness
• Mnemonic - pregnant with meaning

5
Wolfgang Kohler

• The Mentality of Apes (1925)
• The role of internal mental processes in problem
  solving
• Intuition
• Apes solving problems without trial and error

6
Kurt Koffka

• with Wertheimer and Kohler
• Helped formalize principles of Gestalt Psychology
• Perception An Introduction to the Gestalt Theory
  (1922)
• Proximity
• Similarity
• Common Fate/Direction
• Good Continuation
• Closure

7
Cognitivism - Developmental Perspectives

• Piaget
• Genetic Epistemology
• Case studies/clinical method, his own children
• Schema and operations
• Egocentric to allocentric
• Processes of assimilation and accommodation
• Equilibration - equilibrium/disequilibrium

8
Piagets stages of development

• Sensorimotor
• SYMBOLIC THOUGHT
• Properational
• CONSERVATION
• Concrete Operational
• METACOGNITION
• Formal Operations
• Neo-Piaget - Post-Formal
• RELATIVISM/ACROSS FIELDS
• Consider age trends, characteristics, salient
  differences between stages

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Stages of Development

• Implications
• Environment should support activity
• Interactions with peers are important
• Make children aware of conceptual conflicts and
  inconsistencies

10
Jerome Bruner

• The Process of Education (1960)
• Cognitive constructivist
• Influenced heavily by Piaget
• Elements of ZPD also
• Readiness
• Enactive - Iconic - Symbolic
• Spiral Organization
• Learner active, exploring, creating

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Summary of Cognitivist Assumptions

• Equipotentiality not always necessary
• A focus on mental events/processes rather than
  exclusively behavior
• Inferences about mental events/processes must be
  based on observable behaviors
• Individuals active participants in learning and
  may construct their own knowledge
• Learning may not necessarily be observable
• Knowledge is organized