I’mprovisation – Therapists’ Subjective Experience during Improvisational Moments in the Clinical Encounter

Improvisational (or now) moments can serve as important change mechanisms in psychotherapy. Yet there is little understanding of the therapists’ subjective experiences during those Improvisation Experiences (IE). In this pilot study, 17 clinicians reported on their clinical IE following theater improvisation training. Reports were analyzed in relation to three constructs: peak experience, flow, and peak performance. Results show that during IE therapists experience dimensions of peak experience and flow, but not of peak performance. Additional unique dimensions of IE are discussed in relation to different constructs, leading us to name therapists’ IE as I’mprovisation. Recommendations practice and training are discussed.     

The Aesthetics of Imperfection Reconceived: Improvisations,Compositions, and Mistakes

Ted Gioia associated the “aesthetics of imperfection” with improvised music. In an earlier article, I extended it to all musical performance. This article reconceives my discussion, offering more precise analyses: (1) The aesthetics of imperfection is now argued to involve open, spontaneous response to contingencies of performance or production, reacting positively to idiosyncratic instruments; apparent failings in performance, and so on. Perfectionists, in contrast, prefer a planning model, not readily modified in face of contingencies. (2) Imperfection is not toleration of errors and imperfections, as Gioia assumes, but a positive aesthetic, as in Japanese wabi-sabi. Imperfections can become new styles or kinds of perfection—and so true imperfectionism is a constant striving for new contingencies to respond to. (3) A subtler, more complex relation between composition and improvisation is proposed, in which both have broad and narrow senses. Composition involves (a) works, usually desk produced and notated; or more generally, (b) putting things together in an aesthetically rewarding form. Thus, improvisation is a (broad sense) compositional method. (4) Improvisation and composition are interdependent; both involve structure and spontaneity. (5) Imperfectionism is an aesthetics of performance—of compositions as well as improvisations. Improvisation is no risker, or prone to mistakes, than performance of compositions.     

Improvisation as a Meta-Counseling Skill

Counselor education tends to see the development of basic counseling and communication skills as the foundation of clinical training. Improvisation has historically and primarily been connected to theater training and as a performance mechanism. By developing skills in spontaneity and the nature of narrative (or story) one becomes more able to be in-the-moment with a client or clients and thus less anxious and more able to meet the client where they are. As such, improvisation can really be seen as a meta-counseling skill—a skill that can form a firmer foundation for the learning of the basic counseling and communication micro-skills. This article outlines the core concepts of improvisational training for counselors and includes examples of improvisational games that can specifically help in preparing counselor trainees for their future clinical work.     

Computer graphics in music performance research

Theories of skilled music performance must account for variations on what is written in traditional musical notation. Some variations are intentional and reflect structural features of the music that are chosen for emphasis by the performer. Current music notations are inadequate to reflect these variations. Computer applications are described that allow graphical and statistical examination of performance variations on traditional musical notation. An integrated set of visual and sound tools is provided that allows music to be recorded, edited, analyzed, and played back on electronic and acoustic musical instruments. The graphical format allows flexibility through the use of windows, compression, expansion, and scrolling of multiple sources of information, mapping of acoustic to visual dimensions, and scaling of different performance parameters without normalization. Experimental evidence from piano performances is used to demonstrate how graphical formats can aid research on human performance.     

The skill of recognizing musical structures

In three experiments, musicians and nonmusicians were compared in their ability to discriminate musical chords. Pairs of chords sharing all notes in common or having different notes were played in succession. Some pairs of chords differed in timbre independent of their musical structures because they were played on different instruments. Musicians outperformed nonmusicians only in recognizing the same chord played on different instruments. Both groups could discriminate between instrument timbres, although musicians did slightly better than nonmusicians. In contrast, with chord structures not conforming to the rules of tonal harmony, musicians and nonmusicians performed equally poorly in recognizing identical chords played on different instruments. Signal detection analysis showed that musicians and nonmusicians set similar criteria for these judgments. Musicians' superiority reflects greater sensitivity to familiar diatonic chords. These results are taken as evidence that musicians develop perceptual and cognitive skills specific to the lawful musical structures encountered in their culture's music. Nonmusicians who lack this knowledge based their judgments on the acoustical properties of the chords.     

How is a trumpet known? The "basic object level" concept and perception of musical instruments

What are the object properties that serve as a basis for the musical instrument classification system, and how do general and specific experience affect knowledge of these properties? In the first study, the multimodal quality of properties underlying children's and adults' perception was investigated. Subjects listened to solos and identified instruments producing the sounds. Even children who did not have experience with all the instruments correctly identified the family of instruments they were listening to. The hypothesis of the second study, that musical instrument families function as a "basic level" in the instrument taxonomy, was confirmed. Variation in the basic level with varying expertise was documented in the third study with musicians. In the fourth study, children and adults identified the source of sounds from unfamiliar objects, Chinese musical instruments. It is suggested that the concept of affordances may be relevant for understanding the importance for behavior of different levels of abstraction of category systems.     

Dimensional Sensitivity of the 15D Multiattribute Utility Instrument in Diabetic Retinopathy

The purpose of this study was to further investigate the previously suggested high sensitivity of the 15D instrument to diabetic retinopathy (DR) by examining: i) its dimensional sensitivity in patients differing in DR severity, and ii) its dimensional relationship with a well-known vision-targeted health status instrument. Eighty five diabetes patients with non-proliferative or proliferative DR completed the 15D and the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire 25-item (NEI-VFQ-25) instruments. Dimensional response distributions were examined with chi-square, and mean VFQ25 and 15D dimension score differences with ANCOVA. Dimensional relationships between the instruments were assessed with correlations and ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. Patients with proliferative DR scored significantly lower (P?<?0.05 or better) on 9/15 and 10/12 of the 15D and VFQ25 dimensions respectively. Correlations were mostly strong (>0.50) and significant (P?<?0.001). Most OLS models with 15D dimensions as predictors of VFQ25 subscales showed high explanatory power (adjusted R ²?>?0.85 in 10/13 models), with ocular pain being the only exception (R ²?=?0.44). The 15D’s seeing dimension was a significant predictor of 10 VFQ25 scales, whereas speech was not significant in any model. 15D utilities discriminated between the DR subsamples, supporting its appropriateness in this group. Its dimensions (seeing in particular), explained large portions of variance in NEI-VFQ25 scales, implying a strong association with this vision-targeted instrument. These findings might help to explain why 15D performs well in DR and support its use for QALY calculations. However, the need remains for further testing in larger and more diverse samples.     

Individuality of movements in music – Finger and body movements during playing of the flute

The achievement of mastery in playing a composition by means of a musical instrument typically requires numerous repetitions and corrections according to the keys and notations of the music piece. Nevertheless, differences in the interpretation of the same music piece by highly skilled musicians seem to be recognizable. The present study investigated differences within and between skilled flute players in their finger and body movements playing the same piece several times on the same and on different days. Six semiprofessional and four professional musicians played an excerpt of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 several times on three different days. Finger and body movements were recorded by 3D motion capture and analyzed by linear and nonlinear classification approaches. The findings showed that the discrete and continuous movement timing data correctly identified individuals up to 100% by means of their finger movements and up to 94% by means of their body movements. These robust examples of identifying individual movement patterns contradict the prevailing models of small, economic finger movements that are favored in the didactic literature for woodwind players and question traditional recommendations for teaching the learning of motor skills.     

A COMPARISON OF HOLISTIC VERSUS DECOMPOSED RATING OF POSITION ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE WORK DIMENSIONS

Recent studies have attempted to reduce the cost and intrusiveness of the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) by limiting the amount of information provided to the analyst, with consistently negative results. We examined an alternative technique for improving the cost-effectiveness of the PAQ that avoids the need to rate the hundreds of items that constitute the instrument. Three groups of raters (professional job analysts, graduate students in industrial psychology who were familiar with the PAQ, and PAQ-unfamiliar undergraduates) made direct holistic ratings of the PAQ dimensions for four familiar jobs. The holistic ratings were compared with decomposed PAQ dimension profiles obtained from the item-level ratings of the professional analysts. Cronbach accuracy analyses indicated near-zero convergence between the holistic and decomposed dimension ratings, even for the professional PAQ job analysts. We conclude that holistic rating of dimensions is not an effective means of reducing the cost of a PAQ job analyses and that it is likely to be similarly ineffective with task- or ability-based instruments.     

Music and social identity: Stylistic identification as a response to musical style

One function of music is considered to be defining social identity for oneself and for others. This aspect of musical styles was investigated in the light of Social Identity Theory by examining how a college student population described fans of different musical styles. Respondents were questioned about their perception of listeners of six musical styles, two of which were indigenous to Turkey. Three basic dimensions that described the listeners of these styles emerged as the result of factor and scale reliability analyses. These dimensions were labelled the sophisticated, the sprightly, and the loser. Respondents associated these features with fans of different styles to different extents. The sprightly dimension characterized listeners of pop, rock, and rap best. The sophisticated dimension was most closely associated with listeners of classical and Turkish folk music. Listening to Arabesk, which is a style that is specific to Turkey, was most closely associated with the loser dimension. Consistent with the predictions of Social Identity Theory, evaluations by a person were affected by the attitude of that person towards a style in the cases of rock and Turkish folk music. Especially on the sophisticated dimension, respondents who liked rock or Turkish folk music rated the listeners of these styles closer to the ideal than respondents who disliked them. However, the self‐evaluations of these groups were similar. Furthermore, respondents typically described themselves as being closer to the ideal value on the three dimensions than the listeners of musical styles they liked. These results provide considerable support for the idea that liking a musical style shows characteristics of group membership according to Social Identity Theory.     

The multicultural personality questionnaire: a multidimensional instrument of multicultural effectiveness

In today's global business environment, executive work is becoming more international in orientation. Several skills and traits may underlie executive success in an international environment. The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire was developed as a multidimensional instrument aimed at measuring multicultural effectiveness. The questionnaire has scales for Cultural Empathy, Openmindedness, Emotional Stability, Orientation to Action, Adventurousness/Curiosity, Flexibility, and Extraversion. In a study among a student sample (N =257) the reliability and validity of the inventory were examined. The internal consistencies of the developed scales were high, with the exception of Openmindedness and Flexibility. On the basis of factor analysis and the pattern of intercorrelations four reliable higher‐level dimensions were distinguished: ‘Openness’, ‘Emotional Stability’, ‘Social Initiative and Flexibility’. The correlations between these dimensions and related instruments were in the expected direction. Moreover, the data supported the predictive value of the instrument of multicultural activity and its incremental value above the Big Five in predicting international orientation and aspiration of an international career. The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire may be used as an instrument for the selection of expatriates or as a diagnostic tool for assessing further training needs. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

It's not what you play,it's how you play it: Timbre affects perception of emotion in music

Salient sensory experiences often have a strong emotional tone, but the neuropsychological relations between perceptual characteristics of sensory objects and the affective information they convey remain poorly defined. Here we addressed the relationship between sound identity and emotional information using music. In two experiments, we investigated whether perception of emotions is influenced by altering the musical instrument on which the music is played, independently of other musical features. In the first experiment, 40 novel melodies each representing one of four emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, or anger) were each recorded on four different instruments (an electronic synthesizer, a piano, a violin, and a trumpet), controlling for melody, tempo, and loudness between instruments. Healthy participants (23 young adults aged 18–30 years, 24 older adults aged 58–75 years) were asked to select which emotion they thought each musical stimulus represented in a four-alternative forced-choice task. Using a generalized linear mixed model we found a significant interaction between instrument and emotion judgement with a similar pattern in young and older adults (p < .0001 for each age group). The effect was not attributable to musical expertise. In the second experiment using the same melodies and experimental design, the interaction between timbre and perceived emotion was replicated (p < .05) in another group of young adults for novel synthetic timbres designed to incorporate timbral cues to particular emotions. Our findings show that timbre (instrument identity) independently affects the perception of emotions in music after controlling for other acoustic, cognitive, and performance factors.     

Developing of an English Version of the Aggressive Driving Behavior Test (AVIS). Improving the Construct Validity of Aggressive Driving

The research investigated the psychometric properties and the discriminant validity of the English version of the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Aggressive Driving Behavior (AVIS). Study 1 assessed the psychometric properties of the instrument. Internal consistency ranged from 0.77 to 0.92. Exploratory factor analysis did not support the original five factor structure, Instrumental Aggression and Acting Out being unified in a single factor. Following the confirmatory factor analysis a version with 26 items and 3 factors was obtained. Inter-scale correlations showed that the dimensions of the AVIS are inter-correlated. Study 2 verified the discriminant validity of the English version of the AVIS by testing the relationships between the AVIS dimensions and the DAX (Driving Anger Expression Inventory) dimensions. The results showed good discriminant validity, the dimensions of the two instruments being uncorrelated. In conclusion, the findings contribute to the development of the driving aggression construct by adding new dimensions to it.     

Can imagery facilitate improvements in anticipation behavior?

ObjectivesWe examined the effectiveness of interventions involving imagery, video, and outcome feedback in improving anticipation in skilled junior cricket batters.Design/methodParticipants (N = 34, Mean age = 14.9 years, SD = 0.75) were allocated to one of three groups matched on imagery ability or a no practice control. The experimental groups received a four-week, film-based training intervention.ResultsAll experimental groups improved anticipation performance during training. Pre to posttest improvements were greater for the group that received outcome Knowledge of Results (KR) compared to groups that also received a video replay of the bowler's action or imaged the previously seen action. All experimental groups improved visual imagery ability, measured by the VMIQ-2, but only the imagery intervention group improved in the kinesthetic dimension.ConclusionOur findings show that all three interventions are effective in improving anticipation and benefit imagery ability.     

The Effect of Erroneous Knowledge of Results on Skill Acquisition when Augmented Information is Redundant

Even though it can be shown that verbal knowledge of results (KR) is redundant with sensory feedback for learning certain motor skills, such findings do not eliminate the possibility that when KR is available it influences underlying learning processes. In order to examine the function of KR more closely, two experiments were designed in which the subjects received conflicting information about their own sensory feedback and the KR presented by the experimenter. In Experiment 1, two erroneous-KR groups, a correct-KR group, and a no-KR group performed 150 practice trials on a simple anticipation timing task and then performed three no-KR retention tests of 30 trials each following intervals of 10 minutes, 1 week, and 1 month. The results supported previous findings that providing correct KR is redundant in anticipation tasks. However, learning was influenced by KR as subjects performed according to the erroneous KR information, thereby ignoring their sensory feedback even after a 1-month interval. In Experiment 2, subjects practised a more complex striking response for the anticipation task for 75 trials and then performed no-KR retention trials either immediately, or 1 day or 1 week later. One of the groups received erroneous KR after 50 practice trials with correct KR. The results confirmed and extended those from Experiment 1, as erroneous KR, even after initial practice with correct KR, influenced retention performance. These results indicate that although KR provides information that is not needed to learn anticipation timing skills, this augmented verbal information is a dominant source of information that influences underlying cognitive processes involved in learning motor skills.     

Control of Expressive and Metronomic Timing in Pianists

In 12 tasks, each including 10 repetitions, 6 skilled pianists performed or responded to a musical excerpt. In the first 6 tasks, expressive timing was required; in the last 6 tasks, metronomic timing. The pianists first played the music on a digital piano (Tasks 1 and 7), then played it without auditory feedback (Tasks 2 and 8), then tapped on a response key in synchrony with one of their own performances (Tasks 3 and 9), with an imagined performance (Tasks 4 and 10), with a computer-generated performance (Tasks 5 and 11), and with a computer-generated sequence of clicks (Tasks 6 and 12). The results demonstrated that pianists are capable of generating the expressive timing pattern of their performance in the absence of auditory and kinaesthetic (piano keyboard) feedback. They can also synchronize their finger taps quite well with expressively timed music or clicks (while imagining the music), although they tend to underestimate long interonset intervals and to compensate on the following tap. Expressive timing is thus shown to be generated from an internal representation of the music. In metronomic performance, residual expressive timing effects were evident. Those did not depend on auditory feedback, but they were much reduced or absent when kinaesthetic feedback from the piano keyboard was eliminated. Thus, they seemed to arise from the pianist's physical interaction with the instrument. Systematic timing patterns related to expressive timing were also observed in synchronization with a metronomic computer performance and even in synchronization with metronomic clicks. These results shed light on intentional and unintentional, structurally governed processes of timing control in music performance.     

Structural analysis of the facets and domains of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and the NEO PI-R

Aluja, Kuhlman, and Zuckerman (2010) developed an instrument for American and Spanish populations (Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire [ZKA-PQ]) that includes 4 facets for each 5 basic traits of Zuckerman's psychobiological personality model. This new instrument is intended to improve the previous measure based on the same personality model, the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), by including the narrower traits (facets) defining the factors. This article explores the convergent and discriminant validity of the new instrument relative to the NEO PI-R in a sample from the Spanish general population. A series of exploratory factor analyses comparing both instruments was conducted. Results showed good convergent and discriminant validity between both instruments, although the ZKA-PQ had a slightly better structure than the NEO PI-R. The results support the validity of the ZKA-PQ factor domains and the facets composing them. The new instrument might be useful in both applied and research settings.     

The taste of music

Zarlino, one of the most important music theorists of the XVI century, described the minor consonances as 'sweet' (dolci) and 'soft' (soavi) (Zarlino 1558/1983, in On the Modes New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983). Hector Berlioz, in his Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration (London: Novello, 1855), speaks about the 'small acid-sweet voice' of the oboe. In line with this tradition of describing musical concepts in terms of taste words, recent empirical studies have found reliable associations between taste perception and low-level sound and musical parameters, like pitch and phonetic features. Here we investigated whether taste words elicited consistent musical representations by asking trained musicians to improvise on the basis of the four canonical taste words: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Our results showed that, even in free improvisation, taste words elicited very reliable and consistent musical patterns:'bitter' improvisations are low-pitched and legato (without interruption between notes), 'salty' improvisations are staccato (notes sharply detached from each other), 'sour' improvisations are high-pitched and dissonant, and 'sweet' improvisations are consonant, slow, and soft. Interestingly, projections of the improvisations of taste words to musical space (a vector space defined by relevant musical parameters) revealed that, in musical space, improvisations based on different taste words were nearly orthogonal or opposite. Decoding methods could classify binary choices of improvisations (i.e., identify the improvisation word from the melody) at performance of around 80%--well above chance. In a second experiment we investigated the mapping from perception of music to taste words. Fifty-seven non-musical experts listened to a fraction of the improvisations. We found that listeners classified with high performance the taste word which had elicited the improvisation. Our results, furthermore, show that associations of taste and music go beyond basic sensory attributes into the domain of semantics, and open a new venue of investigation to understand the origins of these consistent taste-musical patterns.     

Use of relaxation skills in differentially skilled athletes

ObjectivesTo examine the use of relaxation skills by differentially skilled athletes in relation to the deliberate practice framework.DesignDifferentially skilled athletes completed a survey about their use of relaxation skills.Method150 athletes representing three skill levels (recreational, college, and professional) completed the deliberate relaxation for sport survey, which assessed relaxation on three deliberate practice dimensions (relevancy, concentration, and enjoyment); time spent in different relaxation skills in a recent typical week; and functions of relaxation.ResultsAthletes perceived relaxation as relevant to performance, requiring concentration, and enjoyable, and the relationships between these dimensions were positive. Professional and college athletes perceived relaxation as more relevant to effective competition than recreational athletes. Professional athletes engaged in more relaxation in a typical week than college and recreational athletes. In a typical week, autogenic, eastern, and muscle relaxation types were used least, deep breathing, meditation, and imagery relaxation types moderately, and stretching most. Athletes reported the primary functions of relaxation were to cope with competitive anxiety and promote recovery but relaxation was also reported to be used to cope with “everyday” anxieties associated with being an athlete. More physical (e.g., muscle relaxation) than mental relaxation types were used in relation to coping with competitive anxiety, whereas more mental (e.g., meditation) than physical relaxation types were used in relation to coping with everyday anxiety.ConclusionsThe study provides support for the sport-specific framework of deliberate practice in relation to use of relaxation skills and informs the current understanding of self-regulation by athletes.     

The relative importance of different perceptual-cognitive skills during anticipation

We examined whether anticipation is underpinned by perceiving structured patterns or postural cues and whether the relative importance of these processes varied as a function of task constraints. Skilled and less-skilled soccer players completed anticipation paradigms in video-film and point light display (PLD) format. Skilled players anticipated more accurately regardless of display condition, indicating that both perception of structured patterns between players and postural cues contribute to anticipation. However, the Skill × Display interaction showed skilled players’ advantage was enhanced in the video-film condition, suggesting that they make better use of postural cues when available during anticipation. We also examined anticipation as a function of proximity to the ball. When participants were near the ball, anticipation was more accurate for video-film than PLD clips, whereas when the ball was far away there was no difference between viewing conditions. Perceiving advance postural cues appears more important than structured patterns when the ball is closer to the observer, whereas the reverse is true when the ball is far away. Various perceptual-cognitive skills contribute to anticipation with the relative importance of perceiving structured patterns and advance postural cues being determined by task constraints and the availability of perceptual information.