Comparison of short-term memory, accuracy and concentration of 10- and 11-year-old children who learned and did not learn music

Dissertation for M.A.

Educational Psychology Orientation

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to compare short-term memory, accuracy and concentration of 10-11-year-old children who had learned and not learned music. Method: The method of this study was causal-comparative or post-event. The research sample consisted of 50 music students (with at least 2 years of education) and 50 non-music students aged 10 and 11, who were selected from among the students of schools in Tehran using a multi-stage clustering method. The control group was compared with the studied group in terms of age, parents' education level, family's economic level and IQ score (using Raven's test). The research tool for collecting the scores of short-term memory, accuracy and concentration was Wechsler test scales.

Findings: The results showed that by controlling the general intelligence score, the ability of short-term memory, accuracy and concentration of music students learned more than students who did not learn music. Based on this, approximately 6.5% of the variance of the subjects' "short-term memory" is explained by the assignment to groups. This figure has increased to 11.5% in the case of "accuracy and concentration".

Conclusion: According to the obtained results, it was found that music education and having musical skills can be effective in the development of some cognitive abilities of children. Therefore, along with other subjects, music education can develop the use of cognitive abilities in students and a strategy to increase their academic progress.

Key words: learned music, learned music, short-term memory, accuracy, concentration, students

Introduction

Nowadays, the early years of childhood have attracted the attention of many psychologists and education experts, because it is the period that is the basis of personality. A person is formed and the development and progress of a child in different aspects of development, i.e. cognitive, physical, emotional and social, happens much faster than in the next period of life. The increasing studies and researches conducted by experts and psychologists on the early years of a child's life clearly show the vital and important role of the environment in which the child grows up.

Benjamin Bloom has paid attention to the importance of the early years of childhood by publishing a book entitled (Stability and Change in Human Characteristics). 4 to 8 years old and the remaining 20% ??is formed between the ages of 8 and 17 years. Therefore, by the age of 6, which is the age of entering school and starting formal education, almost two-thirds of a person's final intelligence abilities are formed (Mafidi, 2013). Kand considers man as an active and effective participant in the process of learning and considers the human mind as a system that manipulates codes (Gage and Berliner, 1995; quoted by Ferdowsi, 1380). have learned, they base and process new ideas based on their thought patterns (Fisher, 2001; Translated by Safai Moghadam, 1385). Therefore, the first concern of children's curriculum planning should be how to teach children the best content and concepts in the easiest and most enjoyable way. According to him, metacognition is related to a person's knowledge about his own cognitive flows and includes implementing, regulating and coordinating these flows. So, metacognitive awareness means knowing yourself as a thinking being. This awareness plays an important role in accuracy, problem solving, self-control, self-learning and behavior change. With their growth, students also develop skills to measure themselves in terms of understanding, the time required to study a subject, organize the learning program and achieve effective and appropriate learning methods (Faregh, 1377).

Metacognitive abilities as studied by Brown[2] et al.

Metacognitive abilities, as studied by Brown[2] et al.(2003), appear at the ages of five to seven years and expand in the following years, therefore, they can be taught appropriate metacognitive strategies from the preschool years (Fakharizadeh, 2013). Not only learning knowledge but also learning how to use cognitive strategies in learning is very important. Unfortunately, how to use this strategy is not usually taught to students. Students have not only not learned how and the right situation to use metacognitive strategies, but they generally do not know about these strategies either. The researches of Ellis [4] (1983) show that the teaching of these strategies has a huge impact on the generalization and application of what has been learned in natural environments. As explained by Baker and Winston[5] (1986), the metacognitive technique of self-learning is also completely effective in learning art and writing (Latafabadi, 2013).

High mental activities begin when an image of the surrounding world is created in the child's mind. It means that the child can abstract characteristics of the stimuli and measure them with previous experience and remove unnecessary elements and enable more accurate recognition. And during these stages, visualize and recreate the outside world (Abbasi, 2015).

According to Johnson and Michael Bassett (1967), in some children, the difficulty of understanding numerical relationships starts from the first years of life. The ability to count, understand quantities one by one, sort, sort, compare numbers, all depend on the child's experiences and manipulation of objects (Rokshan, 1367; quoted by Kohen Sedek, 1376). Therefore, how the child is introduced and the way he is taught, can have a very vital role in the level of accuracy, learning at higher levels, and memorization.

The systems that music strengthens, such as the five senses system, concentration, understanding, feeling and movement system, are actually the driving forces that lie behind the power of learning. This does not mean that people cannot learn without music, but learning together with music provides the possibility of developing brain systems that none of them can be measured due to their nature (Jensen, 2004; translation by Omrani Gregari, 2016).

Gardner [6] (1983-1996) has identified eight distinct intelligences using his precise criteria:

Linguistic [7], logical-mathematical [8], spatial [9], musical [10], physical-kinetic [11], interpersonal [12], intrapersonal [13] and naturalistic [14]. According to his theory (1991), people get to know their world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, music, body movements, understanding themselves and others, and being close to nature. He opposes the educational system and states that instead of emphasizing the traditional linguistic and logical-mathematical methods, teaching materials should be presented in such a way that they include all kinds of learning methods and instead of the traditional pencil-paper method, different assessment tools should be designed (Hoffman et al. 1997; Bahirai translation, 2018). With the provision of the background, abilities are recognized and talents emerge, there are various goals of different educations in the elementary years, guidance and presentation of different lessons, which perhaps we can say that providing a suitable background for the emergence of talents, abilities and the application of these abilities in different aspects of life is one of the most important of these goals (Jehani, 2014). The non-specialization of music along with other subjects can be a step towards achieving successful education and in line with the goals of education to provide a favorable environment for the growth of students in different aspects. However, the question is raised that if strong evidence supports the value of music in education, then why is the inclusion of music lessons not supported in the academic course? Erik Jensen (2004; translation of Omrani Gregari, 2016), a famous researcher and neuroscientist, attributes this to the following factors, firstly, many teachers do not know enough about the mechanism of the brain and learning to be able to think about the value of music and the way it affects the body. Second, most of the teachers do not have a musical background and experience, and for this reason, they do not have enough desire to include music in the educational course. The third reason is that teachers and students have time constraints due to the volume of other courses. Fourth, decision-makers give more importance to course grades.