The relationship between new technology and learning is gaining increasing relevance in the field of music education (Webster, 2002; Folkestad et al., 1998). However, only a few studies have considered the nature of the interaction between children and musical machines. This article describes an observation study of children aged 3–5 years confronting a particular interactive musical system, the Continuator, which is able to produce music in the same style as a human playing the keyboard (Pachet, 2003). The analysis of two case studies suggests that the Continuator is able to develop interesting child/machine interactions and creative musical processes in young children. It was possible to observe a ‘life cycle’ of interaction, as well as micro-processes similar to those observed in child/adult interactions (Stern, 1985; Imberty, 2002). The ability of the system to attract and hold the attention of children has been interpreted through Csikszentmihalyi's (1990) ‘flow theory’.
The presence of flow state was measured and observed in children playing with the MIROR-Improvisation prototype, an interactive reflexive musical system (IRMS). IRMS have been defined as 'flow machines' on account of their ability to imitate the style of the human playing a keyboard. Twentyfour children (4 and 8 years old) took part in three sessions playing a keyboard on three consecutive days. In each session, all children played the keyboard with and without the MIROR-Impro, alone and with a friend. One group of children played the system with a set-up in which the reply is more similar to the child's input (set-up Same). The other group played the system with the set-up Very Different, in which the reply is less similar to the child's input. The results show that the flow state is higher when the children play with MIROR-Impro, with the set-up Same and in 8year-old children. These results would support the hypothesis that IRMS and reflexive interaction can generate an experience of well being and cre-ativity. The flow grid worked in an effective way and it was possible to identify some aspects of the system that could be improved.
Background in music education. The present study deals with various the interaction between children and musical machines. One of the principal aims is to understand how the use of interactive musical systems can affect the learning and the musical creativity of children and more especially of younger children (3 to 5 years old).Background in artificial intelligence. An innovative system was conceived at the Sony CSL in Paris which is able to produce music in the same style as the person playing the keyboard. The name chosen for this machine is the Continuator. Its basic design is that of Interactive Reflective systems where the core concept is to teach musical processes indirectly by putting the user in a situation where learning takes place through the actual interaction between the user and the system.Aims. The aim of the study is to understand in what way the children relate to this particular interactive musical system, what kinds of musical and relational behaviours are developed, and how interactive reflective systems can be used in the educational field to stimulate creativity and the pleasure of playing. Method. The study involved 27 children aged 3 to 5 years, in a kindergarten inBologna (Italy). Three sessions were held once a day for 3 consecutive days. In every session, the children were asked to play on the keyboard in 4 different situations: with the keyboard alone, with the keyboard connected to the Continuator, with another child, and with another child and the Continuator.Results. The present paper reports the observation of three particular aspects: the emergence of a life cycle of interaction, moving from initial surprise, to phases featuring excitement, analytical behaviour and invention; the fact that the two tasks involving the system gave rise to the longest attention span characterized by strong intrinsic motivation and joint attention; the varied nature of the listening behaviours. Conclusion.The results show how an interactive reflective system such as the Continuator can develop interesting child/computer interaction and promote creative musical behaviours in young children. This outcome points to the considerable potential offered by the association between the disciplines of music education and artificial intelligence.
In this article children’s musical improvisation is investigated through the “reflexive interaction” paradigm. We used a particular system, the MIROR-Impro, implemented in the framework of the MIROR project (EC-FP7), which is able to reply to the child playing a keyboard by a “reflexive” output, mirroring (with repetitions and variations) her/his inputs. The study was conducted in a public primary school, with 47 children, aged 6–7. The experimental design used the convergence procedure, based on three sample groups allowing us to verify if the reflexive interaction using the MIROR-Impro is necessary and/or sufficient to improve the children’s abilities to improvise. The following conditions were used as independent variables: to play only the keyboard, the keyboard with the MIROR-Impro but with not-reflexive reply, the keyboard with the MIROR-Impro with reflexive reply. As dependent variables we estimated the children’s ability to improvise in solos, and in duets. Each child carried out a training program consisting of 5 weekly individual 12 min sessions. The control group played the complete package of independent variables; Experimental Group 1 played the keyboard and the keyboard with the MIROR-Impro with not-reflexive reply; Experimental Group 2 played only the keyboard with the reflexive system. One week after, the children were asked to improvise a musical piece on the keyboard alone (Solo task), and in pairs with a friend (Duet task). Three independent judges assessed the Solo and the Duet tasks by means of a grid based on the TAI-Test for Ability to Improvise rating scale. The EG2, which trained only with the reflexive system, reached the highest average results and the difference with EG1, which did not used the reflexive system, is statistically significant when the children improvise in a duet. The results indicate that in the sample of participants the reflexive interaction alone could be sufficient to increase the improvisational skills, and necessary when they improvise in duets. However, these results are in general not statistically significant. The correlation between Reflexive Interaction and the ability to improvise is statistically significant. The results are discussed on the light of the recent literature in neuroscience and music education.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.