ASSOCIATION OF PREFERENCE FOR MODALITY TO LEARNING OF RHYTHM PATTERNS IN MUSIC

Summay.-This study examined the relationship between preferences for learning modality and the learning and short-term retention of musical rhythm patterns. 55 third graders completed the Swassing Barbe Modality Index. These students were also presented two-measure rhythm patterns through their visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities. Analysis indicated that children who preferred on the modality index one modality over others tended to prefer that same modality when learning simple musical rhythms. The relationship among students' preferred learning modaltcies and the basic skills, such as reading and mathematics, have been given much attention (2, 3). With increasing frequency we are told that, when children are taught through their strongest learning modalities, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, they learn better and more easily. Whether such a relation is found among the learning modalities and music skills is only beginning to be examined (1, 5, 6). The purpose of this study was to assess whether the learning and retention of music rhythms is related to learning modalities. The subjects, from a rural, working class background, were 55 third graders ranging in age from 8 yc, 3 mo. to 9 yr., 10 mo. (M = 9 yc, 3 mo.). Thirty-one were boys. Forty-four percent of the subjects were Caucasian, 38% Mexican-American, and 18% black. These chiidren completed the Swassing-Barbe Modality Index (2). It is a matching-to-sample task requiring children to recreate increasingly complex series of small individual plastic shapes. The task involves each of the three modahties in turn. Chddren either see the shapes in specific orders on large plastic strips, listen to lists of these shapes being read, or touch plastic strips containing these shapes without seeing them. The evaluation of students' performance of tasks was conducted in a nonsystematic fashion to avoid possible bias. The test-retest reliability of the three subtests falls within acceptable limits for an instrument of ttus type (2, 4). When the children completed the Modality Index, they were asked to play two randomly selected one-measure patterns and then two randomly selected two-measure patterns. The modahty order of the rhythmic tests was also randomized to avoid possible bias. Following a brief demonstration to ensure understanding, children played the rhythm patterns on a tonebeu after visual stimulation: seeing a pictorial representation of a rhythm; or after aural stimulation: heating a rhythm played on a second tonebell; or after kinesthetic stimulation: being rhythmically patted on the shoulder. Four one-measure and four two-measure rhythm patterns had been previously constructed and were considered to be of similar difficulty. AU patterns were in 414 meter, contained only quarter notes and pairs of eighth notes, and all ended on a quarter note. Rests and syncopations were avoided. The number of trials to one correct replication of each rhythmic pattern in each modality was recorded. As subjects in an earlier pilot test became frustrated after repeatedly being unable to replicate the pattern, a limit of five trials was set as the maximum score. For example, if a child was unable to reproduce accurately a one-measure rhythmic pattern after five trials, the researcher presented a second rhythmic pattern in the same modality. After two randomly selected one-measure patterns were tested, two two-measure patterns were then