Conferences, Symposiums, Workshops     view all upcoming

• Researchers and other interested people are invited to come to Linköping, Sweden for the First international meeting on Internet & Audiology, which will be held the 3-4 October 2014. This is not a typical conference as there will be no conference fee. Abstracts for short presentations (15 minutes) which present new and innovative research are invited; submission deadline is July 15, 2014  Website
   
  

AIRS News

• Dr. Bing-Yi Pan is presenting a paper at The Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS) conference in early July:  Pan, B.Y., & Cohen, A.J. (2014). Music training enhances implicit imitation of timing in both music and language domains.
  

The AIRS Test Battery of Singing Skills was employed to explore whether music training enhances the implicit rhythm acquisition in music and language imitating. 20 musicians and 20 non-musicians were asked to repeat 17 speaking and singing pieces after voice models. Normalized rhythms (responding rhythm divided by model rhythm) were compared. Over all 17 (4 language tasks) comparisons, musicians’ mean performances were closer to the model.

Recent Publications

• Arla J. Good, Frank A. Russo, & Jennifer Sullivan. (2014). The efficacy of singing in foreign-language learning. Psychology of Music. DOI:  10.1177/0305735614528833
  

  This study extends the popular notion that memory for text can be supported by song to foreign-language learning. Singing can be intrinsically motivating, attention focusing, and simply enjoyable for learners of all ages. The melodic and rhythmic context of song enhances recall of native text; however, there is limited evidence that these benefits extend to foreign text. In this study, Spanish-speaking Ecuadorian children learned a novel English passage for 2 weeks. Children in a sung condition learned the passage as a song and children in the spoken condition learned the passage as an oral poem. Children were tested on their ability to recall the passage verbatim, pronounce English vowel sounds, and translate target terms from English to Spanish. As predicted, children in the sung condition outperformed children in the spoken condition in all three domains. The song advantage persevered after a 6-month delay. Findings have important implications for foreign language instruction.
   

• Patrick E. Savage & Steven Brown. (2014). Mapping music: Cluster analysis of song-type frequencies within and between cultures. Ethnomusicology, 58(1), 133-155.
  

Conferences, Symposiums, Workshops    view all upcoming

AIRS News

• The final AIRS Student and Early Career Researcher Workshop program (27-29 June 2014 at Ryerson University, Toronto) is now available. link
  

• The AIRS Policy & Planning Committee met at Ryerson University at the end of May. The meeting was very productive and successful in terms of progress on the project as a whole, and for planning of the book project. 
  

P and P Committee Meeting     
 

• An AIRS Symposium entitled: "Singing Across the Lifespan: Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing - A Lifespan Megaproject" organized by Laurel Young, Leader of the AIRS Sub-Theme 3.3 Singing and Health) will be presented at the 3rd meeting of the International Association of Music and Medicine (IAMM) 3:30 to 5:00 pm, Wednesday, June 25th, Walter Hall, University of Toronto Faculty of Music. A total of 8 papers that will be presented.   link