Musical Development as a Cognitive Ability Essay -- Psychology Psychol

Musical Development as a Cognitive Ability Cognitive Psychology Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This paper discusses theories of cognitive development and its relationship to musical development. Cognitive development is closely related to musical development and learning. Jean Piaget developed theories of the cognitive development in children. Musicologists have developed theories on how musical development has cognitive components. Cognitive development is acquired through interaction with an environment, just as musical development is acquired through interaction with a musical environment. Jean Piaget on Cognitive Development   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cognitive development is the investigation of how mental skills build and change with increasing physiological maturity (maturation) and experience (learning) (Sternberg, p.444). Cognitive development involves qualitative changes in thinking, as well as quantitative changes, such as increasing knowledge and ability (Sternberg, p.444). Most cognitive psychologists agree that developmental changes occur as a result of the interaction of maturation (nature) and learning (nurture) (Sternberg, p. 444). According to Sternberg, despite the differences in theoretical approaches, there are some basic principles that that crosscut the study of cognitive development (Sternberg, p.446). First, over the course of development, people seem to gain more sophisticated control over their own thinking and learning. As people grow older, they become more capable of more complex interactions between thought and behavior. Second, people engage in more thorough information processing with age. Third, people become increasingly able to comprehend successively more complex relationships over the course of development. Finally, over time, people develop increasing flexibility in their uses of strategies or information. (Sternberg, p.446) He explains that as people grow older they become less bound to using information in just a single context, and they learn how to apply it in a greater context (Sternberg, p.446).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most influential contributors to developmental research is Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896- 1980). His theory of cognitive development is one of the most comprehensive in the field (Sternberg, p.446). Piaget believed that the function of intelligence is to aid in adaptation to the environment (Sternberg, p.44... ...derlying tonal and metrical structures to guide their song performance, even though they seem to have no reflective awareness of such structures (Sloboda, p. 214). Changes in musical awareness between the ages of five and ten seem to reflect a general intellectual change from inactive competence, which is displayed only within the bounds of specific and directed activities, to a reflective awareness of the structures and principles which underlie such competence (Sloboda, p. 215). Piaget would characterize this change as moving from pre-operational to operational though (Sloboda, p. 215). In music it is marked by an increased ability to explicitly classify music as conforming to rule or style, and an increasing advantage of memory and perceptual tasks for those sequences which conform to rule (Sloboda, p. 215) Works Cited Sloboda, J.A. (1985) The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music. Oxford Psychology Series No. 5. Clarendon Press, Oxford. pp. 194-215. Sternberg, Robert J. (2003) Cognitive Psychology. Thomson-Wadsworth. Third edition. pp. 444- 449. Swanwick, Keith (2001) â€Å"Musical Development Theories Revisited†. Music Education Research, Vol.3, No.2.