A real time continuous response device to register subjective judgments of video recorded music therapy. (1st June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Strange, John
• Is Part Of: Nordic journal of music therapy. Volume 25(2016)Supplement 1
• Page Start: 151
• Page End: 152
• Publication Date: 2016-06-01
• Subjects: Music therapy -- video micro-analysis -- continuous response; Music therapy -- Scandinavia -- Periodicals; Music Therapy -- Periodicals; 615.85154
• DOI: 10.1080/08098131.2016.1180201
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0809-8131

Abstract

Abstract : Background : Music therapy experiences include many moments, during any of which significant therapeutic change may be triggered. Memory often reduces these moments into a general impression of the global experience but reveals almost nothing of how it arose and developed. This is why micro-analysis of the therapist's as well as the client's musical behaviour is valuable. The challenge : Continuous autonomic responses such as respiration or blood pressure are registered digitally, but judgment and emotional self-report are by preference expressed in words, introducing a delay between event and response. Moving a cursor on a scale bypasses words, but visually tracking it distracts from the clinical video to be assessed. A solution : In a recent experiment, subjects watching excerpts from music therapy sessions responded uni-dimensionally using a device not requiring visual monitoring. This consisted of a physical pointer whose direction could be judged tactually, moving around a ninety degree arc divided into segments. Pointer positions were filmed together with the image on the video screen, producing a visual record linking event and response. The visual record included the soundtrack of the clinical video, allowing responses to be noted on a prepared musical transcription.