Musical skills and expertise vary greatly in Western societies. Individuals can differ in their repertoire of musical behaviours as well as in the level of skill they display for any single musical ...behaviour. The types of musical behaviours we refer to here are broad, ranging from performance on an instrument and listening expertise, to the ability to employ music in functional settings or to communicate about music. In this paper, we first describe the concept of 'musical sophistication' which can be used to describe the multi-faceted nature of musical expertise. Next, we develop a novel measurement instrument, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) to assess self-reported musical skills and behaviours on multiple dimensions in the general population using a large Internet sample (n = 147,636). Thirdly, we report results from several lab studies, demonstrating that the Gold-MSI possesses good psychometric properties, and that self-reported musical sophistication is associated with performance on two listening tasks. Finally, we identify occupation, occupational status, age, gender, and wealth as the main socio-demographic factors associated with musical sophistication. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical accounts of implicit and statistical music learning and with regard to social conditions of sophisticated musical engagement.
Fathers and the Flexibility Stigma Coltrane, Scott; Miller, Elizabeth C.; DeHaan, Tracy ...
Journal of social issues,
June 2013, Letnik:
69, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Women face an earnings penalty associated with motherhood but researchers have paid scant attention to how fatherhood might influence men's long‐term earnings. Using multiple waves of the National ...Longitudinal Survey of Youth and employing ordinary least squares regression and fixed effects models we investigate what happens to men who modify their employment for family reasons. Previous research shows that men work longer hours and earn more after becoming fathers, but if men are unemployed or reduce work hours for family reasons, they could experience a “flexibility stigma” depressing earnings and limiting future career opportunities. We find strong support for the flexibility stigma hypothesis. Controlling for the effects of age, race, education, intelligence, occupation, job tenure, work hours, health limitations, marital status, and number of children, we find that men who ever quit work or are unemployed for family reasons earn significantly less than others in the future. Theoretical reasons for observed findings are discussed.
The majority of children under the age of 5 appear to show spontaneous enjoyment of singing, being exposed to music and interacting with musical instruments, but whether variations in engaging in ...such activities in the home could contribute to developmental outcomes is still largely unknown. Critically, researchers lack a comprehensive instrument with good psychometric properties to assess the home musical environment from infancy to the preschool years. To address this gap, this paper presents two studies that describe the development and validation of the Music@Home questionnaire, which comprises two versions: Infant and Preschool. In Study 1, an initial pool of items was generated and administered to a wide audience of parents (n = 287 for the Infant, n = 347 for the Preschool version). Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify different dimensions comprising the home musical environment of both infants and pre-schoolers, and to reduce the initial pool of items to a smaller number of meaningful items. In Study 2, convergent and divergent validity and internal and test-retest reliability of the new instrument were established, using data from a different sample of participants (n = 213 for the Infant, n = 213 for the Preschool version). The second study also investigated associations between the Music@Home and musical characteristics of the parents, such as their musical education and personal engagement with music. Overall, the Music@Home constitutes a novel, valid and reliable instrument that allows for the systematic assessment of distinct aspects of the home musical environment in families with children under the age of 5. Furthermore, the Infant and Preschool versions of the Music@Home present differential associations with musical characteristics of the parents opening a new area of inquiry into how musical exposure and interaction in the home may vary across different developmental stages.
Abstract Over our evolutionary history, humans have faced the problem of how to create and maintain social bonds in progressively larger groups compared to those of our primate ancestors. Evidence ...from historical and anthropological records suggests that group music-making might act as a mechanism by which this large-scale social bonding could occur. While previous research has shown effects of music making on social bonds in small group contexts, the question of whether this effect ‘scales up’ to larger groups is particularly important when considering the potential role of music for large-scale social bonding. The current study recruited individuals from a community choir that met in both small ( n = 20–80) and large (a ‘megachoir’ combining individuals from the smaller subchoirs n = 232) group contexts. Participants gave self-report measures of social bonding and had pain threshold measurements taken (as a proxy for endorphin release) before and after 90 min of singing. Results showed that feelings of inclusion, connectivity, positive affect, and measures of endorphin release all increased across singing rehearsals and that the influence of group singing was comparable for pain thresholds in the large versus small group context. Levels of social closeness were found to be greater at pre- and post-levels for the small choir condition. However, the large choir condition experienced a greater change in social closeness as compared to the small condition. The finding that singing together fosters social closeness – even in large group contexts where individuals are not known to each other – is consistent with evolutionary accounts that emphasize the role of music in social bonding, particularly in the context of creating larger cohesive groups than other primates are able to manage.
Previous studies have suggested that the prosocial effects which arise following synchrony during music and dance may serve as a mechanism for people to bond socially. However, other research has ...proposed that synchrony could be a mechanism for signalling coalition to demonstrate fitness, which is expressed by a group's ability to effectively cooperate. In the present studies, we compared these theories by showing participants realistic virtual avatars engaged in different forms of group dance and then examining their perceived social closeness and formidability of the dance groups. We conducted two studies to assess the perceptual influence of movement type (unison vs. coordinated) and movement quality (temporally aligned vs. temporally misaligned). We predicted that the difference in the ratings of closeness and formidability would only emerge when the groups align movements, and this was supported. We also hypothesised that unison movement would better signal formidability while coordinated movement would better signal a group's social closeness. However, unison movement yielded higher ratings than coordinated movement for both formidability and social closeness, suggesting that a group should move in complete synchrony to maximally indicate their fitness and social bonds.
•Groups perceived to be more closely bonded and formidable when movements temporally align.•Completely synchronised movement maximally indicates a group's social bonds and formidability.•Realistic virtual avatars better represent human movement than point-light-display.
There is growing evidence that music can induce a wide range of visual imagery. To date, however, there have been few thorough investigations into the specific content of music-induced visual ...imagery, and whether listeners exhibit consistency within themselves and with one another regarding their visual imagery content. We recruited an online sample (N = 353) who listened to three orchestral film music excerpts representing happy, tender, and fearful emotions. For each excerpt, listeners rated how much visual imagery they were experiencing and how vivid it was, their liking of and felt emotional intensity in response to the excerpt, and, finally, described the content of any visual imagery they may have been experiencing. Further, they completed items assessing a number of individual differences including musical training and general visual imagery ability. Of the initial sample, 254 respondents completed the survey again three weeks later. A thematic analysis of the content descriptions revealed three higher-order themes of prominent visual imagery experiences: Storytelling (imagined locations, characters, actions, etc.), Associations (emotional experiences, abstract thoughts, and memories), and References (origins of the visual imagery, e.g., film and TV). Although listeners demonstrated relatively low visual imagery consistency with each other, levels were higher when considering visual imagery content within individuals across timepoints. Our findings corroborate past literature regarding music's capacity to encourage narrative engagement. It, however, extends it (a) to show that such engagement is highly visual and contains other types of imagery to a lesser extent, (b) to indicate the idiosyncratic tendencies of listeners' imagery consistency, and (c) to reveal key factors influencing consistency levels (e.g., vividness of visual imagery and emotional intensity ratings in response to music). Further implications are discussed in relation to visual imagery's purported involvement in music-induced emotions and aesthetic appeal.
Objectives
Treatment guidelines for acute pulmonary embolism (PE) recommend risk stratifying patients to assess PE severity, as those at higher risk should be considered for therapy in addition to ...standard anticoagulation to prevent right ventricular (RV) failure, which can cause hemodynamic collapse. The hypothesis was that 12‐lead electrocardiography (ECG) can aid in this determination. The objective of this study was to measure the prognostic value of specific ECG findings (the Daniel score, which includes heart rate > 100 beats/min, presence of the S1Q3T3 pattern, incomplete and complete right bundle branch block RBBB, and T‐wave inversion in leads V1–V4, plus ST elevation in lead aVR and atrial fibrillation suggestive of RV strain from acute pulmonary hypertension), in patients with acute PE.
Methods
Studies were identified by a structured search of MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane library, Google Scholar, Scopus, and bibliographies in October 2014. Case reports, non‐English papers, and those that lacked either patient outcomes or ECG findings were excluded. Papers with evidence of a predefined reference standard for PE and the results of 12‐lead ECG, stratified by outcome (hemodynamic collapse, defined as circulatory shock requiring vasopressors or mechanical ventilation, or in hospital or death within 30 days) were included. Papers were assessed for selection and publication bias. The authors also assessed heterogeneity (I2) and calculated the odds ratios (OR) for each ECG sign from the random effects model if I2 > 24% and fixed effects if I2 < 25%. Funnel plots were used to examine for publication bias.
Results
Forty‐five full‐length studies of 8,209 patients were analyzed. The most frequent ECG signs found in patients with acute PE were tachycardia (38%), T‐wave inversion in lead V1 (38%), and ST elevation in lead aVR (36%). Ten studies with 3,007 patients were included for full analysis. Six ECG findings (heart rate > 100 beats/min, S1Q3T3, complete RBBB, inverted T waves in V1–V4, ST elevation in aVR, and atrial fibrillation) had likelihood and ORs with lower‐limit 95% confidence intervals above unity, suggesting them to be significant predictors of hemodynamic collapse and 30‐day mortality. OR data showed no evidence of publication bias, but the proportions of patients with hemodynamic collapse or death and S1Q3T3 and RBBB tended to be higher in smaller studies. Patients who were outcome‐negative had a significantly lower mean ± SD Daniel score (2.6 ± 1.5) than patients with hemodynamic collapse (5.9 ± 3.9; p = 0.039, ANOVA with Dunnett's post hoc), but not patients with all‐cause 30‐day mortality (4.9 ± 3.3; p = 0.12).
Conclusions
This systematic review and meta‐analysis revealed 10 studies, including 3,007 patients with acute PE, that demonstrate that six findings of RV strain on 12‐lead ECG (heart rate > 100 beats/min, S1Q3T3, complete RBBB, inverted T waves in V1–V4, ST elevation in aVR, and atrial fibrillation) are associated with increased risk of circulatory shock and death.
Statin therapy appears to reduce incidence of venous thromboembolism in secondary analyses of non-venous thromboembolism trials, but no evidence has shown effect of statins in large population ...samples. The objective of this study was to examine the magnitude of the effect of statin therapy on venous thromboembolism recurrence across a large statewide population.
This was a retrospective analysis of the Indiana Network for Patient Care database. All patients with an International Classification of Diseases-defined diagnosis of either deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism from 2004-2017 were included. We collected Generic Product Identifier codes to determine whether patients had been prescribed a statin medication and divided patients into 2 groups: + or − statin. We then performed a propensity-matching analysis to balance covariates and created a final logistic regression model with statin use as the predictor variable and venous thromboembolism recurrence as the dependent variable.
This study included a total of 192,908 patients with documented statin use in 13.5%. Venous thromboembolism recurrence occurred in 16% of all patients over the study period. After propensity matching, patients not on a statin were found to have significantly higher rates of venous thromboembolism recurrence (20% vs 16%, P < .0001). Logistic regression yielded an odds ratio of 0.75 (95% confidence interval, 0.72-0.79) for venous thromboembolism recurrence for those on statin therapy.
We found that a statin prescription reduced risk of venous thromboembolism recurrence by approximately 25% after adjusting for risk factors, supporting the adjunctive role of statins in the prevention of venous thromboembolism recurrence.
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