3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Behavioural evolution in popular music: the transition from traditional to new media contexts in recorded music discovery(2019) Shaw, Jonathan GeorgeThis dissertation examines the construct of music discovery. Music discovery is the behavioural process consumers employ when encountering new music for the first time and what leads them to act on this new discovery. On reviewing literature around music and discovery and exploring this abstract idea, it was found that there is a gap in theory surrounding this context and situation in psychology and consumer behaviour fields. The dissertation is a qualitative examination employing the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) to observe, record and thematically analyse participant responses in or to the discovery moment. The gap identified in the literature is context of music discovery. The literature review examines the foremost construct of the dissertation, being consumption contexts. Consumption context is defined as the situation, environment, setting or disposition the consumer is placed in before or after consumption which gives clarity or meaning to their behaviour. A consumer’s contextual stance can be observed detailing their prior behaviour influencing current choices in the behavioural perspectives model (BPM). Consumption context is often measured through the pleasure-arousal-dominance (PAD) model. Critics of the PAD model believe correlation is not clear evidence of predictive behaviour and the model was internally focussed and did not capture the full scope of situational, or contextual variables, that are possible. The literature is reviewed for the background of music consumption contexts. Here, it is shown that little research looks at why consumers came to listen to certain music in the first place. Music consumption is rooted in a phenomenological hedonic consumption paradigm. Reviewing music consumption literature revealed many side-lined contextual variables which informed the thematic analysis of this dissertation. The differences between music discovery through traditional and new media highlights key conceptual differences between technological, discovery and consumption contexts. Behavioural processes within the ‘discovery moment’ include active, passive, private and social discovery as well as elements of consumer control and consumption anticipation. In the research design, the theoretical framework reasons, from applicable literature, that measuring contextual effects would be best accomplished from obtained PAD measurements from participants for the discovery context. As the PAD model is based upon the stimulusorganism- response (S-O-R) model, thus the S-O-R model of behaviour would be an applicable framework. But, in order to quantify these emotional states, an understanding of the music discovery context is needed. I concluded that the context of music discovery was firstly needed to be understood, qualitatively, before applying quantitative methods. As such, a mixed-method approach would later be employed. ESM was then identified as an applicable methodology and thematic analysis was conducted on participant responses to analyse the discovery context. Music discovery is a relatively new concept within a consumer behaviour or consumer culture theory. Music discovery, as defined as a sub-category of the broader construct of hedonic discovery, is a music metastimulus response interrelated to the discovery situation and behavioural context of the consumer. Discovery is neither simply selecting nor finding music. Findings conclude that music discovery is far easier in transitioning from traditional to new media, as consumers employ new media to identify and acquire music found in traditional media. Music on new media is highly salient, whereas traditional media only reinforces candidate music until salience is reached. Policy recommendations include wide-spread digital aggregation of new vulnerable music to improve discovery. Through examination of music discovery as one category of content and as a lens to understand the discovery process, other entertainment could be explored. Further research is suggested to confirm findings and to build a theory of an encompassing hedonic discovery.Item Ear worms and working memory: how do the inner ear, inner voice and attention keep ear worms looping in memory(2017) Geffen, ThomasThe report evaluates the application of established working memory (WM) theory to the emerging field of involuntary musical imagery (INMI) using an experimental, repeatedmeasures factorial design. First, INMI is defined and characterised by briefly overviewing the literature. Then, the WM model is applied to INMI, and the literature evaluated in light of this application. Most importantly, three mechanisms for sustaining earworms are identified: the inner ear, inner voice and attentional refreshing. The study then aims to see how induced INMI is effected by the suppression of these three mechanisms, on a sample of 29 university students. To do this, the study uses a repeated-measures 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design where participants complete the attention network test (ANT) under eight conditions, based on the combination of these manipulations: chewing gum, hearing foreign speech, easy or difficult ANT. The results found a main effect of the foreign speech, and interactions between chewing gum and attention, and hearing the foreign speech and chewing gum. This suggests that attention plays a definite role in sustaining INMI, or conversely that when distracted and under high attentional load, INMI is supressed. Hearing foreign speech also supresses INMI, which supports the role of the phonological loop (PL), and likely the inner ear, while chewing gum was surprisingly found to facilitate INMI. More descriptively, the study supports the literature in finding that in a South African university sample INMI is a common, positive to neutral experience, but that can be induced experimentally and can be distracting. Ultimately, in proposing and evaluating an application of WM to INMI, the study adds depth to field of INMI by highlighting mechanisms involved in facilitating and supressing INMI.Item Exploring the experience of delirium in hospital, and how music might expand our insight into this phenomenon(2017) Hume, Victoria JaneThis dissertation synthesises the fields of narrative medicine and music composition to address the experience of delirium, and to learn whether music has a role to play in understanding and communicating its nature. My submission takes the form of a written dissertation accompanied by a new musical composition, Delirium Part II. Both written and composed texts are based on interviews and small discussion groups with people who have experienced delirium, their families, and healthcare professionals who are familiar with delirium in people under their care – as well as observation and recording from a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). The composition incorporates both interviews and ambient hospital sounds as audio components, and was performed first on 2 March 2017 at the Music Room, University Corner, University of the Witwatersrand. The study addresses significant gaps in our understanding of delirium, from its definition to the qualities of the experience for all those affected by it. Violence is shown to be inherent to the experience, driven by a cycle that imposes it by turns on HCPs and patients. Delirium is, moreover, characterised by losses of numerous kinds: orientation, dignity, control, and ultimately personhood. This study suggests, however, that it is within our grasp to limit significantly the impacts of these losses through re-evaluating our interactions with patients and families and challenging the dehumanising aspects of care. The music of Delirium Part II, moreover, is shown to have the capacity to contribute to this re-evaluation. There are clear indications here of the potential for music and the arts more broadly to convey complex health experiences, and to be of use in training and education. Music contributes centrally to the development of this research, as a tool both for data analysis and for provoking discussion of a complex, emotive topic. The possibilities for creative practice in narrative medicine are illuminated by this cross-disciplinary study, which demonstrates both that narrative-based musical composition can teach us much about delirium; and that delirium can teach us much about care.