The effects of wait time on the tonal pattern performance accuracy of second- and fourth-grade students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of wait time on children's singing accuracy to clarify the relationship between the physical and psychological constructs involved in singing. The subjects were 85 second- and 79 fourth-grade students. The 8-week study included (a) administration of Gordon's Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation (Tonal) and Rutkowski's Singing Voice Development Measure (revised Tranberg, 2004), (b) researcher and subject echo-response singing of tonal patterns with and without wait time, and (c) recording of subjects performing 15 tonal patterns (5 familiar in familiar order, 5 unfamiliar and 5 familiar in unfamiliar order) with and without wait time. Individual performances were scored by 3 judges using a 5-point rating scale. A (2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 2) Analysis of Variance with Repeated Measures was conducted on tonal performance ratings. Main and interaction effects were calculated for between-subject factors: Grade, Singing Accuracy and Wait Order; and within-subject factors: Wait Condition and Pattern Type. A significant interaction effect for Wait Condition x Pattern Type ( p = .03) and significant main effects for Wait Condition ( p < .001), Pattern Type (p < .001), Singing Accuracy (p < .001) and Wait Order (p = .03) were found. Stepwise multiple linear regressions were conducted to determine if Singing Accuracy and IMMA-different were significant predictors of tonal pattern performance. Both SVDM and IMMA-different were significant predictors for pattern performance with wait time, regardless of familiarity or order of patterns, for both grades. Although students performed tonal patterns significantly better without wait time, a relationship between tonal pattern performance and music aptitude became apparent. Use of wait time seemed to highlight the connection between tonal music aptitude, measured by ability to aurally discriminate differences, and singing accuracy in the performance of tonal patterns that had some unfamiliar aspect. Results seem to indicate that in order for wait time to be effective in engaging aural/cognitive processing or audiation it may be necessary to teach a deeper understanding or thought process for patterns in conjunction with the physical constructs related to accurate singing.