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Intelligence and musical improvisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

B. Hermelin ,
N. O'Connor ,
S. Lee  and
D. Treffert
B. Hermelin*
Affiliation:
MRC Development Psychology Project, Institute of Education, University of London
N. O'Connor
Affiliation:
MRC Development Psychology Project, Institute of Education, University of London
S. Lee
Affiliation:
MRC Development Psychology Project, Institute of Education, University of London
D. Treffert
Affiliation:
MRC Development Psychology Project, Institute of Education, University of London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr B Hermelin, MRC Developmental Psychology Project, 18 Woburn Sq., London WC1H ONS.
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Synopsis

We investigated whether somebody with a severe mental impairment could not only remember and reproduce music, but was also able to generate it. Musical improvisation requires the ability to recognize constraints and also demands inventiveness.

Musical improvisations on a traditional, tonal and also on a whole tone scale composition were produced by a mentally handicapped and by a normal control musician. It was found that not only the control but also the handicapped subject could improvise appropriately within structural constraints, although with the tonal music the idiot-savant showed some stylistic latitude. It is concluded that cognitive processes such as musical input analysis, decision making, and output monitoring are independent of general intellectual status.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , May 1989 , pp. 447 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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