Guitar Research & Evidence-Based Practice 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A researcher uses 'purposive sampling' to recruit guitarists for a study on professional stage fright. This means participants were selected because:
- They volunteered randomly through a public advertisement
- They possess specific characteristics relevant to the research question (Correct answer)
- They were assigned by a computer random-number generator
- They were drawn from a nationally representative registry
Correct answer: They possess specific characteristics relevant to the research question
Purposive sampling deliberately selects participants who have the characteristics, experiences, or knowledge most relevant to the study's purpose.
Question 2: Which of the following practice strategies has the STRONGEST empirical support for skill retention in motor learning research applicable to guitar?
- Massed practice (long, infrequent sessions)
- Distributed practice (shorter, more frequent sessions) (Correct answer)
- Passive listening without active playing
- Practicing only at performance tempo from day one
Correct answer: Distributed practice (shorter, more frequent sessions)
Distributed (spaced) practice has robust empirical support for long-term retention compared to massed practice, a finding well-established in motor learning research.
Question 3: An IRB (Institutional Review Board) review is required before conducting research involving human participants primarily to:
- Ensure the research will be published in a high-impact journal
- Protect participants' rights, welfare, and confidentiality (Correct answer)
- Guarantee the study will produce statistically significant results
- Limit research to tenured faculty members
Correct answer: Protect participants' rights, welfare, and confidentiality
IRBs exist to safeguard human research participants by reviewing studies for ethical standards, informed consent procedures, and risk minimization.
Question 4: In a guitar performance study, researchers find r = 0.85 between hours of deliberate practice and sight-reading scores. What does this correlation indicate?
- Deliberate practice causes better sight-reading
- There is a strong positive association between practice hours and sight-reading scores (Correct answer)
- 85% of students improved their sight-reading
- The study used 85 participants
Correct answer: There is a strong positive association between practice hours and sight-reading scores
A correlation of r = 0.85 indicates a strong positive relationship, but correlation alone does not establish causation.
Question 5: Which term describes a guitar teacher's willingness to change instructional methods when credible new research contradicts traditional approaches?
- Pedagogical conservatism
- Reflective practice and evidence responsiveness (Correct answer)
- Eclectic teaching
- Apprenticeship modeling
Correct answer: Reflective practice and evidence responsiveness
Reflective practice involves critically evaluating one's methods against evidence and adjusting accordingly, a core competency in evidence-based teaching.
Question 6: A guitar pedagogy researcher uses 'member checking' as part of the research process. This involves:
- Verifying that all study participants are registered guild members
- Sharing interpretations or findings with participants to confirm accuracy (Correct answer)
- Checking whether all team members have completed their data coding
- Reviewing membership statistics of music education associations
Correct answer: Sharing interpretations or findings with participants to confirm accuracy
Member checking is a qualitative trustworthiness strategy where researchers return findings to participants to verify that interpretations accurately reflect their experiences.
Question 7: When a researcher reports Cohen's d = 0.8 for the effect of a new ear training method on guitar students' intonation, this is interpreted as:
- A small effect
- A large effect (Correct answer)
- No statistically significant difference
- 80% of students improved
Correct answer: A large effect
By Cohen's conventions, d = 0.8 represents a large effect size, indicating a practically meaningful difference between conditions.
Guitar Research & Evidence-Based Practice 5
A researcher uses 'purposive sampling' to recruit guitarists for a study on professional stage fright.
This means participants were selected because: