Education for maximal adaptivity : cognition & learning in expert rap improvisers
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In the three papers included in this dissertation, I examine the cognitive processes and learning habits of expert Hip-Hop lyricists (i.e., composers/performers of rap lyrics—rappers) to better understand human adaptability in relation to the processing of organized sound information and its use as a resource in music, language, and linguistically mediated knowledge. I focused my investigations on expert rap improvisers, rappers fluent in the extemporaneous generation of rhyming lyrics and novel rhythmic patterns, set to syncopated rhythms in real time. I chose to study this population because their practice is extremely adaptive in nature, integrating music and language, highly-complex cognitive abilities common to most humans. In the first study, I used electroencephalograph to determine how expert rap improvisers differ from laypersons in their neurological processing of rhyme. In the second study, I use perception-based and feature-based measures of psychoacoustic similarity to determine how expert rap improvisers differ from laypersons in their judgments of half-rhyme acceptability and their classification of speech sounds. In the third paper, I introduce and provide empirical support for a theory of learning, domain traversal, which describes the phenomenon whereby creative writing (and rap in particular) uniquely encourages learners' self-directed engagement with knowledge from multiple domains, and how through this process learners develop (or enhance) dispositions toward metacognitive thinking, interdisciplinary perspective-taking, and lifelong learning. The three papers demonstrate that, apart from its entertainment value, expertise in rap practice is associated with neurological and perceptual adaptation, and the development of adaptive learning dispositions.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Cross, Keith Gerard |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Ball, Arnetha F, 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Ball, Arnetha F, 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Anttila, Arto |
| Thesis advisor | Fujioka, Takako |
| Thesis advisor | Pea, Roy D |
| Degree committee member | Anttila, Arto |
| Degree committee member | Fujioka, Takako |
| Degree committee member | Pea, Roy D |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Education. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Keith G. Cross, Jr. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Education. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Keith Gerard Cross
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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