The Effects of Failure on Children's Ability to Perform a Musical Test

Abstract

This study investigated children's affective and behavioural responses during an evaluative musical testing situation. In particular, the study focused on the effects of test-failure on children's musical test-performance. Fifty-one children (aged 6-10) were individually administered a standardised Melodic Direction Test (Trial 1). Then, they were taught to perform a similar experimenter-devised test on which they encountered success (Trial 2) followed by experimenter-induced failure (Trial 3). After both Trial 2 and 3 they were asked to give their self-perceptions of competence and to predict their performance on subsequent tests. Results showed that, following failure, over half the children experienced a deterioration (maladaptive "helpless" behaviour) in their test-performance on a test identical to Trial 2 (Trial 4); the test-performance of the other children either remained the same or improved (adaptive "mastery" behaviour). Additionally, it was found that children who reported low confidence following failure experienced more performance deterioration than children who reported high post-failure confidence. No differences were found in the test-performance of children identified as mastery and helpless on the standardised test (Trial 1); however, helpless children scored higher than mastery children on the success condition (Trial 2). The study demonstrates that children's performance on tests of music cognition is influenced not only by their levels of cognitive skill but also by their affective and behavioural states during testing. Implications for music practitioners are discussed.