Name:Hsun-Yi, Liao

School/Affiliation:International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), University of Montreal

Co-Authors:Dawn Merrett; Fidaa Akrout; Isabelle Héroux; Isabelle Peretz

Virtual or In-person:In-person

Short Bio:

I’m a M.Sc. student in Psychology-Research at University of Montréal and I would like to discover the efficacy and the underlying mechanism of using music for cognitive rehabilitation. I’m also interested in learning the languages of different cultures, as well as their music and musical instruments, from ancient to modern. I have a classical music background in childhood, and I’ve been learning and playing guqin, the foremost solo instrument of traditional Chinese music, for about 18 years. I’m a licensed psychiatrist in Taiwan, and I’m interested in researching the application of music for taking care of psychiatric patients, especially for their functional recovery. That is the reason why I studied music therapy at Montpellier 3 Paul-Valéry University and became a clinical musical therapist in France. My current research is focused on using choral singing to promote the social integration, well-being and French learning of new immigrants.

Abstract:

Background. Group singing is theorized to rapidly foster social bonding among newcomers, but whether this translates into observable interaction remains unclear. We tested whether an 8-week choir increases social engagement and reduces time spent alone during a refreshment break.
Method. New immigrants in Québec were assigned to a choir (n=23) or control group (n=41). Social behavior during snack breaks at baseline and completion was video-recorded and quantified via two approaches: (a) session-level time-sampling, analyzed with distributional/homogeneity tests; and (b) software-assisted, individual-level coding yielding proportional durations of social engagement and being alone, analyzed with linear mixed-effects models. Perceived inclusion was assessed with the Inclusion of Other in the Self scale.
Results. Time-sampling indicated that choir participants increased overall engagement and shifted from co-national to host-community interactions, whereas controls showed no overall gains and drifted toward co-national peers. In the software-assisted data, no pre–post main effects emerged in the choir, although perceived inclusion increased. Exploratory models qualified these null results: a time-by-age interaction indicated larger engagement gains among younger participants; newcomers who could already speak some French (self-reported at baseline) spent less time alone than those who didn’t speak French; and interactions with host-community members depended on residence length: those living in Québec for 1–2 years increased their engagement, whereas those <1 year in Québec showed little change. Discussion. Overall, results appeared method-dependent: the time-sampling and software-assisted approaches yielded different conclusions, suggesting that inferences about change vary with operationalization and coding choices, as well as participant characteristics (age, language, residence length).