This study used a qualitative approach to measure on-task behavior in teenagers with ASD by utilizing four-point Likert scale surveys, and is adapted from the methodology used by Greenleaf (Greenleaf, 2018). The study consisted of a control and intervention stage. The former was a means of gauging students’ initial behavior in the classroom with no music playing, while the latter was when classical music played in the background and the Likert scale survey was conducted.
The Playlist
The curated classical music playlist included various different pieces from the three eras, including the works of Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, Bach, and more. The pieces which were used in the playlist were the following:
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P. I. Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings in C major, mvt. 2, “Valse”
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F. Chopin, Nocturne No. 2 in E♭ major
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L. V. Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, mvt. 2
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C. Debussy, Suite Bergamasque, mvt. 3, “Clair de Lune”
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A. Vivaldi, Concerto for 2 Violins in A minor, mvt. 1
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W. A. Mozart, Serenade No. 13 in G major, mvt. 1, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
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A. Vivaldi, Concerto No. 1 in E major, mvt. 1, "Spring"
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J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, mvt. 3
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W. A. Mozart, Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major
The playlist represents a wide range of classical music, with three pieces from the Baroque Era, three from the Classical Era, and three from the Romantic Era. It is also a mix of both solo and orchestral/chamber string pieces, with five being solo pieces and the rest being orchestral and chamber strings. The purpose of this curated playlist is to give students a diverse sample of classical music, especially considering the fact that “classical music” is an umbrella term encompassing Western European music from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic Era. These works were chosen as each offers a different aspect of classical music. For example, Tchaikovsky’s selection is in the style of a waltz, characterized by ¾ time, while Vivaldi’s Concerto No. 1 is a chamber string solo piece and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is an orchestral work, containing parts for strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion. In total, the playlist’s duration is around 49 minutes and 51 seconds, which was roughly the length of a lesson. Every day during the intervention stage, the playlist was played in the same order to emphasize consistency. However, as it is difficult to “standardize” classical music and no studies have been done on the specific aspects of classical music which increase attention span, the playlist may potentially be a limitation of the methodology.
Sample Size
This study was performed in collaboration with an autism center located in Singapore, which offered to help provide a class where this study could be conducted. The observer group consisted of three faculty members from the centers who were individuals trained in data collection and working with teenagers with ASD (Greenleaf, 2018). Their task was to see whether the classical music intervention was effective in increasing on-task behavior in teenagers with ASD through the use of the Likert scale survey. Meanwhile, the participant group was comprised of four thirteen-year-old students who were confirmed that they had ASD based on official medical diagnoses. Out of the four students, three were male and one was female. They were all capable of verbal communication, though some chose to employ hand gestures instead. Additionally, as per privacy guidelines, this research paper will employ pseudonyms when referring to specific individuals to protect their identity. Both observers and participants had all signed an Informed Consent Form and had agreed to participate in this study (see Appendix B).
Control Stage
During the control stage, the observers watched and took notes on the students’ behaviors. They were told to do this for all of the participants, as this was to gauge students’ behavioral characteristics during a typical class (Greenleaf, 2018). During the intervention stage, the curated playlist mentioned above was played while the students were participating in a variety of activities, such as reading, drawing pictures, and listening to the teacher. The same playlist as mentioned above was used during each session in the same order for approximately one hour, which was the duration of the session. The music was playing from a laptop at the back of the classroom with the music playing at a volume loud enough to hear, but quiet enough that students could hear the teacher speaking (Greenleaf, 2018). Additionally, since ASD patients may be sensitive to sound, students were given the opportunity to use noise-canceling headphones.
Intervention Stage
After each day during the intervention stage, the observers filled out a four-point Likert scale survey adapted from Berger and colleagues’ research, which explored the psychometric properties of the Scale of Treatment Perceptions — a measure of the efficacy of treatments targeting skill-building interventions for students with ASD and is the same survey used by Greenleaf in her research (Berger et al., 2016; Greenleaf, 2018). The observers would rate on a scale of 1 to 4 (with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 4 being “strongly agree”) each statement based on their observations in the classroom (see Appendix A). For the purpose of this study, attention span is measured using three characteristics: eye contact, listening skills (i.e. responding when prompted by the teacher), and reduction of distracting noises, as these are the main characteristics of proper attention span (Simon et al., 2023). Thus, the prompts in the survey were specifically made to measure these characteristics (Berger et al., 2016). Additionally, the observers were provided with space to note down qualitative observations, hence the mixed method approach.
Statistical Analysis
Once the Likert scale data is collected, it is statistically analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (Berger et al., 2016; Greenleaf, 2018). Given the ordinal nature of Likert-scale data and the relatively small sample size (n = 9), the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was deemed more suitable over the paired t-test used by Berger and colleagues’ study. This is due to the non-normal distribution of the data (i.e. normality could not be assumed) and the robustness of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, ensuring the integrity of the statistical analysis and the reliability of the obtained results. Thus, this statistical test determines the statistical significance of the data and shows whether the classical music intervention was effective or not.
To perform the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, the mean values of the responses for Day 3 and Day 1 must be found, then subtracted from one another. The reason why Day 2 was excluded was because the most significant changes occurred between Day 1 and Day 3, representing the first and last day of the study, respectively. Then, the sum of the positive ranks (W+) and negative ranks (W–) must be determined by adding the positive mean values for W+ and the absolute value of the negative mean values for W– (Berger et al., 2016; Greenleaf, 2018). Of the two sums of the ranks, the smaller value is taken to be the test statistic tstatistic, which is compared to the critical value for a one-tailed test with n = 9 and 𝛼 = .05, which is p = 8. If the test statistic is greater than the critical value, I fail to reject the null hypothesis H0, which is that there is no statistical evidence which indicates that classical music increased the attention span of the teenagers. Alternatively, if the test statistic is smaller than the critical value, I succeed in rejecting the null hypothesis, and an alternative hypothesis Ha is adopted, that being that classical music did indeed increase the attention span of the teenagers.