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This article examines the effects of Montessori music-movement activities on the development of the rhythmic abilities of 59 children from Montessori preschools, aged between 3 and 6 years. Children were deployed into two experimental groups (EG 1 (n = 20) & EG 2 (n = 22)) and a control group (CG) (n = 17). Our intervention consisted of introducing 15 to 20 min of unstructured movement time, either accompanied by a piano (EG 1) or recording (EG 2), three times a week for four months, whereas the control group carried on the usual Montessori program. We used a quasi-experimental nonequivalent groups design with pretest–posttest. Three tests for measuring rhythmic abilities were used: auditory discrimination of the rhythmic patterns, imitation of spoken rhythmic phrases, and determining the synchronization of movement with the rhythm of the music. The interventions had a positive effect on the development of the rhythmic abilities of children included in the study. The most significant effect was noticed in EG 1, while no effect of non-activity was detected in the control group.

The aim of this research was to explore gender differences in musical taste and the mediating role of functions of music between gender and musical taste. The research included 740 Croatian and Slovenian students. The results confirmed the existence of gender differences in both musical taste and functions of music. Females preferred the Reflective-Complex musical style, while males showed greater preferences towards Intense- Rebellious style of music. There was no significant gender difference in preferring Traditional and Contemporary Ethno or Energetic and Rhythmic musical style. With regard to the functions of music, there were no significant differences between males and females in identity/culture and background and focus/concentration functions of music. Males assessed political attitudes as a more important function of music than females, while females assessed all other functions of music higher than males did. A complete mediation effect of functions of music was established for gender and Reflective-Complex and Slo-Yugo Pop musical style.

The aim of this study was to explore the differences in musical preferences between Slovene and Croatian students. The sample consisted of 369 students from Slovenia and 371 students from Croatia. The results show that there are significant differences in musical preferences between Slovene and Croatian students. Furthermore, differences with regard to gender, age and study program were confirmed.

The aim of our study is to explore university students’ attitudes towards musical improvisation (MI). Musical improvisation is a fundamental form of musical creativity, but even though the latter should be the ground point in music education, it is, unfortunately, a quite neglected activity. Formal music education prevails in the traditional approach in educating future musicians, where very little attention is given to fostering musical creativity. The purpose of our research is to investigate the attitudes towards improvisation in music students at the Academy of Music in Zagreb (Croatia) and the Academy of Music in Ljubljana (Slovenia). The results obtained indicate that there are differences in attitudes to MI between Croatian and Slovenian music students. The differences between students were determined with regard to the sources of knowledge and skills of MI, the prevalence of MI, the self-perception of quality of improvisation and in emotions elicited by MI. In accordance with the reported results, it was concluded that there was not enough attention and importance given to the development of improvisational skills and knowledge during formal music education at the music academies in Croatia and Slovenia and that it was necessary to successively develop these values throughout the entire music education. These results represent a significant guideline for improving the educational practice of future professional musicians, as well as its adaptation to the changes and needs of contemporary society.

Although flow has been studied extensively in music and sport, there is a lack of research comparing these two domains. With the aim of filling this gap, elite musicians and top athletes in Slovenia were contrasted in the current study. Differences for flow and satisfaction with life between elite musicians and top athletes were explored. Individual versus group performance setting and gender differences were considered. 452 participants; 114 elite Slovenian musicians (mean age 23.46 years) and 338 top Slovenian athletes (mean age 22.40 years) answered questions about flow and satisfaction with life measures. The results show differences between elite musicians and top athletes in four flow dimensions: transformation of time and autotelic experience were higher in musicians while clear goals and unambiguous feedback were higher in athletes. However, differences in global flow were not confirmed. Elite musicians and top athletes experienced flow more often in group than in individual performance settings and surprisingly it was experienced more in male than in female top performers. Satisfaction with life has a positive correlation with all nine dimensions of flow, but only challenge-skill balance was a significant predictor for satisfaction with life.

The aim of the present study was to investigate job resources and demands and their relatedness to work flow. In line with the three-dimensional model of flow, absorption, work enjoyment and intrinsic work motivation were explored as separate outcomes. Our predictions were tested using a sample of 293 higher education teachers in Slovenia. The participants indicated their levels of flow, job demands (e.g., workload) and job resources (e.g., variety and autonomy) using the Slovenian version of the work flow inventory and job demands-resources scales. Our hypotheses were tested using moderated multiple regression where main as well as interactive effects between job resources and demands were examined. Autonomy and variety were found to enhance absorption, work enjoyment and intrinsic work motivation. Furthermore, autonomy was found to be the most important predictor of all the work flow dimensions. In contrast, workload was not significantly related to any of the outcomes. We also found interactive effects of variety and workload as well as variety and autonomy on absorption.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of rumination and reflection in teachers' classroom stress and burnout, thereby assessing their predictive value per se and their role as moderators between teacher reported job characteristics and stress and burnout. 439 elementary school teachers participated in the study. Dispositional characteristics explained additional variance in teachers' stress and burnout beyond job characteristics. Rumination was a significant predictor of both stress and burnout, whereas reflection was not. However, reflection moderated the relation between job characteristics and stress. These results highlight the importance of simultaneously investigating environmental and dispositional characteristics of teachers' strain.

The study investigated the influence of Mozart’s music on respondents’ brain activity while solving spatial rotation and numerical tasks. The method of induced event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) and coherence (ERCoh) was used. The music condition had a beneficial influence on respondents’ performance of spatial rotation tasks, and a slightly negative influence on the performance of numerical tasks as compared with the silence condition. On the psychophysiological level a general effect of Mozart’s music on brain activity in the induced gamma band was observed, accompanied by a more specific effect in the induced lower-2 alpha band which was only present while respondents solved the numerical tasks. It is suggested that listening to Mozart’s music increases the activity of specific brain areas and in that way facilitates the selection and “binding” together of pertinent aspects of sensory stimulus into a perceived whole.

Twenty individuals solved a visual oddball task in two response conditions: while listening to the Mozart's sonata K. 448, and while listening to nothing. The recorded event-related potentials (ERP) were analyzed in the time and frequency domains. In the music response condition the ERP peak latencies on the left hemisphere increased, whereas on the right hemisphere a decrease of peak latencies as compared with the silence response condition was observed. In the theta, lower-1 alpha and gamma band increases in induced event-related coherences were observed while respondents solved the oddball task and listened to music, whereas a decoupling of brain areas in the gamma band was observed in the silence response condition. It is suggested that auditory background stimulation can influence visual brain activity, even if both stimuli are unrelated.

The event-related responses of 18 individuals were recorded while they were listening to 3 music clips of 6 s duration which were repeated 30 times each. The music clips differed in the level of their complex structure, induced mood, musical tempo and prominent frequency. They were taken from Mozart's sonata (K. 448), and Brahms' Hungarian dance (no. 5). The third clip was a simplified version of the theme taken from Haydn's symphony (no. 94) played by a computer synthesizer. Significant differences in induced event-related desynchronization between the 3 music clips were only observed in the lower-1 alpha band which is related to attentional processes. A similar pattern was observed for the coherence measures. While respondents listened to the Mozart clip, coherence in the lower alpha bands increased more, whereas in the gamma band a less pronounced increase was observed as compared with the Brahms and Haydn clips. The clustering of the three clips based on EEG measures distinguished between the Mozart clip on the one hand, and the Haydn and Brahms clips on the other, even though the Haydn and Brahms clips were at the opposite extremes with regard to the mood they induced in listeners, musical tempo, and complexity of structure. This would suggest that Mozart's music--with no regard to the level of induced mood, musical tempo and complexity--influences the level of arousal. It seems that modulations in the frequency domain of Mozart's sonata have the greatest influence on the reported neurophysiological activity.