Summary & Objectives

The MIROR Project deals with the development of an innovative adaptive system for music learning and teaching based on the reflexive interaction paradigm. The platform will be developed in the context of early childhood music education. It will act as an advanced cognitive tutor, designed to promote specific cognitive abilities in the field of music improvisation, both in formal learning contexts (kindergartens, primary schools, music schools) and informal ones (at home, kinder centres, etc.). The reflexive interaction paradigm is based on the idea of letting users manipulate virtual copies of themselves, through specifically designed machine-learning software referred to as interactive reflexive musical systems (IRMS). By definition IRMS are able to learn and configure themselves according to their understanding of learner’s behaviour. We propose to extend the IRMS paradigm with the analysis and synthesis of multisensory expressive gesture to increase its impact on the musical pedagogy of young children, by developing new multimodal interface. The project will be based on a novel spiral design approach involving coupled interactions between the technical partners and the psycho-pedagogical ones. The project will integrate both psychological case-study experiments, aiming to experiment cognitive hypothesis concerning the mirroring behaviour and the learning efficacy of the platform, and validation studies aiming at developing the software in concrete educational settings. The project will contribute to promoting the reflexive interaction paradigm not only in the field of music learning but more generally as a new paradigm for establishing a synergy between learning and cognition in the context of child/machine interaction. The project mostly addresses target c) concerning the development of adaptive and innovative learning systems. However, objectives of target d) are also pursued through the development of a novel music learning appliance.

Objectives

The MIROR project aims primarily at developing the potential of IRMS for the benefit of music education. This includes the design, implementation and validation of concrete pedagogical scenarios in which these IRMS organize and stimulate the learning / teaching processes in the domains of music improvisation, composition and body performance. More precisely, MIROR’s primary goals are the following:

Develop an innovative adaptive and intuitive system for music education, based on the “reflexive interaction” paradigm: the MIROR Platform. The platform will be developed in the context of early childhood music education, as a new learning appliances and advanced tutors, able to promote specific cognitive processing and abilities in the field of music exploration, improvisation and composition. The MIROR Platform will address music improvisation (MIROR-Improvisation), composition (MIROR-Composition) and exploration with/of body gesture (MIROR-Body gesture).

Developing a detailed analysis aiming at assessing the impact of the reflexive interaction paradigm for both music learning and general cognitive/learning processes.

Promoting an active approach to musical culture, based on “music-making” concept, rather than “music-consuming”; promoting the use of the MIROR Platform in children and adults, enabling a wider access to music by experts as well as non experts, and enhance the diffusion of music culture in EU society through experiments with the MIROR Platform in several European countries, producing an User Guide and Teachers’ Guide.