The effects of music as a cue in maintaining handwashing in preschool children.

Attempted to determine the effects of a training song in maintaining a self-help skill which had been taught using the song. A total of 22 preschool children of varying abilities were taught to wash their hands in a 10-step procedure that was described in the "Handwashing Song." After posttesting, Ss were divided into 4 groups depending on how many steps they had mastered during training. Group 1, controls, received no reinforcement to maintain hand-washing skills. Group 2 heard only the music of the song while washing their hands; Group 3 heard only the words, spoken in a normal voice. Group 4 heard the complete song. Ss who received the words-only and complete-song maintenance procedures (Groups 3 and 4) maintained their posttest scores better than the controls and the music-only Ss (Groups 1 and 2). When the groups were randomly switched (i.e., those in conditions 1 and 2 exchanging places with those in conditions 3 and 4), Ss who were switched to the words-only condition significantly improved the scores they had made in the previous conditions, but those switched to the complete-song condition showed no improvement.