ABSTRACT
Asoko et al.,2 working with 260 pupils between the ages of 4 and 16, explored ideas about sound production in four contexts: a guitar string being plucked; a toy hooter horn being sounded by squeezing the bulb; stones being dashed together; and a cymbal being struck. Although they
found that reference to movement or vibration of the sound source became more common with increasing age, this was context-specific to objects which could very obviously be seen to vibrate, such as the guitar string and the cymbal. (Younger children often indicated vibrations by using words such as 'wobble', or by gesturing with their hands.) No pupils used ideas about vibrations consistently, in all contexts.
