Assessing musical abilities objectively: construction and validation of the profile of music perception skills

Abstract

A common approach for determining musical competence is to rely on information about individuals' extent of musical training, but relying on musicianship status fails to identify musically untrained individuals with musical skill, as well as those who, despite extensive musical training, may not be as skilled. To counteract this limitation, we developed a new test battery (Profile of Music Perception Skills; PROMS) that measures perceptual musical skills across multiple domains: tonal (melody, pitch), qualitative (timbre, tuning), temporal (rhythm, rhythm-to-melody, accent, tempo), and dynamic (loudness). The PROMS has satisfactory psychometric properties for the composite score (internal consistency and test-retest r>.85) and fair to good coefficients for the individual subtests (.56 to.85). Convergent validity was established with the relevant dimensions of Gordon's Advanced Measures of Music Audiation and Musical Aptitude Profile (melody, rhythm, tempo), the Musical Ear Test (rhythm), and sample instrumental sounds (timbre). Criterion validity was evidenced by consistently sizeable and significant relationships between test performance and external musical proficiency indicators in all three studies (.38 to.62, p<.05 to p<.01). An absence of correlations between test scores and a nonmusical auditory discrimination task supports the battery's discriminant validity (-.05, ns). The interrelationships among the various subtests could be accounted for by two higher order factors, sequential and sensory music processing. A brief version of the full PROMS is introduced as a time-efficient approximation of the full version of the battery.

Figure 1. Percentage increase in publications from 2005 to 2011.

Source is Web of Science. Number of publications across the time period is higher for language (539 to 817) and memory (1,140 to 2,031) than for music (81 to 162), but growth is faster in the music domain. As shown by the decrease in art-related publications, the increase in music publication is not due to a general increase in scientific publications relating to the arts.

Figure 2. Example of melody trials.

An easy trial consists of a tonal melody (upper part) as opposed to a complex trial, which is atonal (lower part). *Represents the alteration in the comparison-stimuli.

Figure 3. Example from the standard rhythm trials.

An easy trial consists of a simple rhythm (mostly quarter notes and eighth notes), as compared with a complex trial, which consists of a more complicated rhythm (eighth notes and sixteenth notes). *Represents the alteration in the comparison-stimuli.

Figure 4. Example of rhythm-to-melody trials.

An easy trial consists of a simple rhythm (mostly quarter notes and eighth notes), as compared with a complex trial, which consists of a more complicated rhythm (eighth notes and sixteenth notes). All melodies (comparison-stimuli) are tonal. *Represents the alteration in the comparison-stimuli.

Figure 5. Example of accent trials.

The top figure shows the level domain of the accent subtest and the bottom figure shows the time domain of the accent subtest. As the top figure shows, the intensities of the accent notes (a) are represented by the sign>in the time domain figures, Accent (a’). Accent (b) shows the unaccented notes (second, third, and fourth beats) are −3 dB lower than the accented note, which can also be seen in the comparison-stimulus in the time domain - Accent (b’). The example of a complex trial shows the alteration affecting only one or two events. *Represents the alteration in the comparison-stimuli.

Figure 6. Illustration of the timbre subtest.

The easy trial consists of two groups of instruments from altogether different families. In the complex trial, the instrument changes on only one note are taken from the same family (strings).

Figure 7. Illustration of tuning trials.

The difficulty of tuning trials is manipulated by the extent to which the note E4 is shifted out of its proper frequency (from 10 to 50 cents).

Figure 8. Scattergram plotting total PROMS scores at Time 1 against Time 2.

Units are d prime values (d′).

Figure 9. Scattergram plotting PROMS performance against an aggregate index of musical training.

Training includes years of musical training, music degrees and qualifications, critical listening activities, and musicianship status (main text). Extent of training predicts PROMS performance substantially but imperfectly (r = .57, p<. 01). Upper left corner: Example of a “musical sleeper” performing well despite minimal musical training. Lower right corner: Example of a “sleeping musician” posting a lesser performance despite extensive musical training.