ASA 124th Meeting New Orleans 1992 October

3pMU7. A short multicomponent music test battery.

Annabel J. Cohen

Dept. of Psychol., Acadia Univ., Wolfville, NS B0P 1X0, Canada

This half-hour battery, which included 16 subtests, examined lower- and higher-level perceptual/cognitive and affective responses to musical stimuli. A comparison of the results from two independent groups of university students revealed highly significant correlations between response patterns both over individual items and over subtests. The agreement between the two groups supports the feasibility of the short multicomponent test for providing a musical-abilities profile of diverse populations, and a potential screening and classification instrument for individuals. Although past music tests have been applied primarily within the domain of music education, recently several tests (e.g., Seashore MMT, Gordon MAP, and Gordon PMMA) have been employed in cognitive neuropsychology, music therapy, or audiological contexts for the purposes of understanding neurological function and determining effects of aging, hearing loss, and hearing assistive devices. The efficiency, breadth, and variety of the present test recommend it for similar research applications in which time for testing and attention span of the listeners may be greatly constrained. [Work supported by NSERC and SSHRC.]