Individual differences in musical scene analysis abilities across normal-hearing and hearing-impaired individuals

Abstract

In this dissertation, individual differences in Musical Scene Analysis (MSA)—the ability to perceptually organise concurrent sound sources within polyphonic musical mixtures—were investigated across four empirical studies. The first study surveyed hearing health among professional and amateur musicians, revealing high rates of hearing-related difficulties. The second study developed and validated an adaptive MSA test using realistic musical mixtures, demonstrating good reliability and sensitivity to hearing thresholds. The third showed that musical training enhances MSA abilities, while ageing and hearing loss reduce performance; working memory capacities showed only weak, non-robust effects. The fourth applied the MSA test to hearing aid users, revealing that dynamic range compression differentially affects MSA performance and sound quality. Together, the findings establish MSA as a construct shaped by auditory, cognitive, and experiential factors