1,384 research outputs found

    The Japanese translation of the Gold-MSI: Adaptation and validation of the self-report questionnaire of musical sophistication

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    This study presents a Japanese translation of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI). The index consists of 38 self-report questions and provides a general sophistication score as well as subscale scores for Active Engagement, Perceptual Abilities, Musical Training, Singing Abilities, and Emotions. The validation of the translation with 689 native Japanese speakers indicated excellent internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the bifactor model structure formulated by the original study of Gold-MSI is maintained reasonably in our data. The strengths of the Gold-MSI self-report inventory are (1) it offers a multifaceted view of musical sophistication, (2) a subset of five subscales can be used to measure different aspects of musical sophistication independently, and (3) the ease of administration as it is a self-report questionnaire. In view of the fact that this inventory and its translations increasingly contribute to research on musical expertise, skills, and abilities, having a Japanese translation may enhance future research in these areas even further

    The Timbre Perception Test (TPT): A new interactive musical assessment tool to measure timbre perception ability

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    To date, tests that measure individual differences in the ability to perceive musical timbre are scarce in the published literature.The lack of such tool limits research on how timbre, a primary attribute of sound, is perceived and processed among individuals.The current paper describes the development of the Timbre Perception Test (TPT), in which participants use a slider to reproduce heard auditory stimuli that vary along three important dimensions of timbre: envelope, spectral flux, and spectral centroid. With a sample of 95 participants, the TPT was calibrated and validated against measures of related abilities and examined for its reliability. The results indicate that a short-version (8 minutes) of the TPT has good explanatory support from a factor analysis model, acceptable internal reliability (α=.69,ωt = .70), good test–retest reliability (r= .79) and substantial correlations with self-reported general musical sophistication (ρ= .63) and pitch discrimination (ρ= .56), as well as somewhat lower correlations with duration discrimination (ρ= .27), and musical instrument discrimination abilities (ρ= .33). Overall, the TPT represents a robust tool to measure an individual’s timbre perception ability. Furthermore, the use of sliders to perform a reproductive task has shown to be an effective approach in threshold testing. The current version of the TPT is openly available for research purposes

    Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

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    Behavioral and subcortical signatures of musical expertise in Mandarin Chinese speakers

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    Both musical training and native language have been shown to have experience-based plastic effects on auditory processing. However, the combined effects within individuals are unclear. Recent research suggests that musical training and tone language speaking are not clearly additive in their effects on processing of auditory features and that there may be a disconnect between perceptual and neural signatures of auditory feature processing. The literature has only recently begun to investigate the effects of musical expertise on basic auditory processing for different linguistic groups. This work provides a profile of primary auditory feature discrimination for Mandarin speaking musicians and nonmusicians. The musicians showed enhanced perceptual discrimination for both frequency and duration as well as enhanced duration discrimination in a multifeature discrimination task, compared to nonmusicians. However, there were no differences between the groups in duration processing of nonspeech sounds at a subcortical level or in subcortical frequency representation of a nonnative tone contour, for f(o) or for the first or second formant region. The results indicate that musical expertise provides a cognitive, but not subcortical, advantage in a population of Mandarin speakers.Peer reviewe

    Timbre's function in the perception of affective intentions: Contextual information and effects of learning

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    Timbre has been identified by music perception scholars as a component in the communication of affect in music. While its function as a carrier of perceptually useful information about sound source mechanics has been established, less is understood about whether and how it functions as a carrier of information for communicating affect in music. To investigate these issues, listeners trained in Chinese and Western musical traditions were presented with phrases, measures, and individual notes of recorded excerpts interpreted with a variety of affective intentions by performers on instruments from the two cultures. These excerpts were analyzed to determine acoustic features that are correlated with timbre characteristics. Analysis revealed consistent use of temporal, spectral, and spectrotemporal attributes in judging affective intent in music, suggesting purposeful use of these properties within the sounds by listeners. Comparison between listeners' perceptions across notes and longer segments also revealed greater accuracy in perception with increased musical context. How timbre is used for musical communication appears to be implicated differently across musical traditions. The important role timbre plays also appears to vary for different positions within a musical phrase, suggesting that patterns of change over time are crucial in emotional communication
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