A novel tool for evaluating children's musical abilities across age and culture

Peretz, Isabelle; Gosselin, Nathalie; Nan, Yun; Caron-Caplette, Émilie; Trehub, Sandra E.; Beland, Renée

doi:10.3389/fnsys.2013.00030

Cited by 83 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Even in this very large sample size including a range of ages, there was no evidence that the m-factor was correlated with age. This contrasts with Peretz et al (2013), who found a small correlation between the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Abilities (MBEMA) with age (Pearson's r varying from 0.29 for untrained children to 0.31 for musically trained children) in a population from 6 to 8 years old). Regarding our lack of correlation with age, it is important to emphasize that this is a cross-sectional study.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 62%

“…Thus, the items are stable indicators of MP. Previously, different hypotheses have been raised in terms of comparing cultures on their MP skills (Zatorre, 2016) and language background (Peretz et al, 2013). However, without precise information regarding batteries designed to measure MP and their invariance features in those target groups, results may be biased due to differential item functioning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the m-factor can be considered optimal for use with averagely skilled children, and consequently our battery may not optimally measure MP among children with amusia or with exceptional musical skills. Children with congenital amusia are “…unable to recognize well-known tunes in the absence of lyrics, and they have difficulty differentiating melodies on the basis of pitch cues alone, despite having normal hearing, speech, and intellectual ability, and ample opportunity for musical exposure” (Peretz et al, 2013). To optimize assessment of such a poorly skilled population, it would be necessary to know two parameters obtained via confirmatory factor analysis: each item's factor loading and threshold.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most previous batteries, such as the MBEMA (Peretz et al, 2013) and The Primary Measure of Music Audiation (Gordon, 1986) consist exclusively of stimuli built around tonality; however, there is little a priori reason to restrict items to a single musical code. Moreover, increased variety will permit exploration of how each item and its respective parameters behave psychometrically within a multidimensional model.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intermediate measures are similar to the primary measures but include more difficult items. Recently, Peretz et al (2013) introduced the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Abilities (MBEMA), comprised of tests of memory, scale, contour, interval, and rhythm, administered to 245 children in Montreal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

et al. 2017

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Given the relationship between language acquisition and music processing, musical perception (MP) skills have been proposed as a tool for early diagnosis of speech and language difficulties; therefore, a psychometric instrument is needed to assess music perception in children under 10 years of age, a crucial period in neurodevelopment. We created a set of 80 musical stimuli encompassing seven domains of music perception to inform perception of tonal, atonal, and modal stimuli, in a random sample of 1006 children, 6–13 years of age, equally distributed from first to fifth grades, from 14 schools (38% private schools) in So Paulo State. The underlying model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. A model encompassing seven orthogonal specific domains (contour, loudness, scale, timbre, duration, pitch, and meter) and one general music perception factor, the “m-factor,” showed excellent fit indices. The m-factor, previously hypothesized in the literature but never formally tested, explains 93% of the reliable variance in measurement, while only 3.9% of the reliable variance could be attributed to the multidimensionality caused by the specific domains. The 80 items showed no differential item functioning based on sex, age, or enrolment in public vs. private school, demonstrating the important psychometric feature of invariance. Like Charles Spearman's g-factor of intelligence, the m-factor is robust and reliable. It provides a convenient measure of auditory stimulus apprehension that does not rely on verbal information, offering a new opportunity to probe biological and psychological relationships with music perception phenomena and the etiologies of speech and language disorders.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

et al. 2017

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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are impaired in absolute but not relative pitch and duration matching in speech and song imitation

et al. 2021

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Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit atypical imitation. However, few studies have identified clear quantitative characteristics of vocal imitation in ASD. This study investigated imitation of speech and song in English‐speaking individuals with and without ASD and its modulation by age. Participants consisted of 25 autistic children and 19 autistic adults, who were compared to 25 children and 19 adults with typical development matched on age, gender, musical training, and cognitive abilities. The task required participants to imitate speech and song stimuli with varying pitch and duration patterns. Acoustic analyses of the imitation performance suggested that individuals with ASD were worse than controls on absolute pitch and duration matching for both speech and song imitation, although they performed as well as controls on relative pitch and duration matching. Furthermore, the two groups produced similar numbers of pitch contour, pitch interval‐, and time errors. Across both groups, sung pitch was imitated more accurately than spoken pitch, whereas spoken duration was imitated more accurately than sung duration. Children imitated spoken pitch more accurately than adults when it came to speech stimuli, whereas age showed no significant relationship to song imitation. These results reveal a vocal imitation deficit across speech and music domains in ASD that is specific to absolute pitch and duration matching. This finding provides evidence for shared mechanisms between speech and song imitation, which involves independent implementation of relative versus absolute features. Lay Summary Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit atypical imitation of actions and gestures. Characteristics of vocal imitation in ASD remain unclear. By comparing speech and song imitation, this study shows that individuals with ASD have a vocal imitative deficit that is specific to absolute pitch and duration matching, while performing as well as controls on relative pitch and duration matching, across speech and music domains.

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Meludia platform as a tool to evaluate music perception in pediatric and adult cochlear implant users

Calvino,

Zuazua,

Sanchez-Cuadrado

et al. 2023

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol

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Purpose Music perception is one of the greatest challenges for cochlear implant (CI) users. The aims of this study were: (i) to evaluate the music perception of CI users using the online Meludia music training program as music testing platform, (ii) to compare performance among three age groups, and (iii) to compare CI users with their normal hearing (NH) peers. Methods 138 individuals participated, divided between children (6–10 y), adolescents (11–16 y), and adults (≥ 17 y). Five music perception tasks were evaluated: Rhythm, Spatialization, Stable/unstable, Melody, and Density. We also administered the music related quality of life (MuRQoL) questionnaire for adults, and a music questionnaire for pediatric population (6–16 y) (MuQPP). Results A significantly higher percentage of the adolescent CI users completed the five tasks compared to the other age groups. Both pediatric and adolescent CI users had similar performance to their NH peers in most categories. On the MuRQoL, adult NH listeners reported more music exposure than CI users (3.8 ± 0.6 vs 3.0 ± 0.6, p < 0.01), but both groups reported similar levels of perceived music importance (3.4 ± 0.7 vs 3.2 ± 1.1, p = 0.340). On the MuQPP, pediatric CI users who scored highly on music perception also had higher reported questionnaire scores (54.2 ± 12.9 vs 40.9 ± 12.1, p = 0.009). Conclusions Meludia can be used to evaluate music perception and to use for music training in CI users of all ages. Adolescents had the highest performance in most musical tasks. Pediatric CI users were more similar to their NH peers. The importance of music in adult CI users was comparable to their NH peers.

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A novel tool for evaluating children's musical abilities across age and culture

Cited by 83 publications

References 55 publications

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are impaired in absolute but not relative pitch and duration matching in speech and song imitation

Meludia platform as a tool to evaluate music perception in pediatric and adult cochlear implant users

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