Assessing musical ability quickly and objectively: development and validation of the Short‐PROMS and the Mini‐PROMS

Abstract

The study of musical ability has gained considerable traction across disciplines in recent years. In comparison, less effort has been invested in the development of sound measures of musical ability. To redress this gap, we conducted four studies to empirically validate two brief measures derived from the Profile of Music Perception Skills (PROMS)-an exceptionally inclusive battery of musical abilities that takes about 1 h to complete. In the Short-PROMS, test duration was reduced to less than half an hour by substantially reducing the number of trials per subtest. In the Mini-PROMS, the number of subtests was reduced to four, resulting in a battery that takes 15 min to complete. Both measures exhibited good internal consistency and retest reliability. Support for convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity was found across the studies. Additional strengths of the new instruments include their suitability for online administration and a feature called Modular PROMS, which offers researchers the possibility to request customized batteries that may include any combination of the subtests. The role of refining objective assessment instruments in research on music and the mind is discussed.

The mistuning perception test: A new measurement instrument

“…It is difficult to make principled comparisons of test–retest reliability between studies, because the standard metrics (Pearson correlation, intraclass correlation coefficient) do not generalize between participant populations and because test–retest reliability can be affected by practice effects, which can differ between tests (e.g., Bird, Papadopoulou, Ricciardelli, Rossor, & Cipolotti, 2003). Nonetheless, it is worth noting the mistuning test–retest reliabilities previously reported for the PROMS ( r = .68; Law & Zentner, 2012), PROMS-Short ( r = .47; Zentner & Strauss, 2017), and Mini-PROMS ( r = .63; Zentner & Strauss, 2017). We are not aware of test–retest studies for the scale test of the PSYCHOACOUSTICS toolbox (Soranzo & Grassi, 2014), but the test–retest reliability for the pitch discrimination test of this toolbox is high ( r = .87; Smith, Bartholomew, Burnham, Tillmann, & Cirulli, 2017).…”

“…The listener’s task is then to identify the mistuned scales. In the PROMS battery (Law & Zentner, 2012; see also the PROMS-Short and the Mini-PROMS, Zentner & Strauss, 2017), the listener is played a C major chord synthesized with a piano timbre and has to identify chords in which the major third (E4) has been mistuned, with the potential mistunings ranging from 10 to 50 cents.…”

Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction

“…The Mini-PROMS test is a computer-based online test which comprises 36 items with subtests on melody, tuning, tempo and accent that are based on pair-wise comparisons of acoustical stimuli. It is a short version of the PROMS test battery developed by Law and Zentner (2012) and was used to assess the musical perception skills of the participants (Zentner and Strauss, 2017). Summarizing the individual subtests, the Mini-PROMS test also provides a total score with a range between 0 and 36.…”

Hand-clapping to the rhythm of newly learned words improves L2 pronunciation: Evidence from Catalan and Chinese learners of French

“…In order to take into account individual differences, prior to the experiment, a series of control tests were carried out for each participant during a separate session that lasted around 40 minutes. In this session measures were taken of a) short-term memory through a memory span task with lists of Catalan words [12], b) narrative ability through a story retelling task involving a short cartoon [13], c) imitation skills through an elicited imitation task involving 12 words in six different languages, d) perceptual abilities through a phonological discrimination task with nonwords [14], e) perceptual rhythmic abilities through a standard musical rhythm and accent perception test [15], and f) a rhythm hand-clapping replication test with six rhythmic samples (4/4 meter, 2 measures).…”