Multivariate Approach to Reading Comprehension and Sight-Reading

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the study of the relationship between reading of music and verbal texts and it seeks to define an ecological music reading task that allows comparison of musical and verbal domains. Participants were preservice music students who performed different music reading tasks correlated with a verbal text comprehension test. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA), was performed, explaining 91,5% of the variance. The following two axes were defined: one related to reading compression and the other to music performance variables. The relationship between the selected variables in the factorial plane, particularly the strong association between sight-reading and literal comprehension, suggest that sight-reading is a relevant factor with regards to the study of musical and verbal domains.