The Musicality of Non-Musicians: Measuring Musical Expertise in Britain Daniel Müllensiefen Goldsmiths, University of London
Why do we need to assess musical sophistication? Need for a reliable tool to quickly assess musical expertise in music cognition research We cannot rely solely on musical training as a proxy for musical abilities Expert listeners with limited formal training No standardised questionnaire instrument to assess skilled musical behaviours Need to recognize multiple facets of musical expertise: Music writers, commentators, critics Music educators Music producers, recording engineers DJs
Earlier tests of musical expertise Self-report questionnaires: Cuddy, Balkwill, Peretz, & Holden (2005), Ollen (2006), Werner, Swope, & Heide (2006), Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham (2007), MacDonald & Stewart (2008), Chin & Rickard (2012) Musical ability tests: Seashore, Lewis, & Saetveit (1960), Wing (1962), Bentley (1966), Gordon (1989), Wallentin et al. (2010), Law & Zentner (2012) Conceptual suggestions: Hallam & Prince (2003), Bigand (2006), Honing (2011), Levitin (2012) Missing: (Focus on musical expertise) x (Covering wide range of musical skills) x (Combining self-report and objective testing)
What is the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI)? A new definition of musical sophistication A new self-report inventory A new battery of listening tests A lot of data Joining self-report questionnaire and ability tests into one research tool and make it freely available
A lot of data... Pilot study self-report inventory with BBC LabUK (n = 488) BBC LabUK online implementation How Musical Are You? (n ~ 148,000) Lab study testing reliability and correlation with other tests (n = 53) 2 studies investigating the validity of self-report inventory and the correlation with personality traits (n = 224, n = 44) 5 extended lab studies for optimisation of listening tests (together: n ~ 600) Online implementation for Channel 4 s Hidden Talent Show (n = 3,793) Testing tapping abilities of visitors at London Science Museum (n ~ 300)
Analogues to musical expertise Review of expertise research literature in other domains Art expertise (Augustin & Leder, 2006; Leder & al., 2004) Wine (Hughson & Boakes, 2002, Hughson & Boakes 2009) Physics (Chi, Feltovich, & Glaser, 1981) Greater expertise in one domain is associated with more structured cognitive representations that exhibit a clearer hierarchical organization (Ericsson & Smith, 1991; Glaser, 1994; Honeck et al., 1987)
A new definition of musical sophistication Musical Sophistication: Psychometric construct comprising musical skills, expertise, achievements and related behaviours across a range of facets measured on different subscales. Assumptions: Facets of musical sophistication can develop through active engagement with music in its many different forms. Individuals vary in their level of sophistication on the different facets. High levels of musical sophistication are generally characterised by higher frequencies for exerting the musical skills or behaviours greater ease, accuracy or effect of the musical behaviour when executed a greater and more varied repertoire of behaviour patterns associated with it
Comparing with earlier models Definition of musical sophistication builds on similar concepts introduced earlier: Hallam & Prince (2003) and Ollen (2006) also stressed the multidimensional nature of musical sophistication including aural skills, receptive responses, and the different abilities to make music What is new in our definition: Emphasizes other skilled musical behaviours besides instrumental practice Is not biased towards art music Assess real-world and high-level musical skills Includes a self-assessment of musical skills Models musical sophistication as a continuous parameter Is explicitly linked to cognitive theories of expertise in other domains
The BBC s How Musical Are You? test
The BBC s How Musical Are You? test How Musical Are You? Test implemented by BBC Lab UK and promoted on the BBC network in 2011 148,037 participants 70 items self-report inventory on musical background, behaviour, self-assessed skills Four objective perceptual and production tests Minimal socio-demographic data Duration: ~25 minutes Final feedback on relationship with music as well as objective scores
The dimensions of musical sophistication Data: 147,633 participants responding to 70 question items Analysis goals: 1. Identify latent factor structure and cluster items into subscales 2. Refine and shorten subscales 3. Assess internal reliability on fresh dataset Techniques: Factor analysis, item response models, structural equation modelling
Factor analysis on the How Musical Are You? data Best model: one general factor and 5 dimensions Active engagement Perceptual abilities Musical training Singing abilities Emotions Item response theory used to shorten the questionnaire 5 scales comprising 6 to 9 items; 38 items in total Cronbach s alpha between.789 and.900
Strong general factor of musical sophistication Evidence: High eigenvalue of 1 st factor, high inter-factor correlations, high ω hierarchical 5 distinct dimensions of musical sophistication They can be measured by 6-9 items each Evidence: Good overall model fit (RMSEA=.06, SPMR=.06, CFI=.88, TLI=.87) Evidence: High internal reliabilities of subscales (Cronbach s α >.79)
Test-retest reliability and comparison with other scales Test-Retest Reliability (n=53, mean time lag= 64 days) Convergent Validity: Correlations with MEQ (n=141) Convergent Validity: Correlations with AMMA (n=44) Active Engagement.90**.20*.41** Perceptual Abilities.89**.32**.51** Musical Training.97**.40**.43** Singing Abilities.94**.42**.43** Emotions.86**.19*.32* General Musical Sophistication.97**.45**.50**
Musical sophistication and personality traits (TIPI) n=141 Active Engagement Perceptual Abilities Musical Training Singing Abilities Emotions General Sophistication Extraversion.20**.29**.27**.34**.18*.33** Agreeableness.10.19**.10.19*.14*.18* Conscientiousness Emotional Stability -.13 -.08 -.12 -.12 -.16* -.16*.08.18*.13.13.04.16* Openness.39**.36**.30**.33**.41**.43** Extraversion (Eysenck).33**.31**.19*.44**.28**.35**
Musical sophistication and personality traits High scores on Openness to Experience associated with: Cognitive ability (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2004) Aesthetic interest (McManus & Furnham, 2006; Furnham & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004) Powerful emotional reactions when listening to music (Vuoskoski & Eerola, 2011)
Interim summary The Gold-MSI self-report inventory is a valid and reliable measure of different facets of musical sophistication It comprises 5 factors and 1 general factor It is based on self-assessed skills and self-reported behaviours How does self-reported sophistication compare to performance in listening tests?
Listening tests 13-item Melodic Memory test: AB comparison novel folk tunes akin to Dowling & Bartlett (1982) and Cuddy & Lyons (1981)
Listening tests 17-item Beat Perception test: correct/incorrect judgement unknown instrumental tunes from rock, jazz, popular classical variant of Iversen & Patel s (2008) Beat Alignment Test
Listening tests 16-item Sound Similarity test: 800ms audio excerpts from typical rock, pop, hiphop, jazz songs Sorting paradigm similar to Gingras et al. (2011) Inspired by Gjerdingen & Perrott (2008) and Krumhansl (2010)
Listening tests 129,560 participants provided complete data for all three tests plus the self-report inventory
Musical Training benefits melodic memory (β=.22 ) and beat perception performance Modelling self-reported and test performance (β=.17) Perceptual Abilities benefit melodic memory (β=.15) and beat perception (β=.17) Accurate sound similarity judgements are related to Active Engagement (β=.11) but not to Musical Training (β=.03)
Modelling self-report and test performance The general musical sophistication factor indexes all three test scores The three listening tests measure different abilities => low inter-test correlations (r <.15)
Musical sophistication and socio-economic variables How does self-reported musical sophistication relate to socio-economic variables? Data: 90,474 Brits from How Musical Are You? sample Analyses: Random Forest regression Post-hoc analysis based on permutation tests Regression tree models (Strobl et al., 2009)
SES affecting self-reported General Musical Sophistication Higher musical sophistication: Younger people, creative professions (media, music) and flexible occupational status (at school, uni, self-employed) But: R 2 =.045
The role of wealth How does wealth of local area affect test scores and selfreported Musical Sophistication? Data: Averages (self-report, test scores) by local authority of ~90,000 Brits from How Musical Are You? Sample Median income by local authority from 2011 Annual Survey of Earnings (National Office of Statistics and Ordnance Survey)
Correlations with income Musical Training ~ Annual Income (r =.31) Active Engagement ~ Annual Income (r =.01)
Correlations with income General Sophistication ~ Annual Income (r =.14) Combined test score ~ Annual Income (r =.40)
Musical landscapes
Summary Gold-MSI is a valid and reliable self-report inventory and test battery for musical skills and expertise. Identification of psychological and social conditions related to musical sophistication: Intensive engagement with music is highest in early, flexible periods of life Musical behaviour and skills seem to change with life circumstances (occupation, age) Substantial correlation of regional income with musical training and objectively assessed listening skills But: Main proportion of individual differences not explained by SES factors All components of the Gold-MSI: Are freely available for research purposes Are fully documented Have data norms derived from an adult population
Next Steps Causes, Consequences and Correlations: Genetics: Heritability of hearing ability and musical listening skills: Twin study with DTR, St Thomas Hospital Neuroscience: Neuroanatomical correlates of individual differences in basic auditory and high-level musical skills: MRI study with ICN Psychological and social factors: Secondary data analysis of joined datasets from Personality Test (Cambridge) and Great British Class Survey (LSE/Uni Manchester)
How to get the Gold-MSI Materials for download (documentation and audio stimuli): http://www.gold.ac.uk/music-mind-brain/gold-msi/ Online version of the tests: http://www.gold.ac.uk/music-mind-brain/goldmsi/online-tests/ BBC version: How musical are you https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/musicality/
Thank you! The Gold-MSI Core Team: Daniel Müllensiefen Jason Musil Lauren Stewart Very helpful people: Amit Avron Thenille Braun Monika Ruscynski Naoko Skiada Katharina Bauer