An Independent Psychometric Evaluation of the PROMS Measure of Music Perception Skills

PLoS One. 2016 Jul 11;11(7):e0159103. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159103. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The Profile of Music Perception Skills (PROMS) is a recently developed measure of perceptual music skills which has been shown to have promising psychometric properties. In this paper we extend the evaluation of its brief version to three kinds of validity using an individual difference approach. The brief PROMS displays good discriminant validity with working memory, given that it does not correlate with backward digit span (r = .04). Moreover, it shows promising criterion validity (association with musical training (r = .45), musicianship status (r = .48), and self-rated musical talent (r = .51)). Finally, its convergent validity, i.e. relation to an unrelated measure of music perception skills, was assessed by correlating the brief PROMS to harmonic closure judgment accuracy. Two independent samples point to good convergent validity of the brief PROMS (r = .36; r = .40). The same association is still significant in one of the samples when including self-reported music skill in a partial correlation (rpartial = .30; rpartial = .17). Overall, the results show that the brief version of the PROMS displays a very good pattern of construct validity. Especially its tuning subtest stands out as a valuable part for music skill evaluations in Western samples. We conclude by briefly discussing the choice faced by music cognition researchers between different musical aptitude measures of which the brief PROMS is a well evaluated example.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Auditory Perception*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Music*
  • Psychometrics / methods*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by a Dutch science organization (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek: www.nwo.nl/) Spinoza Prize awarded to PH and a PhD grant from the Max Planck Society (www.mpg.de) to RK. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.