Music (Indian Music) Perception Test Battery for Individuals using Hearing Devices

Abstract

The main objective of the present study was to develop a music perception test battery which can be utilized by those using hearing devices in Indian context. The music perception test battery consists of five tests. They are, pitch discrimination test, pitch ranking test, rhythm discrimination test, melody recognition test and instrument identification test. These tests assess the pitch, rhythm, melody and timber parameters of music perception. The music perception abilities were compared across four groups; normal hearing who were trained in music, normal hearing who were untrained in music, participants who were users of hearing aids and participants who were users of cochlear implants. It was found that individuals with normal hearing who were trained in music performed equally well on all tests of music perception. However, individuals with normal hearing who were not trained in music, scored well on pitch discrimination, rhythm discrimination, and melody recognition tasks. Hence, the music perception test battery developed as a part of this study is a use fal test to differentiate the trained and untrained listeners. It was found that the users of cochlear implants performed well on pitch and rhythm discrimination tasks but their performance was reduced on tests related to perception of timber, pitch interval and melody perception. The music perception test battery can be used to assess the efficacy of various hearing devices in processing music.