An Investigation of the Relationships Among Music Audiation, Musical Creativity, and Cognitive Style

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate achievement in convergent and divergent musical tasks as a function of the cognitive style dimension of reflectionlimpulsivity. The effect of gender and its interaction with the cognitive style variable were also examined. A random sample of 47 second graders was screened according to reflective/impulsive cognitive style resulting in a final N of 34. Variables were operationalized through the following measures: Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA), Measure of Creative Thinking in Music (MCTM), and Matching Familiar Figures (MFF). Data were analyzed through Pearson Product-Moment correlations and analysis of variance procedures. Results indicated that (a) reflectionlimpulsivity was significantly related to PMMA Tonal scores (it was not found to be significantly related to PMMA Rhythm or the MCTM), (b) PMMA Rhythm was significantly negatively related to two dimensions of the MCTM, and (c) there was a significant difference for sex on three of four dimensions of the MCTM. The magnitude of the relationships may indicate practical significance.