Musical Studies and the Vividness and Clarity of Auditory Imagery

Abstract

Different studies have analyzed mental auditory imagery and mental imagery derived from the other senses. This study analyzed the relationship of musical training with auditory imagery vividness and mental imagery derived from the other senses. A group of 200 participants (100 music students and 100 Compulsory Secondary Education students) were administered the Betts’ Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery and the Clarity of Auditory Imagery Scale. Students of music obtained higher in cutaneous, kinesthetic, gustatory, visual, and auditory imagery vividness scores than students not studying music. Moreover, music students obtained higher clarity of auditory imagery scores than nonmusicians. The gender of participants did not influence reported auditory imagery vividness or the clarity of auditory imagery. No gender differences were observed in the other sensorial modalities, except for visual imagery vividness, in which women scored higher than men. The interaction between gender and music training was not significant. The results are discussed and new lines of research are proposed.