The psychometric characteristics of the Advanced Measures of Music Audiation in a region with strong non-Western music tradition

Abstract

This study investigates the psychometric characteristics of Gordon’s Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA) in a region with strong non-Western music tradition. It also examines the possibility of measuring audiation with the modern psychometric theory. The AMMA test was administered to 513 students in the city of Ioannina and a number of villages in the region of Epirus in northwestern Greece. Nonlinear factor analysis based on tetrachoric correlation coefficients confirmed a tone and rhythm structure in AMMA according to the theory of Gordon. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the tone and rhythm factor scores were .70 and .61 correspondingly. The Kuder and Richardson’s (KR-20) reliability coefficient for the 30 items was .55. A Rasch measurement model has a good fit. The analysis of the Rasch residuals has showed that the dimensions of AMMA do not distort the estimation of Rasch parameters. Further analysis of the 30 AMMA items has shown that they can be ordered in 10 levels of difficulty. The authors present items’ difficulty and persons’ level of audiation on the same interval scale and discuss the usefulness of the music ability tests that are based on aural stimuli.