STABILITY OF THE SEASHORE MEASURES OF MUSICAL 

 TALENT AS SHOWN BY RETESTS 



HAZEL M. STANTON 



Psychologist in Music, Eastman School of Music; Professor of Psychology, The University 



of Rochester 



The inheritance of musical talent is a subject which has been actively 

 uppermost in the minds of many who are interested in the question of the 

 inheritance of specific capacities. About a decade ago an experimental 

 investigation was initiated by the writer, under the immediate direction of 

 Charles B. Davenport, to determine tendencies in families to inherit specific 

 musical capacities and, if possible, to open any leads as to the method of 

 inheritance. 1 Certain measures of specific musical capacities were available 

 for such an investigation. These tests, the Seashore Measures of Musical 

 Talent, were being released at that time from their experimental develop- 

 ment in the laboratory and in the field. Prediction had been made on the 

 basis of experimental knowledge that these measures of musical talent 

 were measurements of innate capacities for musical growth rather than the 

 measurement of accomplishment or achievement. Such information has 

 been substantiated by further application to a real situation; therefore these 

 particular measures are exceedingly valuable for the accumulation of 

 knowledge as to the musical capacities among members of families. 



After ten years' application of the Seashore tests to entering students at 

 the Eastman School of Music, The University of Rochester, the results of 

 the retests of these students at three year intervals have confirmed and 

 established the capacity nature of these tests. Three studies covering the 

 material in the retests, one for adults and two for children, have been made. 

 The first study, concerned with the retests of music degree applicants, was 

 temporarily closed for published record when 157 cases had been retested. 2 

 The second and third studies of retests are concerned with children who have 



1 Stanton, Hazel M. The Inheritance of Specific Musical Capacities. Bulletin No. 

 22 Eugenics Record Office, Carnegie Institution of Washington, April 1922. Reprint 

 from Vol. XXXI, No. 1 of the Psychological Monographs, Princeton, N. J. 



2 Stanton, H. M. and Koerth, W. Musical Capacity Measures of Adults repeated 

 after Music Education. University of Iowa Studies, published by the University, Iowa 

 City, Iowa. October, 1930. 



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