SEASHORE MEASURES OF MUSICAL TALENT 55 



been tested twice and thrice, and in a few cases four times, with an interval 

 of three years intervening between tests. The children's retest studies are 

 now in preparation for publication. 



This paper is concerned primarily with the adult retest study in which 157 

 students who were applicants for the four year bachelor of music degree 

 courses were given the Seashore tests before entrance to the course and re- 

 tested at the beginning of their senior year after a three year interim. The 

 three year interim of study included the prescribed course of practical 

 music, theoretical music, and academic subjects. If the results of the Sea- 

 shore tests can be improved by intensive musical training and education, 

 such a prescribed course over three years would cause a noticeable increase 

 in test scores, but if the results of the Seashore tests are not significantly 

 influenced by musical training and education there will be a similarity 

 between first and second scores for the same individuals. In other words, 

 if the Seashore tests are measures of capacities fundamental in musical 

 growth, these capacities when once matured will remain approximately the 

 same in retests. When maturation of capacities has occurred it is assumed 

 that there will be a normal fluctuation between first and second test scores, 

 especially in tests which involve the threshold of hearing. It is absolutely 

 necessary that the tests in a study of this nature be given under strict 

 scientific conditions by an experienced examiner, assuring the best scores 

 individuals are capable of making. Figures, tables, and direct quotations 

 presented in this paper are taken from the adult retest study by Stanton and 

 Koerth referred to previously. 



The five Seashore tests used were the tests of Pitch, Intensity, Time, 

 Consonance, and Tonal Memory. 3 Referring to the scores of the first 

 tests as Ti and the scores of the retests as T 2 , we find a variation in T 2 over 

 Ti as shown in figure 1. The range in scores is expressed in steps of three 

 units gained or lost. The variation in retests is noticeably negative as well 

 as positive. In other words, one tends to drop below the exact first score 

 of a test as well as raise that score in a retest. The natural individual 

 fluctuation occurring in the repetition of fundamental human responses is 

 observable in the range of these scores. In each test a certain per cent of 

 the students retained the same scores in both Ti and T 2 , ranging from 6 per 

 cent with the same pitch scores to 11 per cent with the same tonal memory 

 scores. Since the peak of the curves for both gains and losses occurred in 

 the ±3 units, the writers are indicating this span of ±3 unit fluctuation in 

 retests as a normal fluctuation span and not to be designated as either a gain 



3 Seashore, C. E. The Psychology of Musical Talent. Silver, Burdett and Company. 

 Boston, Massachusetts, 1919. 



