PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 105, 27 January 1940, Page 13

PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC

Tests For Talent In Children A paper on ‘'Some Experiments in the Psychology of Music,” read by Dr. Arthur Fieldhouse, Christchurch, before the music teachers’ conference in Wellington yesterday shed some interesting sidelights on music teaching ami the taught. Speaking in the first place of the nature of tests of talent or ability, Dr. Fieldhouse said that valuable help could be gained from them for the teacher of music. In that respect he entered a strong protest on behalf of the unmusical child, who, in the absence of reliable scientific evidence or information, was doomed to many hours of harrowing drudgery, very often merely to satisfy the parents’ conceit. It had,been pointed out that such practising often resulted in serious psychological disturbances distinctly harmful to the child’s mental health. Dr. Fieldhouse outlined the theory of the nature of musical talent upon which the Seashore tests were based, and demonstrated the-tests. Weakness of some of the tests was 'discussed, and the prognostic value of the tests was reviewed. Some independent workers had usually found- that the tests were not very successful in predicting the presence of latent musicianship, and suggested that 1 this was probably due to a weakness in the fundamental conception of the nature of musical talent on which the tests were based. He said that while the predictive value of the Seashore tests was open to doubt they could be used as reliable measures of sensory discrimination.