The LongGold study accompanies cohorts of secondary school students for several years. Students are assessed once a year during a double lesson on a battery of musical and non-musical tasks as well as short questionnaires asking about music and other leisure activities, self-concepts, personal strengths and difficulties, personality etc.
The battery runs in a standard internet browser and pupils are tested in their classrooms (like shown in the picture). Depending on the school facilities, we make use of school computers or can provide tablets and headphones to run the test sessions. All data is collected anonymously and only LongGold team members have access to the data.
All perceptual and cognitive tests are short and engaging for the children to keep motivation high. All tests use an adaptive procedure which homes in on the participant’s individual ability level as quickly as possible and therefore saves a lot of testing time. The adaptive testing methods and underlying statistical theory are explained e.g. in Harrison, Collins & Müllensiefen (2017), Harrison & Müllensiefen (2018), Larrouy-Maestri, Harrison & Müllensiefen (2019). The musical tests and comprehensive musical background and expertise questionnaire are part of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index.
Try demos of some adaptive musical tests here:
Demo test
longgold.org 