Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum The Musical Visual Intelligence Test

Took this interesting test: the Associative Musical Visual Intelligence test. I scored 65% which seems is barely better than normal. Alas.

But this might be the 3AM insomnia effect also - certainly, I can imagine short term memory and attention can suffer when going long periods without sleep and I'm on a mini-insomnia bender.

Pitch discrimination: 59.4%
Musical memory 67.0%
Contour discrimination 53.9%
Attention: 62.4%
Musical/visual abstraction: 67.2%

Total Score: 80%

Pitch discrimination: 79.7%
Musical memory: 79.0%
Contour discrimination: 75.9%
Attention: 75.3%
Musical/visual abstraction: 85.3%

After 5 days with my parents. Please kill me.

Sorry to say I do not even get the idea behind the test. The selected shapes make no sense to me in relation to music. I could probably figure it out by just guessing myself through the test first, but don't see the point...

Like many questions on IQ tests, these are associations. So for example, here is a non-musical association to shapes - that is, instead of shapes, I am using numbers - and I've exactly seen this (or something very close to it) before on IQ-like tests:

Is the numeric sequence "2 5 8 5 2" like the shapes /\ or the shape \/ or the shape <> or the shape [] ? In this case, you one would consider the 5 numbers and note that they go up steadily to 8 and come back down the same way, so among the 4 visual shapes, the one that has the closest association would be the shape that also goes up and back down: /\.

This is how associations work between two types of objects which might not be immediately related. Obviously, in the case of the test, we are talking musical tones and not numbers, but frankly, tones and numbers map to each other.

I think now you might see how sequences of tones might relate to shapes. For example, if you have heard C-D-E-F-G-C-D-E-F-G, and you have a number of shapes to choose from, but one of them is / /, you might choose that one because it shows to identical lines slanting upward like the 'C-D-E-F-G'. On the other hand, you might not be given '/ /' as a choice, but instead one of the choices might be '[] []' Well this might also be a good association. Why? Because 'C-D-E-F-G' repeats twice, just like the '[]' repeats a second time in the shape. Obviously here, you are simply trying to choose one set of shapes which is better than the other choices. One final example: you hear C-D-E-F-G-C-D-E-F-G, but the second 'C-D-E-F-G' gets softer (diminuendo) while the first one stays at the same dynamic. One shape choice is '[] []' and another is '[] |>'. Here, the second one suggests the diminuendo while the first suggests an exact repeat, so you might select the second one instead as a better association than the first.

Do you understand how it works now, outo? If you've never seen this sort of thing before, I can completely understand your confusion.

Total Score: 70%

Pitch discrimination: 75.4%
Musical memory: 70.0%
Contour discrimination: 81.9%
Attention: 67.7%
Musical/visual abstraction: 54.8%

I don’t see any shapes or colours, when I hear something. I could only try and make an educated guess. A fun test, nonetheless!

I helps to know the configuration; the top bits refer to the higher/harsher sounds, and vice versa. Until I figured that out, I was doomed!

When I view the page on my Smartphone, I just see a large light-grey box after the sentence "give it a try", and no buttons.
I guess the real test is: Are you smart enough to use a computer?

Total: 90%
pitch: 89.9%
musical memory: 94%
contour dis: 81.9%
attention: 88.2%
musical abs: 92.1%



whatever all that means...

You're a musical genius

>dumb.com ? Mmmm

And I don't see any test on their page, just an introduction text. No next button or whatever

What I suspected in my previous post turned out to be true: There are still web page designers who use Flash, even after HTML 5 became established.
Well, considering that there are still people who play the Clavichord after the invention of the Pianoforte, or still ride horses after the invention of the bicycle (motorized or not), I guess it's sort of understandable.

My results.

Total Score: 85%

Pitch discrimination: 82.6%
Musical memory: 85.0%
Contour discrimination: 79.5%
Attention: 81.7%
Musical/visual abstraction: 88.7%

Drum roll please....

Total score 100%

Pitch discrimination: 100.0%
Musical memory: 100.0%
Contour discrimination: 95.2%
Attention: 97.8% (got distracted by a work phone call part way through!)
Musical/visual abstraction: 100.0%

Bear in mind this was the second attempt. The first time I didn't have the foggiest idea what I was looking at or what I was meant to do with it so the scores were distinctly average!

65%. However, it does not suit me that someone (something) indicates - this is right, but this is wrong. Everyone has their own associations, and I can justify my verbally .
I do not think that synaesthesia should be involved; the visual forms are pretty clear. The sequence in horizontal direction from left to right symbolizes the flow of time; up-and-down directions symbolize curves of melodic intonations; square shapes symbolize individual structures. However, the interpretation of their combinations can be pluralistic ...

You have to make sure that Adobe Flash is turned on in your browser.

This is almost the last hurray for this test. Soon no one will have Flash.

Who decides on the associations? What makes the associations correct? Why not show pictures of food instead?

Well I eventually realised the logic described above by Nahum. Two black squares side by side, the same thing repeated by the same instrument. A black & red square, same thing, different instrument. Superimposed, different colours, two instruments playing at the same time, etc. Once that made sense to me then it was a simple aural exercise. Before that all I was aware of was some music and some random shapes, lines and colours (the upwards and downwards arrows were obvious, the rest really not!).

So for me it wasn't an associations thing at all, it was just decoding weird symbols that were supposedly representing what I was hearing.

I've seen similar shape association questions on the Cattell and the WJ. Well on these real IQ tests, psychometricians decide and test questions on test subjects or using sections of the test that are not formally scored but only used for evaluating the questions and not the subject. I have no idea who decided for this particular test.

But remember, they are only trying to have you decide the most likely choice. If you've taken standardized academic tests, such as the SAT or ACT, you've likely encountered similar situations where more then one answer choice might fit, but at least according to the test creator, there is one best answer that fits better than the others.

The test does a good job of testing test taking skills -- can you figure out what the person who make the test was looking for -- but has nothing whatsoever to do with musical skill, IMHO.

I like to think I got 110% as I can't be bothered to install flash to do the test which shows clear superior intellect.