PROMS User’s Manual

(updated 30th of July 2017 by Hannah Strauss)

1. About the test

The Profile of Music Perception Skills (PROMS; Law & Zentner, 2012) is a novel musical test
battery that measures perceptual musical skills objectively across nine different modalities
(melody, pitch, timbre, tuning, rhythm, rhythm-to-melody, accent, tempo, and loudness). For
each task, participants are asked to indicate whether stimuli presented are same or different.

Distinctive features

 Objective test-battery for the comprehensive assessment of music perception skills

 First-ever subtests for timbre, tuning, and advanced rhythm discrimination skills
 Suited for online data collection (high stability across-browsers and OS)
 Personalized and illustrated performance feedback

Why choosing the PROMS?

 Suited for assessing musical ability in musicians and non-musicians alike

 Configurable to have selected subtests and various test durations (5 to 60 minutes)
 Culture-fair stimuli make it suitable for cross-cultural comparisons
 Extensive evidence in support of reliability and validity

What’s more?

 Researchers manage their own data collection

 Fully computerized administration and scoring
 Direct data export to most common statistical programs available in several languages
(English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, & Norwegian)
 2. Current versions

All current versions as well as a 3 minute demo showing how the online PROMS works
(including the type of feedback that is offered to participants) can be accessed at
https://www.uibk.ac.at/psychologie/fachbereiche/pdd/personality_assessment/proms/take-the-
test/

 Full Proms: The full PROMS is the original test version. It has all 9 test components
and takes about 60 minutes to complete.
 PROMS-S: This version is a short version of the full PROMS. It includes 8 subtests
(Melody, Rhythm, Rhythm-to-Melody, Tuning, Accent, Instruments, Tempo, Pitch) and
takes about 35 minutes to complete.
 Modular PROMS: This version allows the test-components of the PROMS to be
configured in a customized way.
 Brief PROMS: This version includes the test-components 'Melody', 'Metric Accent',
'Tempo', and 'Tuning' and takes about 30 minutes to complete.
 Mini PROMS: This version is a short version of the Brief PROMS. It includes the test-
components 'Melody', 'Metric Accent', 'Tempo', and 'Tuning' and takes about 15 minutes
to complete.

PROMS versions are available in following languages:

Full/Modular PROMS/PROMS-S: English, German, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish

Brief/Mini PROMS: English, German, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Russian

3. Psychometric properties

The PROMS has satisfactory psychometric properties for the composite score (internal
consistency and test-retest r>.85) and fair to good coefficients for the individual subtests (.56
to.85). Convergent validity was established with the relevant dimensions of Gordon’s Advanced
Measures of Music Audiation and Musical Aptitude Profile (melody, rhythm, tempo), the Musical
Ear Test (rhythm), and sample instrumental sounds (timbre). Criterion validity was evidenced
by consistently sizeable and significant relationships between test performance and external
musical proficiency indicators in all three studies (.38 to.62, p<.05 to p<.01). An absence of
correlations between test scores and a nonmusical auditory discrimination task supports the
battery’s discriminant validity (−.05, ns). The interrelationships among the various subtests
could be accounted for by two higher order factors, sequential and sensory music processing.

For details see:

Zentner, M. & Strauss, H. (In press). Assessing musical ability quickly and
objectively: Development and validation of the Short-PROMS and the Mini-PROMS. Annals of
the New York Academy of Sciences.

Kunert R., Willems R. M., Hagoort, P. (2016). An Independent Psychometric Evaluation of the
PROMS Measure of Music Perception Skills. PLoS ONE 11(7): e0159103.

Law, L. & Zentner, M. (2012). Assessing musical abilities objectively: Construction and
validation of the Profile of Music Perception Skills. PLoS ONE 7(12): e52508.
 4. Using the PROMS in your own research

If you would like to use the PROMS battery in your academic research project, we can set up a
researcher account for you. This will enable you to use the battery to collect your own data.

How it works

 You will receive a unique URL that provides access to your own research account
 To the musical test-battery, you can add questions or questionnaires that are of interest
to you
 Data is securely stored on server of the University of Innsbruck IT Department
 Data collected is yours only, and can be downloaded at any time as csv or SPSS file

Please note that the PROMS is an online test and thus an internet connection is required to
administer the test. Please contact us via mail if you want to administer the PROMS offline.

5. How to use LimeSurvey

The following comprises a short overview on the most important functions of LimeSurvey. For
more detailed information, please visit the LimeSurvey manual
(https://manual.limesurvey.org/LimeSurvey_Manual) or support forum
(https://www.limesurvey.org/forum).

Language settings can be changed by clicking on the pencil icon on the upper left next to
your user name.

5.1. Home screen

Here, all your tests are listed, including information on:

 Status: Shows if your test is accessible for participants (green triangle) or not (red
square). To activate your survey, just click on the red square.
 SID: Survey ID
 Survey: Name of survey
 Access: Open = no key needed for participation; Closed = participants must be provided
a token to access the test → settings appear when activating a survey
 Full: Number of fully executed surveys
 Partial: Number of partially executed surveys
 Total: Sum of fully and partially executed surveys

5.2. Survey screen

When you click on a survey, first a short overview is shown. All available language versions of
the survey are listed. Make sure to provide the correct language version to your participants if
there is more than one version available.

 
 Access: (de)activate the test by clicking on the symbol. If you deactivate the survey,
  all responses will be deleted. So please make sure you export your data before
deactivating the survey

Execute survey: starts the test from the beginning (responses will not be saved
  when survey is deactivated)

Survey properties: here you can change survey properties

 
Edit text elements: change test displayed in the beginning and in the end
 
  of the test
General settings: here you can change the admin e-mail address and also
 
  make changes in presentation & navigation if wanted

Display/Export: export survey as .lss or print version

 
  Export: Click on “Survey structure (.lss)” to export the test
 
Printable version: Choose preferred language to show the printable
 
  version of the test

Responses: display and export test responses

 
  Responses & statistics: display and export test responses
 
Reorder question groups / questions: change the order of questions or question
  groups by drag&drop (only possible when survey is deactivated)
 

5.3. Data export

To access the data of your research, hover over the 'Responses' symbol and choose
"Responses & statistics". Choose 'Display responses' to view responses.

To export data to Excel or any other spreadsheet software, choose 'Export results to
application', then choose 'Abbreviated question text' as well as 'CSV file' and click 'Export data'
(ignore the other options).

To export data to SPSS, choose 'Export results to a SPSS/PASW command file'. Download
both files. Open the SPSS syntax file and change the /FILE path to point to the data file (e.g.
/FILE='C:/users/docs/survey1234_SPSS_data_file.dat'). Click Run > All. You should have your
data now.

Display responses: displays all test responses in a table

Response statistics: displays statistics for all or selected questions

Export results: Here you can choose from several output formats
(.cvs/.xls/.pdf/.html/.doc) and selects the questions you want to analyse
Export to SPSS/PASW: If you want to export your data directly to SPSS, choose
this icon to export the syntax and the data sheet. You then just have to run the
syntax to get your data sheet
 6. PROMS scores

LimeSurvey assesses both, answers given by participants for each items as well as subtest
and total scores. Correct answers are coded as '1' with 1 point, correct but uncertain answers
('PP' or 'PS') are coded as P with 0.5 points. All remaining answers that are not correct are
coded as following:

 'DS' = 'definitely same'

 'DD' = 'definitely different'
 'PS' = 'probably same'
 'PD' = 'probably different'
 'NO' = 'I don't know'

Subtest and total scores are automatically computed in LimeSurvey and can be found in the
data output.

7. Information on HTML/Java Codes

7.1. Sound calibration II and all music trials

The sound is played from <audio> tags, stimuli are embedded in mp3 and ogg formats to
ensure cross browser compatibility. audioTag works with the code in the /js folder to prevent
stimuli from replaying when the page is refreshed.

7.2. Instructions

These question groups contain some hidden fields. _ST_TI variables record the starting time of
that block; _ST_SC records starting score (ASSESSMENT_CURRENT_TOTAL). This allows
blocks to be rearranged if needed.

7.3. Navigation delay

Participants are prevented of skipping a task without listening to the full stimulus using
rfs_nav_delay(n), with n indicating the number of seconds of delay.

7.4. End of X block

These question groups contain more hidden fields. _SCORE calculates the final score by
taking ASSESSMENT_CURRENT_TOTAL and subtracting the initial score (_ST_SC) from it.
_TIME calculates the final time by subtracting the start time (_ST_TI).

7.5. Results

Uses ASSESSMENT_CURRENT_TOTAL and _SCORE to give the final score (divided by 2 to

get a score out of 18 for full subtets).
 8. Acknowledgements

Thank you very much to all collaborating researchers providing translations of the PROMS.

 Japanese: Tomomi Hida, Kyoto University

 Norwegian: Karsten Specht & Kjetil Vikene, University of Bergen
 Spanish: Ignacio Spiousas, National University of Quilmes & Carlos Báez, National
Autonomous University of Mexico
 Russian: Nadezda Chipeeva, South Ural State University
 French: Emmanuel Ponsot, CREAM/ICRAM