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Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which the Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA) is a valid test of music aptitude for secondary school students. The two problems of the study were to investigate the predictive validity of AMMA for junior high and senior high school students and to investigate the extent to which participation in choral ensembles affects scores on AMMA.
On three occasions the investigator administered AMMA to five junior high and four senior high school choirs. The results of the first administration were used to determine predictive validity. The first and second administrations were used to estimate retest reliability. The first and third administrations were used to determine the effects of typical music instruction on students' AMMA scores.
During the last three weeks of music instruction, students sang two melodies. Their performances were recorded and rated independently by two judges using the same three-dimensional rating scale.
Predictive validity coefficients were.25 for junior high and.24 for senior high school students. The performance means of junior high school students with high scores on AMMA were significantly higher than the means of students with low scores. The same was true for the tonal performance means of senior high school students.
With regard to the effects of music instruction on AMMA scores, correlations of the Total test scores on the first and third administrations of AMMA were.71 for junior high and.82 for senior high school students. The mean differences between the first and third administrations of AMMA were non-significant.
The interjudge reliabilities for the rating scale were.94 for junior high and.95 for senior high school students. Retest reliability for Total test scores on AMMA was.72 for junior high and.81 for senior high school students.
It may be concluded that AMMA accurately predicts the music achievement of individual students. It predicts less accurately the music achievement of students who have similar levels of music aptitude. Further, it may be concluded that scores on AMMA are not sensitive to music instruction.
