Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2009
Journal
Journal of Consciousness Studies
Volume
16
Issue
1
First Page
37
Last Page
61
Abstract
This study follows upon Steven Brown’s 2006 article in The Journal of Consciousness Studies about the “perpetual music track,” a form of constant musical imagery. With Brown’s assistance, a Musical Imagery Questionnaire was developed and administered to 67 participants with the intention of establishing relevant scales for quantifying the presence and extent of spontaneous musical imagery in individuals. In addition to the Musical Imagery Questionnaire, the Six Factor Personality Questionnaire, as well as the Transliminality Scale, which is a measure of openness to psychological material, was used in order to explore the correlations of spontaneous musical imagery to personality constructs. Factor analysis of the responses to the Musical Imagery Questionnaire revealed six meaningful dimensions of spontaneous musical imagery that were labeled as Unconscious, Persistent, Entertainment, Completeness, Musicianship, and Distraction. Participants who scored high on Transliminality also tended to have more persistent, distracting, and unconscious musical imagery. There were also some smaller correlations with other personality variables.
Notes
The final version of this article is published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies and is available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/imp/jcs/2009/00000016/00000001/art00002