Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Music

Committee Chair

Josef Hanson

Committee Member

Christian Mueller

Committee Member

Deborah Moncrieff

Committee Member

Emily Frizzell

Abstract

Musicians who are also dyslexic often report various challenges related to reading music notation. Researchers have identified perceptual expertise, as measured via visual fluency, as one of the key predictors of musical sight-reading abilities. Yet, individuals who are dyslexic often perform worse on measures of visual fluency in the domains of words and faces when compared to non-dyslexic individuals. Consequently, the primary purpose of this pilot study was to explore potential relationships between perceptual expertise for music notation, musical experience, and traits of dyslexia.  To that end, this pilot study was a repeated measure within-subjects design with continuous covariates. The within-subjects factor was two domains of visual fluency, letters and music notation, as measured by the Visual Fluency Task for Music Notation (VFT-MN). The covariates were reading history as measured by the Abbreviated Adult Reading History Questionnaire (ARHQ-Brief) and musical training as measured by the Musical Training subscale of the Goldsmith Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI). While the results are preliminary and cannot be generalized to a larger population due to the small sample size, initial findings indicate that visual fluency may be an underlying factor worth further investigation in a future study with a larger, more representative sample. Moreover, if these results could be replicated in a larger sample, they would provide support for future investigation of possible interventions or instructional strategies specifically designed for improving visual fluency. The secondary purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the study design to determine whether it may be appropriate for use in a larger study and identify improvements to the design that may be beneficial. Based on the data collected, the design itself was successful; however, I identified key improvements that should be made prior to conducting a larger study using this design. These included implementing more varied approaches to participant recruitment, the addition of an internet speed test as an inclusionary criterion for participation, and automatic linking of data between the two online platforms I used for data collection.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.

Notes

Open Access

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