Montreal Evaluation of Musical Abilities on tablet for 4 to 6-year-old children

The present study introduces a novel tool — The Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Abilities (MBEMA) on tablet — for assessing musical abilities in 4 to 6-year-old children. The battery contains three tests: melody discrimination, rhythm discrimination and memory recognition of unfamiliar tonal melodies. Each test comprises two examples followed by 12 trials and is presented in a different picturesque format for an average duration of 15 minutes. As of July 2021, the battery has been administered to 191 5-to-6-year-old children, of whom 181 were tested twice (89 three months apart; 92 eight months apart). The battery was sensitive to individual differences and music training, with the amount of music training predicting performance. Despite high interindividual variability, the three-month follow-up showed good test-retest reliability, with significant improvements from test to retest that may reflect a familiarization effect. Longitudinal follow-up after eight months also showed an increase in performance, which may reflect either a maturation effect or be related to literacy. Overall, the MBEMA on a tablet can serve as an objective, short and up-to-date test for assessing musical ability in early childhood.