A Study for Composition and Comparison of the Music Perception Tests for Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implant Users

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compose the test for music perception and analyze the characteristic of cochlear implant users’ music perception. Methods: The test was made up with the pitch, melody, and timbre factors, using three low and high frequencies, six music genres, and four types of musical instruments correspondingly. The tests were conducted to 10 normal-hearing (NH) young adults and 10 young cochlear-implant (CI) users. Results: All the music perception tests showed significant differences between NH and CI group [F(1, 4) = 0.018, p = 0.019]. In the pitch test, CI group showed significantly lower correction rate(51.3%) than NH group (82.7%) did with higher correction rates in low frequencies. In the melody test, CI group showed significantly lower correction rate (29.7%) than NH group (95.8%) did with the highest performance in folk songs (51.7%). In the timbre test, CI group showed significantly reduced performance (22.5%) than NH group (65.8%) did. For both CI and NH groups, the pitched percussion showed the highest scores (45% and 100%) while the woodwind showed the lowest scores (13.3% and 48.3%). Conclusion: Out of three tests, CI group showed better performance in pitch perception than melody and timber perception. CI group showed better performances in low pitch sounds, melodies of familiar genre, and sound of pitched percussion instruments’ timber showing complicated music perception ability. To enhance the music perception ability for CI users by aural rehabilitation, more specified and systematic music perception test material should be developed.