Comments on: How well can you hear shapes? Test your musical - visual symbolic intelligence!

by: jhon

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:38:28 +0000

hey, I took that test and it’s pretty easy, the first time I saw it, I realize immediately how it was. But I’m pretty good recognizing shapes and patterns, I’m also a musician. Don’t read this, take the test first, it’d be so much better for you.

by: Aidy Wyatt

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:35:52 +0000

I have to say that I found it an interesting test, but I don’t see how it’s connected to what you describe as amvi. I do see sounds as colours and shapes, but what I see bears no resemblance to the things depicted in the test whatsoever. I spent the first couple of questions learning how *you* were representing each sound, rather than how they “look” to me, and then the rest of the test was simply matching the sounds to how I thought that you would represent them.

If anything, it represents the logical, pattern-matching parts of IQ tests. As a test of how well I could decode your cypher, it’s good. As a test for synaesthesia, I don’t think it works. I have never, ever “seen” a sound as a square, let alone a whole melody as one. And none of the sounds you used were either black or red to my ears.

I thin the test may say something about you, but I’m not remotely convinced that my result says much about me.

by: Kendrick Hough

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:24:26 +0000

I brutally failed this test. I feel like it’s an excellent communicator of right-left synthesis in the brain. To perform well in this test, you must be able to use concrete musical images in the brain and apply them to abstract, logical symbols.

I am studying to be a singer and play piano, both skills that I have developing later in life. As a musician, I personally have a great amount of difficulty visualizing myself or my body (very important for technique) while singing or playing piano.

It would be easier for me to write out these pieces in musical notation while listening to them or singing them back to you. The shapes mean nothing to me, and I find the association frustrating and futile. I can remember almost every musical piece in the test. I can’t remember any of the sets of symbols. They’ve all become so much mental junk.

by: Kathleen

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:48:22 +0000

This test is defintely too easy. I scored 100% first time. and with all the other tests I scored really badly. I haven’t studied any kind of music except recorder in primary school and I sucked at that. This must have nothing to do with musical ability and more to do with logic.
I am going to get my 6 year old to do this test now.

It was fascinating though. I am not bagging the test, I just think it has nothing to do with musical intelligence.

by: Deb from California

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:27:43 +0000

Very interesting - I guess I’m not totally tone deaf after all. I’ve always been good with language nuances, but not music. So, I did better on the visual test than the first test. Thanks!

by: beth

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 05:59:13 +0000

I agree with MerryArwen. I had trouble with the visual abstractions that were being used - it seemed more like a code (red means this, triangle means that) but if the object is just to encode the music with the abstractions, a key should have been provided.

As someone with synaesthetic tendencies, the shapes and colors used totally conflict with my own visualizations of the sounds. Simple lines and shapes just don’t “sound” like anything to me. I hear the musical samples with all kinds of colors (rarely red or black) and much more complex shapes than the ones used. I found myself tending to the more complex shapes (nested triangles, etc) regardless of whether they would be the “right” answer.

by: Madini Ladino

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:18:58 +0000

This site rocks! Tests are terrific! These tests have 2 important goals for me: Neurobics (quite important for my brain) and test my musical intelligence !!

by: Gill Joseph

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:13:38 +0000

I really enjoyed this test. I got the first few questions, wrong, then learned to close my eyes and LISTEN instead of trying to see, and it took off after that.

Fascinating work - thanks for sharing it with us. I’ll definitely have a look at the other tests.

Gill, Edinburgh

by: sharon

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:25:21 +0000

I think I did badly on the tonedeaf test because I could hardly remember any of the tunes so it was more like guessing,
I got to 0.75Hz on the other test probably because I learnt the violin growing up. Fun tests , I think I’ll try the pitch one again and try to get down to 0.375, I couldn’t hear that difference at all. I think I’m going to give up on the tone deaf one though it’s too hard for me

by: dearnorm

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:27:21 +0000

that was fun and interesting. thanks! i have never knowingly visualized musical phrases in that fashion before but found your approach almost immediately accessible and interesting. i fear i might have learned more from you than you did from my incremental statistic. i also notice your score categories indicate a measurable impact from the replay button, and a time component, don’t they? cool.
best wishes.