Effect of Self-Listening on Self-Evaluation Accuracy

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of self-listening on self-evaluation accuracy. Twenty-six undergraduate musicians self-evaluated their individual performances of a musical excerpt. Volunteer participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group or the control group. The experimental group members listened to the audio playback of their self-recorded performance before self-evaluating, while control group members did not. Both groups read information about self-evaluation before scoring their performances. Participants’ self-evaluations were compared to the mean scores of a panel of expert judges to determine the accuracy of the self-evaluations. The panel of judges listened to the recordings of the individual performances before completing assessments. The participants and the judges used a researcher-modified version of the Woodwind Brass Solo Evaluation Form to assess the individual performances. Self-accuracy was calculated as the absolute difference between students’ self-scores and the mean of the three judges’ scores; a small absolute difference indicated high self-evaluation accuracy. For purposes of data analyses, the 2 groups (self-listening and nonlistening) served as the independent variable, and the total self-evaluation accuracy score served as the dependent variable. A one-way, between subjects ANOVA revealed no main effect for treatment group on total self-evaluation accuracy, F(1, 24) = 3.08, p = .09, η2 = .11.