Adaptação cultural e propriedades psicométricas da versão brasileira do Índice de Sofisticação Musical de Goldsmiths (Gold-MSI-BR).

Abstract

Musical sophistication refers to the set of skills, knowledge, behaviors, and forms of engagement with music that develop over the lifespan through both formal and informal musical experiences. The assessment of such individual differences has become increasingly important in contemporary music cognition research, as it enables the investigation of how musical experiences shape perceptual, cognitive, and learning processes throughout life. In recent years, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI; Müllensiefen et al., 2014) has become one of the most widely used instruments for investigating individual differences in musicality in the general population, and has been broadly applied in research on music cognition, music psychology, and neuroscience (Cui et al., 2023; Greenberg et al., 2015; Lad et al., 2022). However, psychometrically validated instruments for assessing this construct in Brazilian populations remain scarce. The present study aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Brazilian version of the Gold-MSI. The adaptation process followed international guidelines for the translation and cultural adaptation of psychological instruments (International Test Commission, 2017), including independent translations, expert review, and assessment of item comprehension by members of the target population. Psychometric properties were examined using a large Brazilian sample (N = 1,295). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the adequacy of the multidimensional structure originally proposed for the Gold-MSI. Internal consistency, temporal stability through test-retest procedures, and associations with demographic variables were also examined. Results supported the retention of the multidimensional structure of the instrument in the Brazilian context, with satisfactory model fit indices. Item-level analyses identified some culturally or statistically inconsistent items, and their exclusion resulted in improved internal consistency and construct validity. Test-retest analyses indicated adequate temporal stability across subscales. ANCOVA models revealed significant but small effects for age and years of education, whereas no robust differences were observed for sex, race/colour, or their interaction after correction for multiple comparisons. Taken together, these findings provide initial evidence of reliability and validity for the use of the Gold-MSI-BR in assessing musical sophistication in Brazilian populations. The availability of this instrument expands opportunities for empirical research on musicality, learning, and musical engagement across different regions of Brazil, while also facilitating cross-cultural comparisons and strengthening the integration of Brazilian research within the international field of music cognition.