A SCALE DEVELOPMENT STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF MENTAL IMAGINATION ACTIVITY ON INSTRUMENT PLAYING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Musical instrument education has mental and physical processes. The purpose of this study, which discusses the mental process, is to develop a scale to find out the perceptions about the effect of mental imagery on the performance of the instrument. The twenty-item form which was prepared for this purpose was sent to the experts, and the content validity rate of the items was established based on the feedback received. Items with a value below thirty percent were excluded from the scope of the study. As a result, ten items remained. The study was designed in the general survey model. The study data were obtained with a five-point Likert measurement tool developed by the researcher. SPSS 23 statistics software was used in the data analysis. After the exploratory factor analysis applied to the pilot study conducted with 50 people, it was found that the factor loads of the eighth, ninth, and tenth items were below 0.3 and were excluded from the analysis for this reason. The seven-item scale created in the new structure was applied to one hundred and seven students who study at the Department of Music of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Munzur University in the 2022-2023 academic fall semester, which constitutes the study group of the research. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis of the study group, the factor loads were found to be close to those of the items in the pilot study. It was also found that the eigenvalue of the structure developed was 4.027, the explained variance was 65.268, and the Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.845. This item structure was found to be reliable. In the analysis of the central tendency and distribution measures of the answers given by the students, it was found that the average was very close to 4.72 and 5, and the mode and the median value were 5. Based on these descriptive statistics, the average of the participants was very close to the level of "strongly agree" and the mode and median values were at the level of "strongly agree". According to these descriptive statistics, it was concluded that the participants strongly agreed with the positive effect of the mental imagination approach on the performance of the instrument, and a valid and reliable scale was developed.