Musician Advantages in Music Perception: An Issue of Motivation, Not Just Ability

two experiments examined effects of regulatory fit and music training on performance on one subtest of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). Participants made same-different judgments about melody pairs, while either gaining points for correct answers (gains condition) or losing points for incorrect answers (losses condition). In Experiment 1, participants were told that the test was diagnostic of their music ability and then were asked to self-identify as a musician or a nonmusician. In Experiment 2, participants were given either a promotion-focus prime (a performance-based opportunity to gain entry into a raffle) or a prevention-focus prime (a raffle ticket was awarded at the start of the experiment and participants prevented its loss by maintaining a certain level of performance). Consistent with a regulatory fit hypothesis, nonmusicians and promotion-primed participants performed better in the gains condition than the losses condition, while musicians and prevention-primed participants performed better in the losses condition than the gains condition. Experiment 2 additionally revealed that regulatory fit effects were stronger for musicians than nonmusicians. This study demonstrates that regulatory fit impacts performance on the MBEA and highlights the importance of motivational orientation with respect to musician performance advantages in music perception.