Speech, Language, and Music (SPEQ)

The Speech. Language and Music questionnaire is an additional questionnaire among adult Lifelines participants. The digital questionnaire was developed at the initiative of Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. With the aim to study the genetic underpinnings of speaking, listening, reading and making music, the relations between these skills, and their effect on wellbeing and mental health in adults.

The collected SPEQ data is currently under embargo. Please contact the Lifelines data managers at data@lifelines.nl for more information.

The digital questionnaire was sent out between September 5th and September 23th 2022.
~112,000 adult Lifelines participants with up-to-date email address received the questionnaire, of which ~35,000 participants (31%) responded.

The SPEQ questionnaire contained all or some questions from the following instruments:

• Gold MSI: the chosen items ask for multiple facets of musical talent and engagement.
• Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ): which measures involvement in music and was translated to Dutch by the researchers.
• Barcelona music reward questionnaire (BMRQ): questions from the 'Emotional Evocation' facet were used and one question about the 'Social Reward' of music. The questions have been translated to Dutch by the researchers. See also individual_differences_in_music_reward_experiences.pdf
• NEO-FFI-3: these questions measure 'aesthetic sensitivity' (permission for usage available). Please note, Lifelines asked questions from the NEO before, but no questions about aesthetic sensitivity.

The questions included in the speech, language, and music questionnaire can be found in the following subsections:

• Barcelona music reward questionnaire (BMRQ) (5 items)
• Musicality (6 items)
• Personality (NEO) (3 items)
• Speech disorders (754 items)
• Synaesthesia (7 items)
• Treatment (general) (631 items)