1. “The MAT provides a veritable playground for the psychological, organizational,
or educational researcher. The test is a very attractive alternative to paper-and-pencil
tests or other static measures of personality, creativity, emotional
maturity, leadership, adaptability, sociability, and response to stress (Eighteenth
Mental Measurements Yearbook, in press)”.
Leland van den Daele, Ph.D., ABPP

2. Oliver Sachs Describes the Power
of Rhythm
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3. What Distinguishes Music as a
Psychological Stimulus?
 Associative pathways between music, the limbic system,
and sensory-motor centers in the brain are established as
early as the first year and well established by five years of
age.
 Dance is mediated by sensory-motor, right brain (spatial)
networks.
 Right brain networks interface with facial recognition,
attachment, and affective associative areas.
 The sensory-motor strip spans the central sulcus. Sensory-motor
networks interface with the prefrontal cortex.
 Prefrontal networks coordinate motor schema.
 Motor schema underlie intention and thought.
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4. This is your brain on music
 Discrete centers in the brains
process rhythm, tempo,
pitch, timbre, loudness, and
melody.
 Outputs from these processes
are largely integrated in the
right parietal and temporal
areas.
 These areas directly interface
centers for the processing of
emotions.
 Music excites movement and
emotion.

5. MAT Design
 The MAT is comprised of 12/10/4 compositions that
represent basic emotions.
 Prerecorded, or optional oral instructions, are to “Tell
a story to the music.”
 The average length of compositions is about 1 minute
and 20 seconds.
 30 second silent periods occur between compositions.
 Compositions progress from melodious to
cacophonous.
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6. MAT: Basic Emotions/Compositions
 Twelve basic emotions are
represented in the MAT. Each
emotion is embodied in a
composition named after the
emotion.
 Factor analyses of MAT responses
and thesaurus matching of
emotions yield five music groups:
Approach, Introspective, Urgent
Action, Adaptive Challenge, & Limits
Testing
 MAT music becomes successively
more atonal, arrhythmic, and
strident as the test progresses. The
MAT is a stress test to evaluate
executive function and ego
strength.
1. INTERST
2. JOY
3. LOVE
4. DESIRE
5. SHAME
6. EXCITE
7. ANGER
8. DISTRESS
9. FEAR
10. GUILT
11. TERROR
12. DISGUST
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7. MAT Measures and Norms
 MAT norms based upon a sample of 168 subjects equally divided
into 8 to 10, 14 to 15, and 21 to 45 year old subjects.
 Measures analogous to other tests:
 Latency and fluency
 Content norms
 Off task responses
 Measures unique to the MAT due to absence of visual
constraints, mood and feeling created by music, and recorded
response in real-time:
 Adaptive responses to on-going changes in music
 Voice (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person).
 Affective Fit
 Narrative Style
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8. Narrative Styles Organize Response
 Narrative Styles describe frameworks adopted for the
organization of MAT response.
 Individuals differ widely in how stories are told to MAT
compositions --an observation replicated over successive MAT
versions are differences of Narrative Styles.
 Narrative Styles embody radically different approaches to the
organization of perception, conation, & cognition.
 Narrative Styles appear correlated with core differences in
personality and adaptation.
 Distinctive Narrative Styles likely arise through favored neural
networks which weigh and organize inputs in distinctive ways.
 Narrative Styles are linked to neural networks established and
consolidated during development.
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9. Narrative Styles Organize
Experience
 Kinetic/Imagistic narratives are constituted by vignettes,
sometimes a pastiche, of movements, sensations, feelings,
and/or images.
 Logical narratives typically portray “aim, action, and
consequence”. These include elementary plots constituted
by a description of the situation, complication or tension,
actions or decisions, and outcome.
 Balanced responses provide an admixture of movements,
feelings, sensations, imagery, and a logical plot that are
coordinated in a coherent tale.
 Disorganized/Other responses are fragmented and lack
coherence or consistency.
 Narrative styles vary from simple to complex.

10. Developmental Progression
 Children under 5 years respond to MAT through dance and
movement.
 Kinetic/Imagistic narratives predominate among children
from 4 to 10 years.
 “Scripted” narratives emerge around 8 years.
 Attribution of psychological causality is uncommon in
narratives before adolescence.
 Adult performance for latency and fluency is obtained by
14 to 15 years of age.
 Balanced narratives first appear at adolescence and young
adulthood.
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11. Kinetic/Imagistic Narrative
Narrative to “Anger” Characteristics
 “Oh, it's going around in my head, the
pain in my head, it's going front to
back. My head is very painful. My
vision is / blurring. I'm circling
around in my head. My vision is
blurry. I'm blacking out, falling down
onto the ground. My head spins, my
mind is / adrift. I have no idea what is
going on. What is happening to me? I
go deeper and deeper into a place that
I can / only imagine, the horrors of it
all. I am in the depths of hell. And
searing hot coals are amongst my body
and surround my / soul.”
 Age 34, male; Latency = 75th; Fluency
= 72nd; 1st person; Solitary; Affective
congruence = moderate; Imagistic
narrative.
 Kinetic movement is
accompanied by somatic
sensation and imagery.
 Body sensation and mental
state are entwined.

12. Kinetic/Imagistic Narrative
Narrative to “Interest” Characteristics
 Uh, let's see. Oh, there was a small
river, a stream, clear and babbling
with stones on the bottom, tufts of
grass on the side, a few small /
waterfalls, the little creek babbled
along, fish swimming bumping into
rocks and each other, eating bugs
from the surface, it was all in all a /
quant little scene. A deer walked up to
the river and leaned it's nose towards
the water. A fish came by and was
frightened and / swam off.
 Age 28, female; Latency = 50th;
Fluency = 48th; 3rd person; Mutual;
Affective congruence = moderate;
Kinetic/imagistic narrative
 Imagistic scenario.
 Note absence of
complication, climax,
resolution or denouement.

13. Kinetic Imagistic Narrative Style
Narrative to “Desire” Characteristics
 “I take off from a small airfield in my open
plane. The cockpit windows are slipped
back. I have a scarf around my neck and/ I
take off and head off into the blue. But I
stay low over the treetops and follow the
ridges over the mountains and hillsides./
Up and then down into the valleys where
various farmers and haystacks litter the
earth below as I swoop in and out of valleys.
I /pitch the plane back and overhead maybe
doing a loop flying up high, doing a loop,
coming back down close to the earth, right
above/ the trees, flying back and forth,
maneuvering the plane through the sky.
Ahead is the ocean and the coast. I am
parallel to the coast/ and ride the coast
down, continuing on.”/
 Age 34 male: Latency = 70th ; Fluency =
90th; 1st person; Sol; Affective congruence =
poor; Kinetic imagistic narrative
 Absence of schematic story
line. Narrative follows from
sensing and experiencing.
 Predominately kinetic
sensation, imagery, visualized
scenery, and/or feeling.
 Often differentiated color,
temperature, texture, or
sound.
 Predominantly vignettes. Plot
secondary to description.
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14. Logical Schematic Narrative Style
Narrative to “Joy” Characteristics
 It was at night on Christmas and they
saw Santa. "Why are you guys awake,
your supposed to be sleeping," he said.
"We are going / on the Polar Express,"
they said. Then they went to the North
Pole on the Polar Express. There was a
boy and he didn't believe / in Santa.
You had to believe in Santa and listen
to the bells on his sleigh to see him.
Then he went back home. You / have
to believe to see the North Pole and
see Santa.
 Age 9 years, female; 3rd person;
Latency = 80th; Fluency = 75th; Mutual;
Affective congruence = moderate;
Narrative style = Logical/Schematic
 Respondent voices a theme
and subplot from the movie
“The Polar Express”.

15. Logical/Schematic Narrative Style
Narrative to “Desire” Characteristics
 “This guy is on his way to fight this
battle he has to fight to win back
his girlfriend. He’s bringing along
with him his / whole team of
warriors or soldiers or friends.
When they get there, they’ll find
out that his girlfriend has already
been killed and he cannot / win
her love.
 [Age 15; male; Latency = 30
seconds (20th); Fluency = 53 (28th);
3rd person; Solitary/conflict;
Affective congruence = high;
Logical narrative]
 Story line organized and
determined by motive,
intention, or goal
 Roles based upon story line.
 Emotion and feeling
subordinated to story line.
 Plot driven and/or functional,
and/or utilitarian.
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16. Logical/Schematic Narrative Style
Narrative to “Shame” Characteristics
 This seems like an afternoon special, after
school special on ABC for kids. It’s about
these teenage kids, probably 14 year old. They
need to figure out some mystery on their own,
like this girl or this guy and maybe some other.
.. one girl, one tom-girl, tom-boy, whatever it's
called and then two of her guy friends. One is
kind of nerdy, one she kind of has a crush on,
but anyways, they solve the mystery, they
figure out that something was stolen from
somewhere and then they end up like going
into like some cave, This is the music that
follows them as they go into the cave and they
discover some gold or something, the loot
from the mystery they were trying to solve or
the burglary they are trying to solve, But it's
like an afternoon special kind of background
music for, you know, a mystery.
 Age 30, female; Latency = 45th; Fluency = 95th;
3rd person; Mutual; Affective congruence =
 Respondent imposes a typical
plot from television.
 Details and specifics are
minimized.
 Respondent emphasizes
“generic” qualities.
 “Music” is assimilated to plot.
 “Top down” organization
prevails.
 Objective description

17. Balanced Narrative Style
Narrative to “Desire” Characteristics
 “Katya is working hard. She is sewing
frantically on the machine, as the thunder
rolled outside. It was a night of cold winter
with some / thunderstorms. Katya on the
machine, but Boris was not back yet. Boris
was supposed to be home two days ago
[laughs]. And he hasn't come.
“Boris!”/Katya lamented sadly, waiting for
Boris. She was making him a special
schemata. But he was not coming home.
She was waiting for him. She didn't/know
what to do, because there was no phone.”/
[The respondent voices a Russian-type
accent throughout the story.]
 Age 30 Female: Latency =50th;Fluency
=60th; Voice = 3rd; Sol, Mut; Affective
congruence = high; Balanced narrative
style.
 Integrates story line with
imagery or feeling.
 Switches from one mode to
the other alternately with
story line informed by new
scene or sensation.
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18. Balanced Narrative Style
Narrative to “Love” Characteristics
 Okay there are two boys, and they are walking outside
of their home on the English countryside, and they are
supposed to be playing croquet / or taking polo
lessons, but they don't really want to do that at all So
they tell their parents that they are going to go to the
polo lesson, but instead they walk off their property
and into the back yard where there is a river, and they
are looking / at the river and talking about how they
are excited for summer camp because they get to be
away from their parents, who they think are fine, but
don't really feel like they understand them. All they
want to do is play out in the woods and run around
outside,/ but instead in the summertime all of their
time is taken up by these lessons, and things they need
to do for their parents so / they can show them off.
And all they really want to do is run around with their
shoes off and visit their aunt who lives / out in the
middle of nowhere, and she lets them do whatever.
She lets them cook with her, and clean with her, and
they play games outside! And that's it.
 Age 32, Female; Latency = 85th; Fluency = 92nd; 3rd
person; Affective congruence = moderate;
 Story about two boys with
exposition, complication,
climax, and plausible
denouement.
 Emphasis upon movement,
“walking”, “playing”,
&“running”.
 Respondent emphasizes
feelings, motivations, and
interactions of personnel.

19. Balanced Narrative Style
Narrative to “Guilt” Characteristics
 Dh oh. This little girl just realizes she's done
something really wrong, and she feels so bad. But she
couldn't help it! She had this cosmetic case that
someone had given her to play with, and she just
decided that the lipstick would look really nice on the
wall. So she drew a design, and she really liked it. Then
she suddenly realized that even though it made her
feel good, her parents were going to be really, really
mad. And so she sits down on the bed and tries to
decide what to do, and she finally decides that the best
thing to do is just go down and tell them about it. But
she's really scared, so she stops crying (because she
was really upset) and she walks downstairs. And her
parents are both in the living room, and she says that
she has something to tell them. She looks so serious
and so sad, that they're really worried. And then she
tells them what she did, that she drew on the wall with
the lipstick, and they're so relieved that it's nothing
worse that they kind of laugh even though they're
mad. They tell her that she has to clean it up, but that
other than that she's not in any trouble because she
felt so bad.
 Age 64, female; Latency = 90th; Fluency = 85th; 3rd
person; Affective congruence = high; Narrative style =
balanced.
 Plot comprised of exposition,
complication, climax, and
resolution with emphasis
upon the import of affect and
emotion upon interaction.

20. Narrative Styles & Neural Networks
 Kinetic/Imagistic/Affective narratives describe movements, images,
sensations, and emotions or feelings. These narratives require inputs
from the limbic system, sensory-motor strip, parietal-occipital, right
brain, and frontal networks.
 Logical narratives necessitate attribution of causality with outcomes for
choices and events. These narratives rely upon participation from left
temporal, temporal-parietal, and frontal networks.
 Balanced narratives entail the interweaving of logical sequences and
outcomes with imagery, sensation, and/or feeling. This involves
orchestration of temporal, temporal-parietal, and frontal networks
with right brain integrative networks.
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21. Network Propagation & Narrative
Form
 Propagation proceeds from I to
IV.
 Balanced narratives require the
interweaving of sensory,
parietal, occipital and right
brain contributions with
temporal and left brain
networks.
 Music potentiates feeling
potentiates movement
potentiates imagery potentiates
thought & discourse.
I. Perception, Feeling,
& Kinetic Tendency:
Limbic System/ Right
Parietal /Sensory-
Motor Strip
II. Kinetic Imagistic
Sensation:
Parietal- Occipital /
Prefrontal
IV. Balanced:
Orbital Frontal
Dorsal Lateral
Integrative Network
III. Logical:
Frontal / Left
Temporal
Music
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22. Neural integration differs for major
diagnostic disorders
 Normal respondents show
well paced and modulated
activation of music centers.
 Schizophrenic respondents
display cacophonous and
dissonant auditory profiles.

23. Summary Comparison of
Performance Tests
Traditional Visual Modality MAT Auditory Modality
 Pictures constrain story-telling
to depicted scenes.
 TAT & CAT dated visuals
and/or non-systematic
selection of materials
 Directions affected by
examiner differences,
inquiries, and rapport
 Static stimulus
 Respondent generates actors,
scenes, and props.
 Music’s immediate relation to affect
 Music promotes reverie and
imagination
 Dynamic stimulus
 Prerecorded directions
 Systematic presentation of musical
compositions to evoke basic
emotions
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24. Summary Comparison
Traditional Visual Modality MAT Auditory Modality
 Variable time for
administration
 Time consuming
 No fixed length
 Time and productivity are
confounded
 Difficult to compare
response latency, fluency,
and rate of speech.
 Fixed time for administration
 Length for testing is 23 minutes
 Short forms require about 7
minutes
 Permits strict comparison for
response latencies, fluency, and
rate of speech
 Fixed intervals between stimuli
permit observation during
silences
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25. Affective Fit
 Hedonic Tone: Positive, pleasant affect is coded “+1”;
Negative, Negative, unpleasant affect is coded “-1”; Neutral
affect is coded “0”.
 Affect Expressed: Affect conveyed by response is
congruent with affect conveyed by composition is Coded
“+1”.
 Common Theme: Typical motif, underlying idea,
message, or moral.
 Common Interaction: Typical form of exchange or
relation among actors.
 Common Setting: Typical location or background for
story or imagery.
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