32 Facts About Carl Seashore

Carl Seashore is most commonly associated with the development of the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability.

Carl Seashore emigrated with his family to the United States in 1870 at the age of 3 due to both economic and religious considerations and settled in Rockford, Iowa, before moving and settling in a farming community located in Boone County, Iowa.

Carl Seashore had two sisters and two brothers who were all educated in Swedish.

Carl Seashore's father, Carl Gustav Seashore, was a lay preacher and built a church, where Seashore began serving as the church organist at the age of 14.

Carl Seashore graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St Peter, Minnesota, in 1891, having studied mathematics, music, classical languages and literature.

Carl Seashore became a member of the Iowa Beta chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Carl Seashore attended Yale University when it had just opened the Graduate Department of Philosophy and Psychology.

Carl Seashore studied under George Trumbull Ladd, professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy, and Edward Wheeler Scripture, an experimental psychologist who conducted research on phonetics.

In 1908, Carl Seashore was made Dean of the Graduate School at University of Iowa, where he maintained the position for nearly 30 years.

Carl Seashore became president of the American Psychological Association in 1911 and presided over the 20th meeting in Washington, DC.

In 1905, Carl Seashore was made chairman of the Philosophy and Psychology Department and in 1908, he was made Dean of the Graduate School.

Carl Seashore served for 40 years as Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychology.

Carl Seashore helped found the Iowa Psychological Clinic in 1908 and later became president of the American Psychological Association in 1911.

Carl Seashore went on to establish the Psychopathic Hospital at the University of Iowa, the Iowa Institute for Mental Hygiene, and the Gifted Student Project in 1915.

Carl Seashore was interested in audiology, the psychology of music, the psychology of speech and stuttering, the psychology of the graphic arts and measuring motivation and scholastic aptitude.

Carl Seashore used standardized tests to objectively measure an individual's ability to perceive different dimensions of music and how musical aptitude differed between students.

Carl Seashore devised the Seashore Tests of Musical Ability in 1919, a version of which is still used in schools in the United States.

Carl Seashore strived to incorporate experimental psychology and the scientific method into the fields of art and related subjects.

Carl Seashore dedicated some of his musical focus on understanding the perception of vibrato, or the pulsation of pitch, in music and its effects on the richness and vibrance of tone.

Carl Seashore spent considerable time to measure, record, and define the function of vibrato in music.

Carl Seashore described vibrato as "a basic phenomenon of nature" to provide the tone with richness and emotion.

Carl Seashore proposed using devices and measuring instruments to record musical patterns and analyze the frequency, pulsation, and occurrence of vibrato in music.

Carl Seashore was influenced by the scientific work of James McKeen Cattell, a prominent psychologist and the founding editor of the American Journal of Psychology, and wanted to apply the methods of scientific psychology and mental testing to his research interest on musical aptitude and sensory perception differences in individuals.

Carl Seashore went on to devise a set of measures in 1919 that involved controlled procedures for measuring a respondent's ability to discriminate pitch, loudness, tempo, timbre, and rhythm.

Carl Seashore incorporated complex machinery, systems of pulleys to generate reproducible pitches, and a special set of tuning forks to test pitch discrimination, dissonance, rhythm, melodic memory, and music intensity.

Carl Seashore proposed that musical talent cannot be defined as a single construct, but is a product of an accumulation, or a hierarchy, of different musical traits.

Carl Seashore speculated that if an individual demonstrated difficulties in making comparison judgments between tonal pairs, the individual would probably not be capable of becoming a first-class musician as a performer, nor is he or she likely to find music as a source of pleasure as many others find it.

Carl Seashore recommended that the test should first be administered to children in the fifth grade and again in the eighth grade before children enter into elective courses in high school.

Carl Seashore helped supervise and promote the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station with Isaac Lea Hillis, the founder of the station, in 1918.

In 1900, Carl Seashore married Mary Roberta Holmes and had four sons.

Carl Seashore spent the majority of his professional life at the University of Iowa, where he held the position of Dean of the Graduate School for 28 years.

Carl Seashore retired in 1937 at the age of 70 but was recalled as Dean Pro Tempore of the Graduate School in 1942.