1. ABOUT THE DATASET ------------ Title: Autism and Music Listening Creator(s): Jiayin Li, Fang Liu Organisation(s): School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading Rights-holder(s): Jiayin Li and University of Reading Publication Year: 2026 Description: This dataset contains anonymised behavioural, cognitive, musical, and questionnaire data from native British English–speaking autistic and non-autistic adults who participated in a study examining individual differences in music perception, music listening behaviour, and related cognitive abilities. A total of 112 participants are included (52 autistic, 60 non-autistic), following exclusions described in the associated manuscript. Participants were tested either in the laboratory or online. Cognitive measures differed according to testing modality. Participants tested in the laboratory completed Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven & Court, 1998), the Forward Digit Span task (Wechsler, 2008), and the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (Martin & Brownell, 2011). Participants tested online completed the Forward Digit Span task and the Deary–Liewald Reaction Time Task (Deary et al., 2011). Consequently, not all participants completed the same set of cognitive measures. Missing values for these tasks reflect differences in testing modality rather than data loss. Cite as: Li, Jiayin and Liu, Fang (2026): Autism and Music Listening. University of Reading. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.001495 Related publication: Li, J., Ong, J. H., Bernotaite, Z., Sujawal, M., & Liu, F. (Under Review). Why Music Matters: Music-Listening Functions and Motives in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults. Contact: Fang Liu, f.liu@reading.ac.uk 2. TERMS OF USE ----------------- Copyright 2026 Jiayin Li and University of Reading. This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION ------------ Title: Cracking the pitch code in music and language: Insights from congenital amusia (CA) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) Dates: 01/12/2016 - 31/05/2023 Funding organisation: European Research Council Grant no.: ERC-2015-StG, 678733, CAASD 4. CONTENTS ------------ The dataset comprises three CSV files. 4.1 AML_demo Participant-level demographic, cognitive, musical, and questionnaire data for all included participants. Columns: --------- Participant information id – Anonymised participant identifier group – Diagnostic group (ASC = autistic, NAS = non-autistic) site – Testing modality (In-person, Online) gender – Self-reported gender age – Age in years at testing aq – Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) total score mtyears – Total years of formal musical training (all instruments, including voice) --------- Cognitive measures raven_raw – Raw score on Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (lab only) raven_percentile – Percentile score for Raven’s matrices (lab only) dl_simple_avg – Mean reaction time in the simple reaction time task (online only) dl_simple_rt – Reaction time variability in the simple reaction time task (online only) dl_choice_avg – Mean reaction time in the four-choice reaction time task (online only) dl_choice_rt – Reaction time variability in the four-choice reaction time task (online only) rowpvt_raw – Raw score on the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (lab only) rowpvt_std – Standardised ROWPVT score (lab only) digitspan – Forward Digit Span score (lab and online) --------- Musical perception (MBEA) mbea_pitch – Composite pitch perception score mbea_contour – Pitch contour subtest score mbea_interval – Pitch interval subtest score mbea_scale – Scale subtest score --------- Music listening iml_frequency – Frequency of intentional music listening iml_duration – Duration of intentional music listening --------- Data quality catch_01 – Attention check item used to assess task compliance 4.2 AML_coping Item-level data assessing coping motives for music listening. Coping motives were measured using three items from the Motives for Listening to Music Questionnaire (MLMQ), indexing the use of music to regulate negative emotions or manage stress. Each row corresponds to one participant’s response to one coping item. Columns: id – Anonymised participant identifier group – Diagnostic group (ASC, NAS) item – Coping item identifier response – Rating on a five-point frequency scale (0 = almost never/never, 1 = some of the time, 2 = half of the time, 3 = most of the time, 4 = almost always/always) IML –Index of Music Listening score 4.3 AML_fom Item-level data assessing the psychological functions of music listening. Items were selected from Schäfer et al. (2013) and index three functional domains: self-awareness, arousal and mood regulation, and social relatedness. Each row corresponds to one participant’s response to one item. Columns: id – Anonymised participant identifier group – Diagnostic group (ASC, NAS) category – Function-of-music domain (self-awareness, arousal/mood regulation, social relatedness) item – Item identifier response – Rating on a seven-point Likert scale (0 = fully disagree, 6 = fully agree) IML –Index of Music Listening score 5. Methods ----------------- Details of participant recruitment, task administration, and data processing are provided in the associated publication entitled 'Why Music Matters: Music-Listening Functions and Motives in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults'. The study examined whether autistic and non-autistic adults differ in their everyday reasons for listening to music. Autistic and non-autistic participants completed questionnaires measuring coping motives and core psychological functions of music listening, including mood regulation, self-awareness, and social relatedness. The two groups showed largely similar patterns of music use across these functions. However, autistic adults reported using music more frequently to cope with negative mood or stress. These findings suggest that while the general purposes of music listening are broadly shared across groups, music may play a particularly important role in emotional coping for autistic individuals. References Deary, I. J., Liewald, D., & Nissan, J. (2011). A free, easy-to-use, computer-based simple and four-choice reaction time programme: The Deary-Liewald reaction time task. Behavior Research Methods, 43(1), 258–268. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-010-0024-1 Martin, N. A., & Brownell, R. (2011). Expressive one-word picture vocabulary test-4 (EOWPVT-4). Academic Therapy Publications. Raven, J. C., & Court, J. H. (1998). Raven’s progressive matrices and vocabulary scales. Oxford Psychologists Press Oxford. http://www.v-psyche.com/doc/IQ/Raven-Vocabulary.doc Wechsler, D. (2008). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.1037/t15169-000