Japanese Version of the Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ-JA)

The groove experience has been defined as a pleasurable urge to move that is induced in humans while listening to music. In the past, the intensity of this experience has been measured in various ways. In 2020, the English language Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ-EN), with two scales and six items, was proposed as a concise, valid, and reliable psychometric inventory for measuring listeners’ urge to move and pleasure, followed by a German translation (EGQ-DE) in 2021. This study presents a Japanese version of the Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ-JA). The items were carefully translated from English into Japanese. A listening experiment was conducted to investigate the psychometric properties of the EGQ-JA. The results show that the EGQ-JA replicates the two-factor structure of the original EGQ-EN and the EGQ-DE. Both scales had high internal consistency and good criterion-related validity. The EGQ-JA facilitates groove research among Japanese-speaking populations. This study also established the convergent criterion validity of the EGQ-JA scales with existing measurement scales, such as the Multiple Mood Scale and a nori item. Its equivalence with the English and German versions makes cross-cultural comparisons possible, and, thus, promotes culturally diverse research on the groove experience and music perception.