A B S T R AC T This article reports an empirical investigation into the characteristics of conductors' temporal gestures and people's ability to synchronize with them. It describes a new approach to the investigation of the characteristics of conductors' gestures, the investigation of conductor-musician synchronization, and a first experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach. As part of this approach, a new computer-based environment for manipulating and presenting conductors' gestures, and recording participants' responses, was developed. This involved the creation of several pieces of new software, all of which were developed under Microsoft ® Windows ® using Visual Cϩϩ. Used in combination, these programs allowed:(1) the manipulation of the size and viewing angle of high-quality three-dimensional (3D) recordings of conductors' gestures; (2) the presentation of these gestures to participants in a controlled experimental setting; (3) the recording of participants' temporal responses to these gestures; (4) the calculation of various parameters of both the trajectory of the gestures (e.g. instantaneous speed, radius of curvature along the trajectory) and participants' responses (e.g. mean response point and associated standard deviation); and (5) the graphical display of relevant features of both the gestures and participants' responses in a clear visual form. In the experiment, participants tapped in time with simple conducting gestures while several factors that might be expected to affect synchronization accuracy were manipulated. These factors were (1) the radius of curvature with which the beat was defined; (2) the experience level of the conductor; and (3) the experience level of participants. Results indicated that only participants' previous experience affected their synchronization ability; no effects of conductors' previous experience, or radius of curvature with which the beat was defined were found. This first experiment successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the new approach for the investigation of conductors' gestures and conductormusician synchronization, and this article concludes by suggesting a number of subsequent experiments that could be undertaken in this computer-based environment to investigate these topics further. K E Y W O R D S : conducting, gestures, visual beat perception Psychology of Music Psychology of Music

This tool has the capacity to enable individuals to capture experiences in a storyboard format; that can be stored; is easily retrievable; can be printed out; and could feasibly be personalised by the insertion of photographs.

This report describes the development and evaluation of a Java-based interactive visual workspace, with accompanying tutorials, to help psychology undergraduates acquire an intuitive understanding of analysis of variance (ANOVA). The user is presented with two normal distributions and a sliding control allowing variation of the difference in group means, relative skewness and kurtosis. The distributions are generated algorithmically in real time to allow for a wide range of adjustments. An experimental group (n = 56) used the dynamic workspace while a control group (n = 52) studied a paper copy, both for 45 minutes. Performance on a 10 item multiple choice test was compared between groups, after no delay and after one hour, but, despite an overall mean correct score of 6.54 items, there were no significant condition effects. Subjective preference responses also did not discriminate between the groups. However, the cohort taking part in the evaluation study (i.e., the experimental and control groups combined) outperformed the cohort of the previous year on pertinent questions in the formal module examination. In conclusion, while there was no advantage to student learning of online interactive over static paper versions of the workspace, exposure to the materials created may have improved module examination performance. The research is continuing and the workspace is freely available from the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network website.