Restricting the field of view to investigate the perceptual spans of pianists

Gilman, Elizabeth; Underwood, Geoffrey

doi:10.1080/713756679

Cited by 50 publications

(119 citation statements)

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“…Because it is a common notion in all research on expertise that experts can overcome some limitations of short-term memory capacity by processing familiar information in meaningful chunks (e.g., Chi, 2006), it may then well be that this "chunking" is demonstrated also in proficient sight-readers' eye movements; however, this issue demands further investigation. Skilled sight-readers also demonstrate longer eye-hand spans than those less proficient, as mentioned above, implying that they look farther ahead while playing (Furneaux & Land, 1999;Gilman & Underwood, 2003;Truitt et al, 1997; see also Goolsby, 1994a). Furthermore, Goolsby (1994aGoolsby ( , 1994b reported that not only did more skilled sight-readers' visual attention move ahead from the point of execution while sight-singing, but they also tended to return to the current place of execution.…”

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confidence: 73%

The Early Development of Sight-Reading Skills in Adulthood

Penttinen

Huovinen

2011

Journal of Research in Music Education

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In this study the effects of skill development on the eye movements of beginning adult sight-readers were examined, focusing on changes in the allocation of visual attention within metrical units as well as in the processing of larger melodic intervals. The participants were future elementary school teachers, taking part in a 9-monthlong music training period. During this period, 15 novice sight-readers' development was observed in three measurements, with 15 amateur musicians functioning as a comparison group. The novices' allocation of fixation time within metrical units gradually approached a pattern demonstrated by the amateurs in which increased sensitivity to metrical divisions was evinced by larger average fixation times on the latter halves of bars. Concerning larger melodic skips in otherwise stepwise melodic contexts, an analysis of fixation times suggested that the novices' visual processing of skips did not proceed in terms of note comparison across the skip but rather through a direct identification of the notational symbols involved. Skill development was seen, then, as increasing fluency of this identification process. These and similar findings may lead to a better understanding of the problems encountered by novice sight-readers and thus to advancements in the pedagogy of music reading.

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confidence: 73%

The Early Development of Sight-Reading Skills in Adulthood

Penttinen

Huovinen

2011

Journal of Research in Music Education

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“…A second technique identifies the average number of notes between fixations. A third technique identifies the "eye-hand span," the discrepancy between the note being played and the eye position (Furneaux & Land, 1999;Gilman & Underwood, 2003;Goolsby, 1989Goolsby, , 1994aGoolsby, , 1994bSloboda, 1977;Truitt et al, 1997;Weaver, 1943). Using these first three techniques, estimates of the spatial range of "instantaneous" perception have varied from 1-8 notes.…”

Section: Oes Music Rehearsal Improve the Range Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fourth technique used to examine the spatial range of perception while reading music uses the gazecontingent moving window paradigm to identify the "perceptual span," i.e., the effective visual field for perception during a single fixation (Gilman & Underwood, 2003;Truitt et al, 1997). Studies on the cognitive control MUSIC REHEARSAL INCREASES THE PERCEPTUAL SPAN FOR NOTATION of eye movements (McConkie & Rayner, 1975;Rayner, 1998) have demonstrated that the spatial range of "instantaneous" perception effectively reflects the visual processing that occurs within a single fixation.…”

Section: Oes Music Rehearsal Improve the Range Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music Rehearsal Increases the Perceptual Span for Notation

Burman

Booth²

2009

Music Perception

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DESPITE EVIDENCE FOR IMPROVED VISUAL PROCESSING of the printed score among skilled musicians, the effect of music rehearsal on the effective visual field ("perceptual span") for a musical score has never been directly examined. Following 1––20 rehearsals, 11 skilled and 10 less skilled adult musicians reported whether a variant note appeared within a melodic sequence of 3––18 notes, presented onscreen for 200 ms in a tachistoscopic task designed to evaluate the perceptual span. Initially, skilled musicians showed a slightly larger perceptual span for challenging passages (5 notes vs. 4 notes for less skilled musicians). Perceptual spans increased incrementally in both groups, but skill differences in span size disappeared by 20 rehearsals (span of 11 notes). A correlation between improvements in visual perceptual span and performance speed suggests that perceptual learning could underlie early improvements in performance during music rehearsals.

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“…By recording eye fixations on specific objects shown in a photograph of a natural scene we can determine the objects that attract attention, and the order in which they are fixated can be taken as an indication of their saliency. Unlike the eye movements made while reading text (Rayner, 1998) or while reading musical notation (Gilman & Underwood, 2003), where the structure of the array requires a sequence of fixations in a well-defined order, the order of fixations made to scenes is not prescribed by the need to generate a sequenced output. Scenes can, in principle, be inspected with fixations made in a number of sequences, although regularities can be observed.…”

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confidence: 99%

Eye movements during scene inspection: A test of the saliency map hypothesis

Underwood

Foulsham

Loon

et al. 2006

European Journal of Cognitive Psychology

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109

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What attracts attention when we inspect a scene? Two experiments recorded eye movements while viewers inspected pictures of natural office scenes in which two objects of interest were placed. One object had low contour density and uniform colouring (a piece of fruit), relative to another that was visually complex (for example, coffee mugs and commercial packages). In each picture the visually complex object had the highest visual saliency according to the Itti and Koch algorithm. Two experiments modified the task while the pictures were inspected, to determine whether visual saliency is invariably dominant in determining the pattern of fixations, or whether the purpose of inspection can provide a cognitive override that renders saliency secondary. In the first experiment viewers inspected the scene in preparation for a memory task, and the more complex objects were potent in attracting early fixations, in support of a saliency map model of scene inspection. In the second experiment viewers were set the task of detecting the presence of a low saliency target, and the effect of a high saliency distractor was negligible, supporting a model in which the saliency map can be built with cognitive influences that override low-level visual features.

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Restricting the field of view to investigate the perceptual spans of pianists

Cited by 50 publications

References 39 publications

The Early Development of Sight-Reading Skills in Adulthood

The Early Development of Sight-Reading Skills in Adulthood

Music Rehearsal Increases the Perceptual Span for Notation

Eye movements during scene inspection: A test of the saliency map hypothesis

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