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Studying expertise in music reading: Use of a pattern-matching paradigm

  • Andrew J. Waters*
  • , Geoffrey Underwood
  • , John M. Findlay
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two experiments are described that make use of a pattern-matching paradigm to investigate perceptual processing of music notation. In Experiment 1, it is reported that the speed of comparing two visually presented musical sequences is related to the sight-reading skill of the subjects. The effect of the temporal and pitch structure of the comparison stimuli is also assessed. In Experiment 2, eye-movement recordings were taken as subjects performed the task. These data demonstrated that more experienced musicians are able to perform the comparisons with fewer, and shorter, glances between the patterns. These and other findings suggest that skilled sight-reading is associated with an ability to rapidly perceive notes or groups of notes in the score, and confirm that the pattern-matching paradigm is a useful tool in examining expertise in music reading.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)477-488
Number of pages12
JournalPerception & Psychophysics
Volume59
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1997

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