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Improved motor sequence retention by motionless listening

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Abstract

This study examined the effect of listening to a newly learned musical piece on subsequent motor retention of the piece. Thirty-six non-musicians were trained to play an unfamiliar melody on a piano keyboard. Next, they were randomly assigned to participate in three follow-up listening sessions over 1 week. Subjects who, during their listening sessions, listened to the same initial piece showed significant improvements in motor memory and retention of the piece despite the absence of physical practice. These improvements included increased pitch accuracy, time accuracy, and dynamic intensity of key pressing. Similar improvements, though to a lesser degree, were observed in subjects who, during their listening sessions, were distracted by another task. Control subjects, who after learning the piece had listened to nonmusical sounds, showed impaired motoric retention of the piece at 1 week from the initial acquisition day. These results imply that motor sequences can be established in motor memory without direct access to motor-related information. In addition, the study revealed that the listening-induced improvements did not generalize to the learning of a new musical piece composed of the same notes as the initial piece learned, limiting the effects to musical motor sequences that are already part of the individual’s motor repertoire.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the NIH (R01-DC-03663) (to E.S.) and Dudley Allen Sargent Research Fund (to A.L.). We thank Wendy Lou for assisting with data collection, Daniel Segre for data analysis and figure preparation, and Brian Arnold for assisting with the contour similarity test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Amir Lahav

  2. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Tal Katz

  3. Department of Occupational Therapy, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Roxanne Chess

  4. Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, Boston University, Boston, MA

    Elliot Saltzman

  5. Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA

    Elliot Saltzman

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  1. Amir Lahav
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Correspondence to Amir Lahav.

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Lahav, A., Katz, T., Chess, R. et al. Improved motor sequence retention by motionless listening. Psychological Research 77, 310–319 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0433-0

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