Abstract
Sight reading (SR) is a dynamic task which requires the performance of the music printed in a score whithout previous practice (Lehmann and McArthur 2002). Our main aim was to analyse how cognitive flexibility and the inhibitory processes involved in the control of interference of irrelevant stimulus and in the suppression of preponderant actions or responses, could differently contribute to fluency and accuracy in SR, as a function of the conditions of difficulty of the SR tasks. We also aimed to determine if these contributions were independent of instrument knowledge. 63 students of melodic instruments participated in the study. The results revealed a significant contribution of the inhibitory processes involved in the suppression of preponderant actions or responses to both fluency and accuracy, even in low difficult conditions of the SR tasks. Our results also revealed significant contributions of cognitive flexibility to fluency and of resistance to interference to accuracy only in high difficult conditions of the SR tasks. All these contributions were independent of instrument knowledge.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [Zenodo] at http://doi.org/[10.5281/zenodo.3066301], reference number [3,066,301#.XOL12VIzaM9].
Notes
Musical improvisation has been compared to SR because both tasks require real-time performance without previous preparation and both share the components of encoding/processing and executing (Thompson and Lehmann 2004). These authors concluded that SR and improvisation may require planning abilities for performance in real time and that the main difference between them could be associated with the nature of the stimuli determining what is to be played. In SR, the musical information regarding meter, tonality, tempo, pitch, rhythm and articulation is written in the score. In contrast, in improvisation, the pitch, rhythm and articulation must be internally generated by the intentions of the performer following established musical norms for meter, tempo, and tonality.
The detailed description of the different taxonomies of inhibitory processes goes beyond the aim of the present study; see Friedman and Miyake (2004) for an integrative account.
The term prepotent response inhibition was adopted by Friedman and Miyake (2004) to integrate different conceptualizations of behavioral inhibition. However, Nigg (2000), had distinguished between behavioral and oculomotor inhibition to differentiate the suppression of prepotent motor responses depending on whether the stimulus presented involved saccadic movements (oculomotor inhibition) or not (behavioral inhibition). As Nigg (2000) pointed out, oculomotor inhibition reflects the effortful suppression of reflexive eye movements. In contrast, behavioral inhibition is associated with the automatic suppression of an inappropriate response that was previously learned. Oculomotor inhibition is affected by the increase of memory load in more difficult tasks, whereas behavioral inhibition is not (Redick et al. 2011). Thus, although both types of inhibitory processes are related to the suppression of motor responses, in tasks in which the information must be read, such as SR, the involvement of oculomotor inhibition and behavioral inhibition can be dissociated.
Although Friedman and Miyake (2004) have suggested that resistance to interference and prepotent response inhibition reflects a common inhibitory ability, some authors have pointed out that the selection and execution of responses may be separable processing stages in which conflicts must be resolved (Rubia et al. 2001; Rubia et al. 2003). Thus, an enhanced prepotency to respond may generate greater conflict in execution because of the selection response (Nee et al. 2007).
See Nigg (2000) for a justification of the utility of antisaccade tasks as a direct measure of inhibition.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Noemí Gómez for her collaboration in the evaluation of the SR performances. We also thank Iraia Sebastian, Pilar Pozo and Celia Viciana for their help in data collection, and the students and teachers who have collaborated with this study. This work was financially supported by projects MICCIN EDU2011-22699.
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Herrero, L., Carriedo, N. The role of cognitive flexibility and inhibition in complex dynamic tasks: the case of sight reading music. Curr Psychol 41, 4625–4637 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00983-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00983-y