Research in Motor Learning and Procedural Memory in Music

Music performance engages a constellation of perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes. The goal of musicians’ practice is to coordinate these processes in the context of artistic expression, combining the many individual elements of motor control to create fluid sequences of movements that, over time, become increasingly integrated into larger structures: musical gestures, phrases, periods. Of course, motor learning has long been a topic of interest in psychology and kinesiology and more recently in neuroscience. The results of research in these discplines, though often obtained by observing skills more limited in complexity than those typically involved in music performance, are nevertheless germane to the understanding of motor behavior in music.

Our group studies the processes of motor skill learning in the context of music performance. We're particularly interested in how the brain encodes, modifies, and retrieves procedural memories in music and in related skills. Most recently we have focused on the behavioral effects of sleep and interference in the processes of memory consolidation under varying learning conditions.

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Current UT Lab Members

Doctoral Students

Melissa Becker

James Fidlon

Lab Alumni

Sarah Allen, Southern Methodist University

Carla Davis, Texas Tech University

Amy Simmons, Institute for Music Research, University of Texas at San Antonio

Other Collaborators

Ruth V. Brittin, University of the Pacific

James L. Byo, Louisiana State University

Mary Ellen Cavitt, Texas State University

Steve Morrison, University of Washington

Deb Sheldon, Temple University

Roseanne K. Rosenthal, VanderCook College of Music, Chicago

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Recent Papers

Duke, R. A., & Davis, C. M. (2006). Procedural memory consolidation in the performance of brief keyboard sequences. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54, 111-124. [pdf]

Simmons, A. L., & Duke, R. A. (2006). Effects of sleep on performance of a keyboard melody. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54, 257-269. [pdf]

Allen, S. E. (2007). Procedural memory consolidation in musicians. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The University of Texas at Austin.

ABSTRACT. Procedural memory consolidation has been shown to enhance a variety of perceptual and motor skills during sleep. Only recently has this effect been investigated in trained musicians performing music. I tested the extent to which a music performance skill benefits from sleep-based consolidation overnight and whether this process may be inhibited when musicians learn two melodies in juxtaposition.
60 experienced musicians, all nonpianists, learned to perform either one or two 13-note piano melodies during evening training sessions. The musicians practiced each melody with their nondominant hand by repeating it from beginning to end during 12 30-second practice blocks alternating with 30-second rest intervals. All participants were retested on the target melody the following morning in three 30-second retest blocks alternating with 30-second rest intervals.
Participants who learned only one melody in the evening showed overnight gains in the number of correct key presses per block (CKP/B) in the target melody at retest. Participants who learned the target melody and an additional melody at training showed no overnight gains in CKP/B in the target melody. Participants who learned both melodies and then immediately were retested on the target melody at training showed overnight gains in CKP/B in the morning retest of the target melody—gains similar to those observed among the participants who learned only the target melody at training; this group showed no decrement in the performance of the target melody in the retest at the end of training, which indicates that there were no immediate interference effects apparent in the target melody after having learned the second melody.
These results show that experienced learners performing a familiar type of task, and one that includes auditory processing demands, benefit from overnight consolidation of procedural memories. These benefits may be inhibited, however, when musicians learn similar, competing tasks in juxtaposition.

Davis, C. M. (2007). Effects of early and late rest intervals on performance and consolidation of a keyboard sequence. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin.

ABSTRACT. I designed two experiments to study the extent to which 5-minute rest intervals placed early and late during practice influence motor sequence learning. In Experiment 1, 26 nonmusicians practiced a 5-note sequence with their left (non-dominant) hand on a digital piano, repeating the sequence “as quickly and accurately as possible” during 6 30-second practice blocks alternating with 30-second pauses. The training sessions for half the participants included an extended rest interval of 5 minutes between Blocks 3 and 4. Following a night of sleep, all participants performed the sequence in 6 30-second blocks with a 5-minute rest interval between Blocks 3 and 4. I found no significant differences attributable to rest condition in the number of correct key presses per block (CKP/B) during training or retest.
In Experiment 2, 36 nonmusicians performed the same 5-note sequence over 12 30-second blocks alternating with 30-second pauses. One group (n = 12) rested for 5-minutes between Blocks 3 and 4 (early rest); another group (n = 12) between Blocks 9 and 10 (late rest); and a control group (n = 12) performed the 12 blocks without an extended rest interval. All were retested following a night of sleep in a procedure identical to the retest in Experiment 1.
The introduction of extended rest in the early and late stages of practice significantly affected the rates of learning within and between sessions. Immediately following the 5-minute rest intervals, participants showed large gains in CKP/B, but only following the early rest did participants continue to show large gains across the next two blocks of practice. Participants in the early rest group also showed the largest overnight gains. These findings suggest that neurophysical processes that occur during 5 minute rest intervals enhance performance and that the temporal placement of rest in a training session affects subsequent motor sequence learning and the consolidation of procedural memories.

Simmons, A. L. (2007). Effects of practice variability and distribution of practice on musicians' performance of a procedural skill. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin.

ABSTRACT. I designed three experiments to determine how procedural memory consolidation in a music task is affected by practice under different conditions of speed regulation and different time intervals between practice sessions. Ninety-two nonpianist musicians practiced a 9-note sequence with their nondominant hand on a digital piano in three sessions, each of which comprised 3 blocks of 15 performance trials. In Experiment 1 (n = 31), participants were instructed to perform as quickly and accurately as possible but determined their own tempos in each trial. In Experiment 2 (n = 31), three defined practice tempos (M. M. = 52, 72, and 92) were externally regulated in a stable practice procedure in which tempo changed between, not within, blocks. In Experiment 3 (n = 30), the same three tempos were externally regulated in a variable practice procedure in which practice tempo changed from trial to trial within each block. In each experiment, three different groups’ practice sessions were separated by either 5 min, 6 hr, or 24 hr.
Consistent with previous descriptions of procedural memory consolidation, the results of Experiment 1 show that note accuracy improved significantly between Sessions 1 and 2 only when the sessions were separated by a 24-hr interval that included sleep; performance speed improved in all groups between Sessions 1 and 2, and between Sessions 2 and 3 when sessions were separated by 6 or 24 hr. In Experiment 2 (stable practice) there were significant improvements in note and tempo accuracy between Sessions 1 and 2 when those sessions were separated by 5 min or 6 hr, but not when the sessions were separated by 24 hr. In Experiment 3 (variable practice) note accuracy improved between Sessions 1 and 2 only when the sessions were separated by a 24-hour interval that included sleep; there were no significant improvements in tempo accuracy, perhaps due to the high physical demands of matching varying target tempos in successive trials. These results demonstrate that motor skill learning in music is affected by the time interval between practice sessions, and that the effects of distributed practice are dependent upon practice conditions.