Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music
A music reader has to “look ahead” from the notes currently being played—this has usually been called the Eye-Hand Span. Given the restrictions on processing time due to tempo and meter, the Early Attraction Hypothesis suggests that sight readers are likely to locally increase the span of looking ah...
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MDPI AG
2018-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Eye Movement Research |
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| Online Access: | https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/4094 |
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| author | Erkki Huovinen Anna-Kaisa Ylitalo Marjaana Puurtinen |
| author_facet | Erkki Huovinen Anna-Kaisa Ylitalo Marjaana Puurtinen |
| author_sort | Erkki Huovinen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A music reader has to “look ahead” from the notes currently being played—this has usually been called the Eye-Hand Span. Given the restrictions on processing time due to tempo and meter, the Early Attraction Hypothesis suggests that sight readers are likely to locally increase the span of looking ahead in the face of complex upcoming symbols (or symbol relationships). We argue that such stimulus-driven effects on looking ahead are best studied using a measure of Eye-Time Span (ETS) which redefines looking ahead as the metrical distance between the position of a fixation in the score and another position that corresponds to the point of metrical time at fixation onset. In two experiments of temporally controlled sight reading, musicians read simple stepwise melodies that were interspersed with larger intervallic skips, supposed to create points of higher melodic complexity (and visual salience) at the notes following the skips. The results support both Early Attraction (lengthening of looking ahead) and Distant Attraction (lengthening of incoming saccades) in the face of relative melodic complexity. Notably, such effects also occurred on the notes preceding the nominally complex ones. The results suggest that saccadic control in music reading depends on temporal restrictions as well as on local variations in stimulus complexity. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-279e34e881fb418bbab2997f6add558d |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1995-8692 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Eye Movement Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-279e34e881fb418bbab2997f6add558d2025-08-20T03:17:40ZengMDPI AGJournal of Eye Movement Research1995-86922018-04-0111210.16910/jemr.11.2.3Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of musicErkki Huovinen0Anna-Kaisa Ylitalo1Marjaana Puurtinen2Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden; University of Jyväskylä, FinlandUniversity of Jyväskylä, FinlandUniversity of Turku, FinlandA music reader has to “look ahead” from the notes currently being played—this has usually been called the Eye-Hand Span. Given the restrictions on processing time due to tempo and meter, the Early Attraction Hypothesis suggests that sight readers are likely to locally increase the span of looking ahead in the face of complex upcoming symbols (or symbol relationships). We argue that such stimulus-driven effects on looking ahead are best studied using a measure of Eye-Time Span (ETS) which redefines looking ahead as the metrical distance between the position of a fixation in the score and another position that corresponds to the point of metrical time at fixation onset. In two experiments of temporally controlled sight reading, musicians read simple stepwise melodies that were interspersed with larger intervallic skips, supposed to create points of higher melodic complexity (and visual salience) at the notes following the skips. The results support both Early Attraction (lengthening of looking ahead) and Distant Attraction (lengthening of incoming saccades) in the face of relative melodic complexity. Notably, such effects also occurred on the notes preceding the nominally complex ones. The results suggest that saccadic control in music reading depends on temporal restrictions as well as on local variations in stimulus complexity.https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/4094Eye trackingEye-hand spanEye-time spanMeterMusic readingParafoveal processing |
| spellingShingle | Erkki Huovinen Anna-Kaisa Ylitalo Marjaana Puurtinen Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music Journal of Eye Movement Research Eye tracking Eye-hand span Eye-time span Meter Music reading Parafoveal processing |
| title | Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music |
| title_full | Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music |
| title_fullStr | Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music |
| title_full_unstemmed | Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music |
| title_short | Early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music |
| title_sort | early attraction in temporally controlled sight reading of music |
| topic | Eye tracking Eye-hand span Eye-time span Meter Music reading Parafoveal processing |
| url | https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/4094 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT erkkihuovinen earlyattractionintemporallycontrolledsightreadingofmusic AT annakaisaylitalo earlyattractionintemporallycontrolledsightreadingofmusic AT marjaanapuurtinen earlyattractionintemporallycontrolledsightreadingofmusic |