Visual processing abilities associated with piano music sight-reading expertise

Abstract

Visual processing expertise in musicians has traditionally focused on the difference between expert and non-expert music sight-readers. More generally, differences between musicians and non-musicians have been explored, often with a view to promoting the possible benefits of music training. However, as the definition of music sight-reading expertise varies widely and there is largely no accounting for visual processing expertise in other domains that may be present in non-musicians, interpretation of the results becomes challenging and conclusions may be misleading. Of greater value to the investigation of the visual processing benefits of formal music education would be the ability to definitively isolate those with visual processing expertise in the music sight-reading domain from those without. Only then would it be possible for meaningful comparisons to be made between both the expert and the non-expert music sight-readers and each of these groups, in turn, with non-musicians. The aim of the present study was to explore visual processing by measuring the Working Memory Capacity (WMC) and Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) capabilities of piano music sight-readers. Participants were grouped as expert or non-expert music sight-readers and the results compared with the WMC and RAN results of non-musicians.