Eye on Music Reading: A Methodological Review of Studies from 1994 to 2017.

Marjaana Puurtinen

doi:10.16910/jemr.11.2.2

Abstract

In this review, we focus on the methodological aspects of eye-tracking research in the domain of music, published and/or available between 1994 and 2017, and we identify potentially fruitful next steps to increase coherence and systematicity within this emerging field. We review and discuss choices of musical stimuli, the conditions under which these were performed (i.e. control of performance tempo and music-reading protocols), performer’s level of musical expertise, and handling of performance errors and eye-movement data. We propose that despite a lack of methodological coherence in research to date, careful reflection on earlier methodological choices can help in formulating future research questions and in positioning new work. These steps would represent progress towards a cumulative research tradition, where joint understanding is built by systematic and consistent use of stimuli, research settings and methods of analysis.

Highlights

Eye movement research has attracted increasing interest in recent decades as a fruitful approach to studying cognitive factors underlying domain expertise, including eye movements during music reading. This approach to visual expertise research is well suited to the act of music reading, for a number of reasons
In a growing area of research, with much to do and little to build on, we argue that a more detailed review of methodological choices in previous studies would be of benefit to researchers in formulating research questions and positioning new work, all in the interest of establishing a more systematic research tradition
When applying the first of these (Table 2a), the focus of the studies has been in addressing global differences in eye movements during music reading with respect to the amount of visual information in the notated pieces (Goolsby, 1994a; Wurtz et al, 2009), performers’ skill levels and their perceptual and/or eye-hand spans (Furneaux & Land, 1999; Gilman & Underwood, 2003; see Rosemann, Altenmüller, & Fahle, 2016) or the presence or absence of auditory models and/or fingerings (Drai-Zerbib, et al, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Eye movement research has attracted increasing interest in recent decades as a fruitful approach to studying cognitive factors underlying domain expertise, including eye movements during music reading.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion