Learning to rock: The role of prior experience and explicit instruction on learning and transfer in a music videogame

Abstract

For a moment in time, music-based videogames were tremendously popular, yet we know little about how and when knowledge learned from these games can transfer to other music tasks. This paper presents a study of transfer from the game Rock Band to within-game and non-game musical tasks. Thirty-four undergraduates with low to moderate prior Rock Band experience participated in the study. For initial instruction, they were randomly assigned to either a Drill condition, using the built-in training feature of the videogame, or a teacher-led Lesson condition which focused on strategic and procedural knowledge of drumming techniques. Non-game transfer tasks included: (1) drumming along with music sequencing software (GarageBand), (2) a call and response task, and (3) a task where participants commented on the technique of other drummers. Results showed that prior experience with Rock Band was a significant predictor for the GarageBand transfer tasks but not for the call and response or commenting tasks. Both instructional conditions performed equally well on Rock Band tasks, but those in the Lesson condition performed better on commenting tasks, as well as on GarageBand tasks after controlling for Rock Band skill. These findings replicate and extend prior research on the ability of game play experience to transfer to non-game musical tasks, while adding the finding that traditional lessons can effectively augment in-game learning experiences.