The Perceptual Span and the Eye-Hand Span in Sight Reading Music

Abstract

The perceptual span and eye-hand span of pianists were examined while they played and read single-line melodies (with four beats per measure). The perceptual span was measured by the use of a moving-window technique with four window conditions: two beats, four beats, six beats, or no window. It was found that pianists need to see no more than the whole measure that they are fixating in order to perform normally: playing time was longest in the two-beat window condition, and there were longer fixation durations, more fixations, more regressions, and shorter saccade lengths in the two-beat window condition than in the other three conditions, which generally did not differ from one another. The eye-hand span, determined by comparing eye movement data and keypress data, was found to be a little more than one beat. The two-beat window yielded the smallest eye-hand span and the no window condition yielded the largestspan. Finally, the effect of skill was examined by comparing the four most skilled and the four least skilled music readers. Playing time, eye-hand span, and fixation duration all differed as a function of skill, with the skilled readers having shorter playing times, larger eye-hand spans, and shorter fixation durations than the less-skilled readers. Window size did not interact with reading skill.