The role of cognitive flexibility and inhibition in complex dynamic tasks: the case of sight reading music

Abstract

Sight reading (SR) is a dynamic task which requires the performance of the music printed in a score whithout previous practice (Lehmann and McArthur 2002). Our main aim was to analyse how cognitive flexibility and the inhibitory processes involved in the control of interference of irrelevant stimulus and in the suppression of preponderant actions or responses, could differently contribute to fluency and accuracy in SR, as a function of the conditions of difficulty of the SR tasks. We also aimed to determine if these contributions were independent of instrument knowledge. 63 students of melodic instruments participated in the study. The results revealed a significant contribution of the inhibitory processes involved in the suppression of preponderant actions or responses to both fluency and accuracy, even in low difficult conditions of the SR tasks. Our results also revealed significant contributions of cognitive flexibility to fluency and of resistance to interference to accuracy only in high difficult conditions of the SR tasks. All these contributions were independent of instrument knowledge.