Biomedical subjects

Caroline Palmer

Publications and source records attributed to Caroline Palmer.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Cognitive and biomechanical influences in pianists' finger tapping.

Movement sequences such as typing or tapping display important interactions among finger movements arising from anticipatory motion (preparing for upcoming events) and coupling (non-independence among fingers). We examined pianists' finger tapping for the influence of cognitive chunking processes and biomechanical coupling constraints. In a synchronization-continuation task, pianists repeatedly tapped four-finger sequences that differed in terms of the chunks that formed subsequences and in the transitions among physically adjacent or non-adjacent fingers. Chunking influenced intertap intervals, regardless of the particular fingers tapped; the final tap of each chunk was lengthened and less variable relative to other taps. The particular fingers tapped influenced peak finger heights, consistency of motion, and velocity-acceleration patterns, regardless of chunking. Thus, cognitive constraints influenced timing, whereas biomechanical factors influenced motion trajectories. These findings provide an important caveat for study of anticipatory motion by documenting the influence of biomechanical coupling on motion trajectories.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Effects of hearing the past, present, or future during music performance.

Three experiments were performed to explore the effects of mismatches between actions (key-presses) and the contents of auditory feedback (pitch events) during music performance. Pianists performed melodies from memory during altered auditory feedback that was synchronized with key-presses but matched the pitch of other sequence events. Feedback direction was manipulated by presenting pitches that matched events intended for the past (delays; Experiments 1 and 3) or the future (prelays; Experiments 2 and 3). Feedback distance was manipulated by varying the absolute separation between the current event and the location of the feedback pitch. All alterations disrupted the accuracy of performance (pitch errors) more so than timing. Serial-ordering errors indicated confusions among proximal and metrically similar events, consistent with the predictions of an incremental planning model (Palmer & Pfordresher, 2003). Patterns of serial-ordering errors suggested that performers compensate for the disruptive effects of altered feedback by changing event activations during planning.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Time course of retrieval and movement preparation in music performance.

Music performance requires that musicians represent many different kinds of sequence structure: musicians must remember which pitch to produce, when to produce it, and how to produce it (with what movements). The time course of item retrieval and movement preparation processes during music performance are considered. Serially ordered stage models of retrieval, in which item retrieval ends before movement preparation begins, are compared with interactive cascade models, in which the time course of both processes overlap, permitting interaction. Evidence from transfer of learning paradigms, production errors, and anticipatory movements, as measured in motion capture, are described. This early evidence suggests different time courses for item retrieval (slower, earlier) than for movement preparation (faster, later) with significant temporal overlap during music performance.

Humans↗

PubMed2003

Incremental planning in sequence production.

People produce long sequences such as speech and music with incremental planning: mental preparation of a subset of sequence events. The authors model in music performance the sequence events that can be retrieved and prepared during production. Events are encoded in terms of their serial order and timing relative to other events in a planning increment, a contextually determined distribution of event activations. Planning is facilitated by events' metrical similarity and serial/temporal proximity and by developmental changes in short-term memory. The model's predictions of larger planning increments as production rate decreases and as producers' age-experience increases are confirmed in serial-ordering errors produced by adults and children. Incremental planning is considered as a general retrieval constraint in serially ordered behaviors.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Auditory feedback and memory for music performance: sound evidence for an encoding effect.

Research on the effects of context and task on learning and memory has included approaches that emphasize processes during learning (e.g., Craik & Tulving, 1975) and approaches that emphasize a match of conditions during learning with conditions during a later test of memory (e.g., Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977; Proteau, 1992; Tulving & Thomson, 1973). We investigated the effects of auditory context on learning and retrieval in three experiments on memorized music performance (a form of serial recall). Auditory feedback (presence or absence) was manipulated while pianists learned musical pieces from notation and when they later played the pieces from memory. Auditory feedback during learning significantly improved later recall. However, auditory feedback at test did not significantly affect recall, nor was there an interaction between conditions at learning and test. Auditory feedback in music performance appears to be a contextual factor that affects learning but is relatively independent of retrieval conditions.

Adolescent↗