Abstract

Musical performance ability is an instance of a highly complex perceptual-motor skill that has been seldom studied with respect to the attainment of attentional fluency. The goal of the current study was to assess differences in attentional fluency in a group of pianists with varying ability levels (from novice to expert). Attentional fluency was operationalized in terms of shift costs exhibited on a musical auditory task shifting experiment (after R.D. Rogers & S. Monsell, 1995). Employing this paradigm, other researchers (M. Taube-Schiff & N. Segalowitz, 2005) have documented attention-directing functions of language that are related to fluency in another complex skill, that of second language (L2) performance. More specifically, grammaticized words were related to the ability to control attention in L2. For the purposes of the current study, it was hypothesized that dynamic and articulatory properties of music may serve a similar function to grammaticized words in L2. Furthermore, it was proposed that participants with increased musical experience should exhibit greater attentional fluency with musical materials than those with less musical experience. The results of the experiment directly contradicted this hypothesis; increased musical proficiency was found to be related to slower reaction times when shifting between musical properties of the stimulus. This result could not be explained by general attentional abilities. Results will be discussed in terms of the implications for the perceptual integrality of musical dimensions that may develop as a result of increased proficiency in the musical domain.