tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7181744309080861233.post727876344813707003..comments2024-01-12T00:48:55.192-08:00Comments on Music and Brain Blog at University of Toronto: Sight-Reading Music: A Unique Window on the MindLee Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06727468225852676801noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7181744309080861233.post-82101797596499300732010-11-14T16:09:11.521-08:002010-11-14T16:09:11.521-08:00Studies on Sight-Reading! This was really intrigui...Studies on Sight-Reading! This was really intriguing for me to read and has inspired me to do some further research on the science behind sight-reading. I always thought that although it could certainly be improved through extensive studies, the majority of the ability to sight-read was innate.. just as in the case of perfect pitch! There are some wonderful professional musicians I know who do not necessarily have amazing sight-reading skills. <br /><br />I agree with Leila that the first study may be biased because it is difficult to measure the reading of language alongside the reading of music. I also find it difficult to be in complete agreement with the researchers in the second study done by Rayner and Pollatsek. While it is true that sight-reading and reading language require the eyes to be ahead of the motor action because the information needs to be understood before being translated, I feel as though typing does not require my visual capabilities. Although I certainly require thought-process to consciously type what I am thinking (unless I am simply typing out a dictation), I typically do not require my eyes to look ahead at what my fingers are doing in the typing process. <br /><br />It is also quite interesting to me that the researchers concluded that the limitation on the brain in these activities is the limitation on the capacity of short-term memory. In my situation, although I feel that sight-reading, reading language and typing are all quite effortless tasks, I don't think that I have very good short-term memory.Lisa Taharahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16127734908868622463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7181744309080861233.post-55897034576407694682010-10-29T09:22:18.151-07:002010-10-29T09:22:18.151-07:00Thanks a lot for your post. Since I've always ...Thanks a lot for your post. Since I've always been struggling with sight reading, I found this article very interesting. But I faced some question when I read the results of the study. I am wondering if comparing language reading with music reading is an unbiased study?<br />If you agree, most of us have practiced language reading much more than music reading in our lives, which has made the language reading a much more effortless task to do comparing with music reading.<br />To have a fair comparison, don't you think one should have practiced language and music reading for an equal amount of time in their lives, so the researcher would be able to compare them without a confounder ( here, the different amount of practice in language and music reading) in his/her variables' results?Leilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00080116441325391389noreply@blogger.com