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We measured the extent to which motor skill performance is advantaged by break intervals that include varied types of cognitive activity interposed early in a training session, directly comparing the performances of musicians and nonmusicians. Participants ( N = 118; 59 music majors, 59 nonmusicians) learned a 5-element keypress sequence on a digital piano during 12 min training sessions. Participants in three conditions took a 5 min break after 3 min of practice, and either practiced a new 5-element sequence (Break-motor), memorized word pairs (Break-word pair), or conversed with the proctor (Break-talk). Those in the fourth condition took no break (No-break). Participants were tested 12 hr later, following a night of sleep. Participants made significant performance gains across training and test, but musicians significantly outperformed nonmusicians at all timepoints. Nonmusicians made greater percentage gains than did musicians over the 5 min break interval and overnight, and participants in the Break-motor condition made significantly smaller gains over the 5 min break interval than did participants in the Break-talk and Break-word pair conditions. These results demonstrate that tasks involving declarative memories do not diminish performance enhancements that accrue during breaks early in motor skill practice, but these enhancements can be inhibited by engaging in competing motor tasks.

This study was designed to investigate the extent to which the presentation of an auditory model prior to learning a novel melody affects performance during active practice and the overnight consolidation of procedural memory. During evening training sessions, 32 nonpianist musicians practiced a 13-note keyboard melody with their left (nondominant) hand in twelve 30-s practice intervals separated by 30-s rest intervals. Participants were instructed to play the sequence “as quickly, accurately, and evenly as possible.” Approximately half the participants, prior to the first practice interval, listened to 10 repetitions of the target melody played at 552 tones per minute (half note = 138). All participants were tested on the target melody the following morning, approximately 12 hr after training, in three 30-s blocks separated by 30-s rest intervals. Performance was measured in terms of the mean number of correct key presses per 30-s block (CKP/B). Consistent with previous research, participants made considerable improvements in CKP/B during the evening training sessions and between the end of training and the morning test sessions. Learners who listened to the model made significantly larger gains in performance during training and between the end of training and test than did those who did not hear the model.

During evening practice sessions, 32 nonpianist musicians learned a short melody on piano, and then either learned a second short piano melody, learned a difficult unfamiliar piece on their principal instruments, practiced familiar material on their principal instruments, or engaged in no other music-related motor behavior prior to sleep; practice on the target melody was limited in terms of time and number of repetitions. All participants returned the next morning and were tested on their performance of the target piano melody. Previous research has revealed overnight enhancement of skills as a result of sleep. In the current study, however, our participants showed significant decrements in performance between evening training and morning test, though the extent of the decrements varied. We speculate that the lack of overnight improvements may have resulted from our regulating participants’ practice of the target melody during the training sessions and that strict, limited practice protocols may interfere with consolidation-based memory enhancement.

Procedural memory consolidation has been shown to enhance a variety of perceptual and motor skills during sleep, but only recently has this effect been investigated in trained musicians performing music. I tested the extent to which expected music performance skill improves over a night of sleep and to what extent the new skill memory may be fragile following initial learning. Musicians ( N = 60) learned a 13-note piano melody in individual evening training sessions under one of four practice conditions. Performance of the target melody was tested the next morning following a night of sleep. In line with previous research findings, subjects showed evidence of overnight gains in performance speed and accuracy. However, these results reveal, for the first time with musicians, that additional practice on a second, similar melody seems to inhibit these overnight gains, perhaps indicating that the overnight consolidation of new skill memories is susceptible to interference from similar tasks.

To test the extent to which learners performing a simple keyboard passage would be affected by directing their focus of attention to different aspects of their movements, 16 music majors performed a brief keyboard passage under each of four focus conditions arranged in a counterbalanced design—a total of 64 experimental sessions. As they performed the test passage, participants were directed to focus their attention on either their fingers, the piano keys, the piano hammers, or the sound produced. Complete MIDI data for all responses were digitally recorded by software written specifically for this experiment. Consistent with findings obtained in tests of other physical skills, the results show that performance was most accurate and generalizable when participants focused on the effects their movements produced rather than on the movements themselves, and that the more distal the focus of attention, the more accurate the motor control.