Movement is part of the meaning of music notation: A musical Stroop effect for trombonists

Abstract

Does seeing music notation activate the motor systems of expert musicians in preparation for playing, even when they do not have an instrument to play? Trombonists, non-trombonist musicians, and non-musicians were asked to indicate whether the second note of a visually presented two-note sequence was higher or lower than the first note. Participants responded by moving a joystick forward for “higher” and backward for “lower” or by pressing a button in the top or bottom row, respectively, of a computer keyboard. We examined response time as a function of whether the direction of movement required by the task was the same (congruent) or different (incongruent) from the direction of movement of a trombone slide when playing the same notes on the trombone. For trombonists, responses were faster for congruent than for incongruent trials for the joystick, but not for the keyboard. There was no effect of congruency for non-trombonists for joystick or keyboard responses. The trombone congruency effect is a new kind of musical Stroop effect. Learning to play a musical instrument links the motor and perceptual systems so that seeing musical notes automatically primes playing them.