An Examination of the Cognitive Workload Associated With Conducting in an Instrumental Music Context

Abstract

The results of this study indicate a significant decline in subject attentional allocation with regard to aural analysis during dual-task episodes, suggesting the presence of a cognitive bottleneck. Subjects' attentional resources allocated towards conducting gesture gradually increased throughout the study, indicating both task preference as well as perhaps increased comfort with the prescriptive, recurrent task of gesture. Subjects perceived their level of frustration and stress to be highest during introductory whole-task episodes, with their most significant success occurring at the end of the unit of study. The results of this study suggest the need for whole-task instruction, where students learn how to perform kinesthetic and cognitive operations concurrently, while learning how to divide and switch attentional resources amongst associated tasks. When taking cognitive workload into consideration, complex tasks may not be simply the sum of smaller, isolated tasks. The traditional atomistic approach, therefore, may not provide the learner opportunities to both develop basic skills while also learning the cognitive operations associated with a complex task simultaneously. Finally, the results of this study may be relevant to other areas of music teacher education, specifically where teacher action, vigilance of student action, and aural analysis are interrelated and performed concurrently.