Music-based movement and motor learning: Effects of cueing and feedback in a serious game
Tapahtumat
Rebecca Schaefer Leidenin yliopistosta saapuu luennoimaan Jyväskylän yliopiston Musican Boomboxiin 12.6.2025 klo 10.15–12.00.
Luento pidetään englanniksi. Vapaa pääsy!
Music-based movement and motor learning: Effects of cueing and feedback in a serious game
Movement sonification, or the mapping movement parameters to sounds, is generally thought to support better motor learning by providing real-time auditory feedback which can also induce an increased sense of agency. Specific choices in movement-to-sound mappings vary widely, from continuously linking kinematic parameters and sound parameters to providing event-based feedback, or many options in between. These methods are sometimes also combined with cued movement, i.e., moving to auditory cues that are not produced by your own movement.
In a novel serious game, designed to ultimately support motor rehabilitation of fine and gross upper-limb function, we can compare the impact of sonification and musical cues on motor learning for a sequence of finger movements. While on the short term, moving to musical cues appears to be the most intuitive and easy to learn but a currently ongoing study instead looks into motor skill acquisition in these different conditions over 3 weeks of training, using a longitudinal design. The outcomes will provide insight in impact of sonification system design choices on learning in healthy individuals, but also may have implications for clinical applications.
Rebecca Schaefer is an associate professor in the Health, Medical- and Neuropsychology unit of the Instutte for Psychology at Leiden University, The Netherlands. There, she leads the ’Music, Brain, Health & Technology’-group, carrying out research mainly focusing on clinical applications of music and the related neural processes, as well as the possibilities of novel technological advances towards the use of music technology for health. Based in clinical neuropsychology, music psychology and cognitive neuroscience, she collaborates with various other fields of expertise, such as music technology, social robotics, computational musicology, composers, music therapists, and medical specialisms. She is also on the staff of the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, as well at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Before coming to Leiden University, she held a SAGE Jr research fellowship at UC Santa Barbara, USA, and a European Marie Curie fellowship at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She completed a PhD work at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior of Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, after receiving MSc’s in Clinical Neuropsychology and Music Cognition from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Keele University, UK, respectively.